Champagne is produced in the most northerly winegrowing region in France. It takes in five départements stretching from Aisne to Seine-et-Marne, including Haute-Marne and Aube. Marne, with its twin capitals of Epernay and Reims, is the heart of the appellation. There are five distinct winegrowing areas. In the north of Champagne, Aube extends over about fifty kilometres of high ground with a subsoil of limestone and marl. Next comes the area of Congy-Sézanne, which stretches down to Villenauxe-la-Grande. After that, there is the Marne valley, where the vineyards line chalky hill slopes. Further south still, there is the Côte des Blancs, which has a very temperate climate and reaches the outskirts of the city of Epernay. Finally, we come to the Montagne de Reims, a plateau about twenty kilometres long round which lies the Basse Montagne zone. Champagne is a lovely region. Its 31,000 hectares under vines are planted in Pinot Noir (37 per cent), Pinot Meunier (35 per cent) and Chardonnay (27 per cent). Stocks amount to almost one billion bottles and the future looks very promising indeed. Machine harvesting is banned in the region and the grapes can only be crushed at the 2,000 licensed vendageoires, or presses. The wines of Champagne can offer an infinite range of subtle flavours and aromas, depending on the terroir from which the grapes were obtained and the varieties that have gone into the blend. The sector as a whole provides full-time work for 30,000 people, who are joined by a further 60,000 during the harvest period. This is despite the fact that most of the almost 16,000 producers are simply grape farmers. Only about 5,000 growers vinify some or all of their fruit and it is the 140 great commercial names of the region that sell most of the wine produced (about three quarters of the total). Professional bodies discipline quality and establish a hierarchy of crus for each commune. Grands crus are classed 100 per cent, premiers crus from 99 to 90 per cent and other from 89 to 80 per cent.