As early as the 16th century, the quality of Ay wines was recognised by King Henry IV of France. Apart from the Gallo-Roman cellars in the Saint-Rémi district of Reims, most of the Champagne cellars and galleries were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Remarkably solid, the cellars of the champagne houses were used as shelters in times of war. Champagne Collet has century-old cellars dug into the chalk in 1880, with a capacity of 34 million bottles. The Aÿ-Champagne vineyard is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site under the name “Coteaux, maisons et caves de Champagne”.