Montgueux: the secret jewel of the Champagne region

It is not as if the Aube winegrowers wanted to become part of the Champagne region out of nowhere. Unofficially, an astonishing number of grapes were already being brought in from there for Champagne production in the mid-19th century. It was mainly the large houses that came to appreciate the affordable yet outstandingly good Aube grapes. On the one hand, quite a few Pinot Noir grapes came from the Côte des Bar into some of the prestigious wines of the renowned Champagne houses. On the other hand, the Chardonnay grapes from the small village of Montgueux were already highly valued in the 1850s. Due to the enormously high quality, the community was even called the ‘Montrachet of Champagne’!

At that time, the laws for making champagne were not nearly as strict as they are today. So nobody actually cared whether the grapes came directly from the Champagne region or from one of the neighbouring villages. After all, the wine was fermented in the Champagne region. And that's what it was, champagne. Full stop. End of discussion. At least for the big houses. It goes without saying that the Aube vintners saw it differently back then. It's just that it's a completely different ball game financially, simply selling the grapes – and usually at an abysmally low price – or being allowed to produce champagne yourself, which even back then was not exactly affordable.

First setback for Aube vintners

Until 1908, the Aube winegrowers therefore prepared their own sparkling wine and marketed it as champagne. This was particularly annoying for the Champagne houses. So in 1908 they obtained a decree that banned precisely this naming. Since then, only simple sparkling wine has been allowed to come from Aube. But it got even more colourful! Because by this time, not only in the Champagne region, but also in the Aube region, a large proportion of the vineyards had been destroyed. Phylloxera had done a thorough job. Instead of pulling together, however, the Champagne houses tried to push the price per kilo of grapes even further down. After all, capitalist greed is not a modern invention.

Aÿ is burning!

Not only the Aube vintners, but also their colleagues who officially belonged to the Champagne region, of course did not accept these dumping prices. So the houses simply bought grapes from other French regions, such as the Loire wine region. And they also bought heavily from abroad. For example, from the German wine regions. When more and more grapes from other regions found their way into the Champagne region, the winegrowers had enough in January 1911: the uprisings began in the two villages of Damery and Hautvilliers, where many champagne houses had warehouses. Here, winegrowers stopped incoming shipments of grapes from the Loire and destroyed them. They then stormed the champagne warehouses and poured the base wines and the finished sparkling wines into the Marne.

But that was just the warm-up! Because the winegrowers, who had now turned into an angry mob, moved on to Aÿ. And that's when things really got started. The winegrowers kicked down door after door in Aÿ and devastated one house after another. They didn't care whether the residents worked in the champagne industry or not. They had only one goal: Aÿ should burn! Which it did. The governor of the region sent a telegram to Paris in panic, reporting the civil war-like conditions. The government immediately sent 40,000 soldiers to the Champagne region before the mob could actually reduce Aÿ to rubble. It was precisely these soldiers who quickly restored calm.

Second winegrowers' revolt: fire is followed by blood

No sooner had the army returned to the capital after a successful mission than the government made a mistake. Or rather, it was a little too quick. Instead of letting the winegrowers in Champagne and Aube calm down, they started working on wine laws for Champagne in Paris that would regulate everything once and for all. For example, the authorities decided which grape varieties could be used from now on and how a champagne must be produced. They also defined the boundaries of the region. And – surprise! – Aube, with its 7,000 hectares of vineyards, was located just outside these boundaries. The new laws came into force by decree on 16 February 1911. So just a few weeks after the uprising, in which the winegrowers of Champagne and Aube had fought side by side.

Of course, there was no longer any talk of solidarity! Now the winegrowers of Aube were fighting against their Champagne colleagues. And they were fighting much harder than in January. Now it was getting personal! Vineyards were set on fire, crops destroyed. And there were repeated violent clashes on the streets. When the first deaths occurred, the government intervened and sent soldiers to Champagne again to get the situation under control. However, this did not really succeed. The Aube winegrowers repeatedly resorted to night and fog operations. On 7 June 1911, the government finally gave in and changed the Champagne law. At least partially. With immediate effect, Aube was considered a ‘deuzième zone’ and was thus allowed to produce ‘second-class champagne’.

Welcome to the Champagne family, Aube!

Nobody likes being second-class, especially when the product itself is first-class and indistinguishable from the grapes of the actual Champagne region. So the Aube winegrowers continued to fight for their right to produce champagne without the addition of a name. Only now they did it with words and arguments instead of fists. However, it would take some time before their persistence paid off. First of all, the First World War intervened. During the war, Champagne and Aube were once again firmly united, standing side by side at the front. And then it took a few years for France to recover from its war wounds and for the middle classes to develop a thirst for champagne again.

Ultimately, it was purely economic arguments that led to Aube officially becoming part of Champagne in 1927. The region simply needed the grapes from the 7,000 hectares to be able to meet the demand for champagne. Together, they were able to bring a total of 300 million bottles of champagne onto the market as early as 1928. This would not have been possible without the Aube region. And so, ironically, the economy turns out to be a peacemaker in this case. Who would have thought it!