When Champagne’s vintners started a campaign to have their region approved as a World Heritage Site nothing seemed to stand in their way.

“We’ve got a 100 per cent chance,” said Cécile Bonnefond, the chief executive of the prestigious Veuve-Clicquot brand, as she promoted the cause of the gentle slopes in eastern France that produce the world’s most expensive sparkling wine Then a problem arose. Burgundy’s vineyards announced that they also wanted to be granted World Heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

The two French wine-making regions are now engaged in a fierce if discreet battle to be named as the Gallic candidate for the Unesco label, which can bring a lucrative rise in tourist revenue.

The stakes are high. Vineyards are hoping to supplement falling income by turning themselves into holiday destinations. This month the French Government created Le Conseil Supérieur de l’Oenotourisme (The Higher Council of Wine Tourism) in an attempt to accelerate the transformation. The move came after an official report last year suggested that vineyards could generate up to 20 per cent of their revenue from visitors.

Bernard Magrez, who owns 35 estates, is leading the way with an offer of holidays in his châteaux. Options include a flight to Bordeaux on his private jet and a ride from the airport in a Rolls-Royce.

Vintners in nearby Saint-Emilion are also cashing in after they became the first – and to date only – French wine-making area to win Unesco World Heritage status in 1999. This brought a 20 per cent rise in the number of visitors to about one million a year. In the wealthy Champagne region, the prospect of emulating Saint-Emilion is mouthwatering after a fall in global consumption of its celebrated product last year for the first time in almost a decade.

The region, which is due to submit a formal application this autumn, could expect tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of euros in additional income if it achieves World Heritage status, according to recent studies. Officials say that a listing would also add clout to legal moves by Champagne vineyards to prevent makers of sparkling wine elsewhere in the world from describing their product as champagne.

“We can’t see what can stop Champagne,” said La Revue du Vin de France, the specialist wine magazine.

The answer may be Burgundy, which is promoting its estates as the “most accomplished expression of regional wine-making in the world”.

A spokesman for Burgundy’s vineyards – who see themselves as French wine’s aristocracy – said that they were unconcerned by the financial benefits of a listing. “It is the recognition of our history and our land which motivates us,” she said, dismissing as insignificant the extra millions of tourist revenue that it would bring.

Treasured sites

- France has 33 World Heritage Sites, including Bordeaux, Notre Dame cathedral, Versailles and the banks of the Seine

- The UK has 27 World Heritage Sites, including Stonehenge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Kew Gardens and the City of Bath. The most recent UK addition was the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

Source: Unesco

Times Recommends

• How the fall of the Wall freed Nelson Mandela
• Iguacu, the world’s most spectacular waterfall
• How Harrods helped Burmese cats return