Champagne Brands

There are more than one hundred Champagne houses and 19,000 smaller vignerons (vine-growing producers) in Champagne. These companies manage some 32,000 hectares of vineyards in the region. The type of Champagne producer can be identified from the abbreviations followed by the official number on the bottle:

• NM: Négociant manipulant. These companies (including the majority of the larger brands) buy grapes and make the wine.
• CM: Coopérative de manipulation. Cooperatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together.
• RM: Récoltant manipulant. (Also known as Grower Champagne) A grower that also makes wine from its own grapes (a maximum of 5% of purchased grapes is permitted). Note that co-operative members who take their bottles to be disgorged at the co-op can now label themselves as RM instead of RC.
• SR: Société de récoltants. An association of growers making a shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative.
• RC: Récoltant coopérateur. A co-operative member selling Champagne produced by the co-operative under its own name and label.
• MA: Marque auxiliaire or Marque d’acheteur. A brand name unrelated to the producer or grower; the name is owned by someone else, for example, a supermarket.
• ND: Négociant distributeur. A wine merchant selling under his own name.

Wikipedia