Alsace & Champagne 3D Wine Map

The Vosges rain shadow, 51 Grands Crus, and Champagne’s chalk slopes in full 3D terrain.

This 3D Fast Map covers two of northeastern France’s defining wine regions, and the terrain tells you immediately why they produce such different wines despite sitting relatively close together. Alsace is sheltered east of the Vosges Mountains, one of the driest vineyard corridors in France, where south- and southeast-facing slopes on granite, limestone, and volcanic soils produce aromatic, single-variety whites of striking terroir expression. Champagne, to the west, sits on a broad chalk basin where the gentle slopes of the Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, and Côte des Blancs create the conditions for the world’s reference point in sparkling wine. The 3D terrain makes both stories visible: the Vosges wall that creates Alsace’s microclimate, and the rolling chalk hills that define Champagne.

What You’ll Explore

This 3D Fast Map covers Alsace and Champagne, two of northeastern France’s major wine regions. Click any mapped appellation for detailed popup content covering grape varieties, classification details, and geographic specifics. Use the bookmarks to jump between key areas and the layer controls to toggle different appellation groupings.

• Full 3D terrain of Alsace and Champagne wine regions
• Bookmarks for quick navigation to key areas within the map
• Toggleable layers to control which appellation groupings are displayed
• Elevation profile tool for measuring vineyard altitude and slope gradients
• Daylight and shadow animation to visualize aspect and sun exposure
• Weather overlay to see how atmospheric conditions interact with terrain

Key Regions in Focus

Alsace and the Vosges Rain Shadow

Alsace’s entire viticultural identity depends on the Vosges Mountains. The range runs north to south along the region’s western edge, rising to roughly 1,000 to 1,400 meters (3,280 to 4,593 ft), and intercepts moisture-laden Atlantic weather systems before they reach the vineyards. The result is one of the driest growing seasons in France: Colmar, in the heart of the region, averages around 550 millimeters (21.7 inches) of annual rainfall. Vineyards line the east-facing slopes of the Vosges foothills between roughly 200 and 400 meters (656 and 1,312 ft), on a patchwork of granite, gneiss, limestone, sandstone, and volcanic soils that changes dramatically over short distances. The 51 Grands Crus are defined by this geological diversity: Schlossberg (granite), Rangen (volcanic), Brand (granite), Hengst (marl/limestone) each produce distinct expressions of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Muscat. The 3D terrain makes the Vosges wall and its rain shadow effect immediately visible.

Champagne

West of the Vosges, the terrain opens into the broad Paris Basin, and Champagne sits on its eastern rim where belemnite chalk comes close to the surface. The region’s geography divides into distinct sub-zones visible in the 3D map.The Montagne de Reims, a broad forested plateau south of Reims, has Pinot Noir-dominant Grand Cru villages on slopes that wrap around the horseshoe-shaped massif. Verzenay and Mailly sit on north-facing slopes, while Ambonnay and Bouzy face south to southeast, and the differing exposures produce markedly different styles of Pinot Noir. The Vallée de la Marne follows the river westward, with Pinot Meunier dominating on the cooler, clay-rich north-facing bank. The Côte des Blancs, running south from Épernay, is the Chardonnay heartland: a continuous east-facing chalk escarpment with Grand Cru villages (Cramant, Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger) producing the most mineral, age-worthy blanc de blancs base wines. Further south, the Côte des Bar (Aube) sits on Kimmeridgian marl, the same formation found in Chablis, and has become increasingly important for Pinot Noir. The terrain here is gentler than Alsace, but the subtle slope angles and exposures are what separate Grand Cru from village-level sites.