| |
Burgundy Wine Label Information
The concept of terroir is deeply rooted in Burgundian wine culture, and the variation in the soils and climatology of its vineyard sites (or climats) is the basis of Burgundy's wine-classification system. When judging the quality of a Burgundy, its producer is of key importance, but the plot of land where the grapes were grown is also a primary indicator of quality. Therefore, unlike Bordeaux,
many Burgundy wine labels display a particular vineyard name along with their quality designation, and the appellation under which they were produced.
The vineyards of Burgundy are officially classified by the INAO, the French government organization responsible for the country's appellation system. Each site is ranked according to the quality of its terroir, and will fall into one of these categories:
- Grand Cru: These are the highest-quality wines, produced from a relatively small number of vineyard sites within the Cote d'Or and Chablis sub-regions. There are 32 Grand Cru sites in Burgundy, each with its own independent appellation. Some Grand Cru appellations (e.g. Chablis, Corton) permit labels to specify which exact part of the Grand Cru area the wine is from (e.g. Chablis Bougros, Corton Renardes). The label example below shows 'Chambertin', which is a Grand Cru vineyard in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin.
- Premier Cru: These sites are not on a par with the Grand Crus but still are of high quality. Premier Cru wines are made under a communal appellation, but are permitted to state 'Premier Cru' to show their superior provenance. If a single vineyard site was used, its name may be hyphenated directly to the village name as the appellation title. So a wine from the Perrieres climat in Meursault may be labeled either as Meursault-Perrieres or as Meursault Premier Cru with the Perrieres vineyard name stated below.
- Communal or village appellation: These wines are produced from grapes grown in vineyards of supposedly lesser quality than Grand Crus and Premier Crus. The grapes may come from a single vineyard site or several. The appellation title will state simply the name of the village, e.g. 'Gevrey-Chambertin' or 'Puligny-Montrachet'.
- Regional appellation: These are wines produced from a much wider 'regional' catchment area than a single vineyard or village. The Bourgogne appellation is the widest, covering all of Burgundy and even some land beyond. The labels may state simply Bourgogne, or give sub-regional appellations such as Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits. Confusingly, there are a number of villages and vineyard sites which may append their name to the Bourgogne appellation, including Bourgogne Chitry and Bourgogne La Chapelle Notre-Dame. The regional appellations cover Burgundy's rose and sparkling wines (e.g. Cremant de Bourgogne), as well as those made using 'lesser' grape varieties, such as Aligote and Gamay.
Beaujolais, which is sometimes considered a part of Burgundy, has its own classification system. Its finest wines come from ten villages known as the Beaujolais 'Crus', with each one imparting its own character to the wines.
The other two appellations appearing on Beaujolais wine labels are Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, the former covering the whole Beaujolais region, the latter a specific sub-section of the finer land.
Please see the illustration below for a quality-wine label from Burgundy.
|
|
|
