The Champagne slopes, houses and cellars incuded on UNESCO’s world heritage list!

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided to include the Champagne Slopes, Houses and Cellars on its world heritage list. A historic decision has been taken!

The 21 representatives of the State Parties to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention unanimously voted in favour of including the Champagne Slopes, Houses and Cellars on the World Heritage List in the Living Cultural Landscapes category. The committee members recognized their Exceptional Universal Value and deemed that the protection and management conditions for the proposed property had been fulfilled.

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The emotion was palpable among the French representatives from  UNESCO, the Ministries of Culture and the Environment, and the    delegation from the Champagne Region. “A feeling of great satisfaction    and collective delight! My thoughts immediately turn to all those who    worked on the application, all the partners who supported this slightly    crazy undertaking, and the local people whose area has just received    worldwide recognition. Inclusion on the list is a form of recognition but also an undertaking to the world’s nations, so we must ensure that we are worthy of it. We are duty-bound to preserve and maintain this landscape, know-how and heritage so that we can pass them on unspoilt to future generations. We have a date with history, our very own history!” said a delighted Pierre Cheval, president of the Association Paysages du Champagne, which has spent eight years putting together and managing the area’s application.

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  The Champagne Slopes, Houses and Cellars are not a standard vineyard     landscape! This is clear to see in the way that the landscape’s sites are        organized and the work done by men and women, the rise of an        original wine production, making and selling method from the 18th    century onwards, a method that is still in use today and that has left its    mark on the region and its rural and urban landscapes, and given rise to a  globally renowned wine, a symbol of celebrations and parties. A  unique grouping of landscapes and sites, packed with history, culture and  know-how. This is why the Champagne Slopes, Houses and Cellars are now classed as being of Exceptional Universal Value.

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 The Exceptional Universal Value of the Champagne vineyard cultural  landscape, the birthplace of  champagne wine, has now been recognized  with its inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. And in a broader  sense, all the work done to produce, make and publicize champagne wine  passed down the generations and preserved in the 320 AOC  champagne districts located in the five French départements of Marne,  Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne.