Champagne is a valuable wine, and the right to produce it has always been jealously guarded. The region was defined fairly early, although early definitions were controversial. An early effort to exclude the wines of the Aube province led to riots in 1911. These borders were re-drawn rather rapidly, and the region took it's current shape in 1927.
In 1919 a system of ranking each village was developed called the échelle des crus. This system evaluated many different characteristics of the vineyards, and defined where the best grapes were produced. This system was later used to fix percentage of a given price that growers could receive for their grapes. Premier cru refers to grapes grown in vineyards rated 90 – 98, while Grand Cru refers to grapes grown in the seventeen vineyards rated 100%.
 In 1935 the INAO or l'Institut National des Appellations d'Origine was established and charged with codifying the way that wines were made in each region. In Champagne, this includes restricting the authorized grapes to Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, limiting the density of planting, the yield in the vineyard as well as the amount that can be pressed from each kilogram of grapes, specifying the way in which the vines are pruned and their height, mandating hand harvesting and the minimum length of aging for non-vintage and vintage Champagnes.
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Wine Regions of the World
