A Year in Champagne

The documentary follows a year in the Champagne region. Only sparkling wine produced within the boundaries of that region may carry the name, and the film explains why this is so. The region’s past is filled not with celebration but with war, from the raids of the Huns to the trenches of the First World War and the plundering of the Second. The conditions for growing vines are hard as well: a northerly latitude, chalky soil, heavy rain, frost and rot. What the film says is that it is precisely these difficulties that set the wine apart. The account follows the growers in their own vineyards through the four seasons of the year. David Kennard’s eighty two minute documentary was completed in 2014.