The Mailly Grand Cru champagne house owns 70 hectares of vines, located entirely in the grand cru village of Mailly Champagne, in the centre of the Montagne de Reims natural park. The vineyard is divided into 480 plots. 75% of the planting is Pinot Noir and 25% Chardonnay. The parcels enjoy a unique position as they face all four points of the compass. Most of the plots are north-facing, making for subtle, well-balanced wines. Nestling at the centre of these vine-covered slopes is a glass building with seven storeys of cellars and a kilometre-long stretch of crayères (chalk caves). This is where Mailly Champagne is made, exclusively from the domain’s grand cru grapes. Mailly Champagne became a classified Grand Cru in 1920. The exceptional quality of its grapes is due to the area’s chalk subsoil, that regulates soil temperature and humidity, and the vineyard’s hillside plantings that enjoy full exposure to the sun. Only 17 of Champagne’s 319 villages currently enjoy Grand Cru status. The fruit they produce is rare and expensive and usually reserved for the finest Champagne cuvées.