Épernay

Épernay lies on the Marne among the vineyards of Champagne. Wine from its surrounding slopes had a reputation long before the sparkling drink became famous: in 1561 the abbey of Saint-Martin sold wine to a merchant from Liège. The town's chalky ground later proved well suited to the excavation of cellars for the wine trade.

By the end of the seventeenth century some producers deliberately made sparkling Champagne. A royal order in 1728 permitted Champagne wine to be transported in baskets of bottles, opening new possibilities for merchants. Claude Moët established his business at Épernay in 1743, on the road towards Metz. Other merchants followed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, building houses and digging cellars along the same historic road.