The Regional Tourist Board of Champagne & Ardenne is delighted to report that the 'Hillsides, Houses & Wine Cellars of Champagne' are now officially added to UNESCO World Heritage Sites.   The successful application was presented in the category of “Continuing, Organically Evolved Cultural Landscape”, a category created by UNESCO in 1992 to designate a combined work of Man and Nature.

The official announcement of UNESCO listing was made by the World Heritage Committee, in Bonn.  UNESCO stated that the industry behind champagne production was “a very specialised artisan activity that has become an agro-industrial enterprise”   fulfilling three of the required criteria: including exceptional sites or landscapes of cultural, architectural or historical merit as well as living traditions of outstanding universal significance and therefore deserving of special protection status.

ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites) proposed the listing in May this year following an application process initiated 8 years ago by the Paysages du Champagne association, headed by former vigneron Pierre Cheval.  The Application Support Committee, chaired by Jean-Paul Bachy, President of the Champagne-Ardenne Regional Council, included UK journalists and wine experts Hugh Johnson and Nicolas Faith amongst the 50,000 ambassadors of public and political representatives  and local residents. 

It is envisaged that the official UNESCO listing will provide a big boost to tourism to the region as visitors are keen to explore and appreciate the landscapes and heritage of unique cultural, historical and wine-making traditions of the UNESCO status areas.  These include small producers to world-famous Champagne houses in the coronation city of Reims; the chalk cellars and world-famous Avenue of Champagne in Epernay; some of the oldest vineyards around Dom Perignon's village of Hautvillers;  and the charming wine-producing villages of Aÿ and Mareuil-sur- Aÿ.

ENDS

Images and more information are available on request.

Issued on behalf of Champagne&  Ardenne Tourist Board. 

www.champagne-ardenne-tourism.co.uk

For further information please contact doug@douggoodmanpr.com  tel. 020 8614 1449