Styles, types and sizes

The champagne consumer is bewildered with choice for a reason; there are 299 houses, 67 selling cooperatives and 4,722 selling growers producing a number of different cuvées every year.

Types of producers

Each bottle of champagne comes with initials in front of a code on the label. This code reveals if the wine has been produced by a house, a grower or a cooperative.

NM: Négociant manipulant

A producer who buys grapes, must or wine to make champagne on their own premises and market it under their own label. They may or may not own own vineyards. Most of the big brands are categorized as NM.

RM: Récoltant manipulant

A grower who makes and sells own-label Champagne exclusively from his or her own vineyards, processed on their own premises. An RM are allowed to by 5% of grapes from other growers. Many RMs also sell grapes to the NM.

CM: Coopérative de manipulation

A cooperative of growers who also make and sell Champagne under their own labels.

RC: Récoltant-coopérateur

A grower who sells a cooperative-produced champagne under their own name.

SR: Société de récoltants

A family firm of growers who share premises to make their Champagne from family vineyards under more than one brand.

ND: Négociant distributeur

Distributor who buys in ready bottles of Champagne and labels them in their own name.

MA: Marque d’acheteur

A brand name owned by a third party who is not the producer. It may for instance be a restaurant, supermarket or wine merchant.


Bottle sizes

NameSizeBottles
Quarter bottle18.7cl¼ of bottle
Half bottle37.5cl½ of bottle
Bottle75cl
Magnum150cl2 bottles
Jeroboam300cl4 bottles
Rehoboam450cl6 bottles
Methuselah600cl (6 liters)8 bottles
Salmanazar900cl (9 liters)12 bottles
Balthazar12 liters16 bottles
Nebuchadnezzar15 liters20 bottles
Salomon18 liters24 bottles
Primat27 liters36 bottles
Melchizedek30 liters40 bottles