Unesco grants world heritage status to Champagne and Burgundy region

The World Heritage Committee has handed world heritage status to the vineyards, hillsides and wine cellars where Champagne and Burgundy are produced and sold.

It was two of 11 sites given World Heritage status by Unesco at a meeting in Germany on Saturday.

The climates are precisely delimited vineyard parcels on the slopes of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune south of the city of Dijon.

This cultural landscape consists of two parts - the vineyards and associated production units including villages and the town of Beaune, which together represent the commercial dimension of the production system.

"The second includes the historic centre of Dijon, which is an outstanding example of grape cultivation and wine production developed since the High Middle Ages", the Unesco committee said in a statement.

Unesco said that it has conferred heritage status to the areas where sparkling wines was developed since the early 17th century to its early industrialization in the 19th century.

The area is made up of three distinct places: the historic vineyards of Hautvilliers, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Saint-Nicaise Hill in Reims, and the Avenue de Champagne and Fort Chabrol in Epernay.

These three areas are the supply basin formed by the historic hillsides, the production sites (with their underground cellars) and the sales and distribution centres (the Champagne Houses).