The Montagne de Reims is the wooded plateau between Reims and Épernay, and its vineyards ring it on all sides, planted on the chalk below the treeline. It holds more grand cru villages than any other part of Champagne: Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzenay, Verzy, Mailly, Sillery, Beaumont-sur-Vesle, Puisieulx and Louvois among them.

Pinot Noir dominates, and the wine it gives here is the structural backbone of a great many blends. The curiosity of the region is that some of its best slopes, on the northern flank at Verzenay and Verzy, face north. They work because the forest on the plateau above regulates the temperature and because cold air drains away downhill, and the grapes ripen later and keep their acidity. The chalk beneath runs to depths of several hundred metres and the Roman chalk pits under Reims, the crayères, are used as cellars to this day.