History
Five pioneers founded Chassenay d’Arce in Ville-sur-Arce in 1956. The cooperative takes its name from the Arce Valley in the Côte des Bar, where its members cultivate the surrounding vineyard slopes.
The house now describes approximately 130 winegrowing families across three generations. Its 315 hectares extend through twelve villages along the Arce. Members combine their vineyard work with shared winemaking and production resources.
Kimmeridgian soils and stony marl underpin a landscape of vines and woodland. Pinot Noir is the principal grape, alongside Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Blanc. The presence of Pinot Blanc provides one of the distinct threads running through the current wine range.
The Caractères collection gives individual grapes their own vintage bottlings. The current range names Chardonnay 2019, Pinot Noir 2018 and Pinot Blanc 2016. The producer describes Pinot Blanc as a house hallmark, with barrel-ageing notes in that single-varietal release.
Sélection Blanche combines ninety per cent Chardonnay with ten per cent Pinot Blanc. Confidences Rosé 2015 brings Pinot Blanc into a different blend with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These wines demonstrate how the cooperative preserves an additional white-grape identity beside the more widespread Chardonnay.
Cuvée Origine is an organic Pinot Noir in the Authentiques collection. Its published technical sheet records six thousand bottles for the described release, with four years of maturation on lees. The wine combines harvest years through reserve wine.
The cooperative receives visitors at 11 rue du Pressoir in Ville-sur-Arce. Its cellar tastings and Green Bubble vineyard walk connect the shared production site with the valley cultivated by its members. The official visitor programme offers separate wine, picnic and cellar-meal formats.
Published cellar, tasting and lunch options
The official wine-tourism page lists cellar tours Monday–Saturday at 10:00 or 14:00: three cuvées for €10, or three Caractères cuvées with local specialities for €20. Both require groups of 4–15. A blind tasting of three single-varietal vintage wines costs €30 for 2–15 people (checked October 2026).
The self-guided Green Bubble vineyard walk adds a three-wine tasting for €10, four or five wines for €15, or a grower’s picnic for €25–€30. A cocktail lunch with four vintage cuvées starts at €42 for 4–15 people. The three-course cellar lunch starts at €69, and the four-course Saint-Vincent cellar lunch at €81, both from two people (checked October 2026).
Use the official Book Now buttons or champagne@chassenay.com for the selected experience. The quoted group limits belong to each product, not to a single rule for every Chassenay visit. The house offers custom enquiries through the same email; the meal formats have separate prices and inclusions from the basic three-wine cellar tour.
Five founders, 130 families and the Arce Valley
Five pioneers established Chassenay d’Arce in 1956. The house now describes approximately 130 winegrowing families and three generations of growers, working 315 hectares in 12 villages along the Arce. Its cooperative structure is part of the visitor story: the members cultivate vineyards and combine their production and winemaking resources.
The official house account identifies Kimmeridgian soils, stony marl and a landscape alternating woodland with vines. Pinot Noir is the dominant variety, joined by Chardonnay, Meunier and Pinot Blanc. That last grape is one of the useful distinctions in the range: Chassenay bottles a single-varietal Pinot Blanc, alongside the more familiar Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.
The address, road approach and shop
The official site gives 45 minutes by road from Troyes and 15 minutes from exit 22 of the A5. It also lists indicative motorway approaches of 1 hour 35 minutes from Dijon and 2 hours 40 minutes from Paris. These are the producer’s regional access figures, not a guaranteed traffic-free transfer between tasting appointments.
The boutique’s published hours are Tuesday–Friday 09:00–12:00 and 14:00–17:30, and Saturday 10:00–12:00 and 14:00–18:00. The shop schedule differs from the Monday–Saturday reserved-tour offer. Contact +33 3 25 38 30 70 for 11 rue du Pressoir, 10110 Ville-sur-Arce; the visit reservation, not a shop opening alone, secures the cellar appointment.
Les Caractères: named single-grape vintages
The current Caractères range names Chardonnay 2019, Pinot Noir 2018 and Pinot Blanc 2016. Each label identifies both a variety and a harvest. The Chardonnay page says Chardonnay occupies 10% of the house’s vineyard area and describes its 2019 blanc de blancs as extra brut. The tasting is therefore a route into comparing grapes grown in the same southern Champagne setting.
Pinot Noir 2018 is made exclusively from the Côte des Bar’s principal grape. Pinot Blanc 2016 is also a 100% single-varietal wine, described by the producer as a house hallmark. Its official account identifies barrel-ageing notes; those bottle descriptions do not establish that all three Caractères vintages will be served on every basic €10 tour.
Cuvée Origine: organic Pinot Noir
Cuvée Origine is an organic 100% Pinot Noir in the Authentiques range. The linked technical sheet describes a multi-year blend with 33.5% reserve wine, 23% barrel vinification and four years of bottle maturation on lees. Its extra-brut dosage is 3 g/L and its stated alcohol level is 12% ABV.
The same Origine sheet records a production of 6,000 bottles for the described release and a suggested serving temperature of 8–10°C. These figures describe the release on that published technical sheet. The cuvée supplies a precise contrast with a single-harvest Caractères wine: one combines years, while the other prints a vintage on the label.
Sélection Blanche and Confidences Rosé
Sélection Blanche combines 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Blanc. It is a blanc de blancs made from two white grape varieties, which makes it a useful counter-example to assuming that every blanc de blancs is exclusively Chardonnay. The producer lists it in the Essentielles range, separate from the single-varietal Caractères bottles.
Confidences Rosé 2015 is a different three-variety blend: 86% Pinot Noir, including 12% red wine, 10% Chardonnay and 4% Pinot Blanc. The producer sources it from the oldest vines. Confidences 2014 is listed beside it in the Confidentielles range. Record the full name and vintage when buying, because “Confidences” alone does not identify the rosé bottle.
A Côte des Bar day from Ville-sur-Arce
Our Côte des Bar guide places Chassenay beside Devaux’s Manoir at Bar-sur-Seine and Gremillet at Balnot-sur-Laignes. These are three different communes and three separate booking routes. A shared Côte des Bar label does not mean the houses sit on one pedestrian avenue; use the published Ville-sur-Arce address when reserving the driver.
For a non-tasting part of the trip, Troyes is the named city base in Chassenay’s 45-minute access description. Les Riceys adds the cadole vineyard walks, while Essoyes has the Renoir visitor sites. The accommodation directory groups named places to stay by area, and Find hotels in Côte des Bar opens the southern Champagne stay search.
Access and facilities
Chassenay d’Arce is a cooperative founded in Ville-sur-Arce in 1956. Its address is 11 rue du Pressoir, in the Côte des Bar. The official cellar visit starts at €10 per person and includes three cuvées, with advance booking (checked October 2026).
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