It seems a pretty ordinary picture of vineyards, right? That's true, but when you know the story behind it it becomes a lot more interesting.

This is the village of Cuis at the top end of La Côte des Blancs. You'll see that there are vines in the foreground but over in the distance there are a few vines but lots more land that doesn't have any vines of it. Why not when there are vineyards right next to it?

To understand this let's go back to 1927 when the boundaries of the Champagne region were established. That was the time for anyone who wanted to register their land in order to grow vines, harvest grapes and make champagne, had to register the land so it went on the official records.

If you decided not to register your land, or if you simply forget about it, it was too late to do anything about it and in fact the area registered all those years ago has remained largely unchanged ever since.

So what made people decide to register their land or put another way, "Why did some plots of land get registered when other plots, apparently just as suited to grow vines, never got registered and still can't be used for vineyards to this day?

Well, there was some logic to the process which meant, for example, that some plots of land that were low lying and subject to severe frost were exclduded, quite rightly, as being unsuitable for growing vines, but in other ways the process was a bit hit and miss to say the least and that brings us back to the picture.

The clue is in the fact that the church and the village are also in the foreground. The church was the centre of the village and the houses clustered around the church so all of the villagers lived near the north-facing slopes. It was relatively easy for them to take their horses into the nearby vineyards to tend their vines.

On the other hand it took a lot longer and was much more of an effort to take the horses over to the fields in the distance. So when the time came for the mayor of the village to register for the Champagne appellation it was mainly the closest plots that were included, and that was that.

The decision had little to do with the quality of the land; it was more a matter of practicality and convenience and to make things even more bizarre, even that excuse no longer applies because tractors have long since replaced horses to do the work in the vineyards.

In one sense this haphazard system has wored out well, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the people of Cuis have turned a problem into an advanatage.

The slopes in the distance are south facing which is ideal for growing good quality, fully-ripe grapes, but the slopes in the foreground, which were registered as vineyards, are north-facing. That's not ideal for growing grapes and the result is that grapes from Cuis tend to have a slightly lower sugar content and slightly more acidity than other villages in the Côte des Blancs. Champagne makers who are looking to add a little touch of extra freshness and zest to their blends often seek out grapes from Cuis to give just the character they are looking for, but you can't help thinking what might have happened if those south facing slopes had been registered in the first place.