In this blog, we will take a closer look at the wine labels from one of France’s best known regions, Burgundy. Next week, we will cover the labels and wines of Bordeaux.

When people think of wine, they think of France. It has been producing wines that have been regarded as the world standard of quality for more than two millennia. French wines are produced in many regions of the country, each of which has developed a very distinctive style. This diversity of style has also produced a wine labeling system that can be very challenging to the general public.

Although France has been producing wines for more then 2,500 years, each of its wine regions basically did their own thing until relatively recently. A legal framework for the regulation of French wine production was not put in place until 1935. Wine production is regulated by the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO). The INAO defines the geographical limits of French wine regions, and enforces the regulations governing wine production in each region.

The system of laws that INAO administers is called the Appelations d’Origine Contrôllée (AOC). In English, this literally means Controlled Regions of Origin. The AOC system is the world’s strictest system for the regulation of winemaking. It serves as the basis for the regulatory framework that controls wine production in Europe, as well as the regulatory systems for most wine growing regions in the world.

The AOC system regulates every aspect of wine production for all French wine regions, including: where grapes can be grown, the varietals that can be produced, the maximum yields that can be produced, viticultural practices, vinification practices, maximum alcohol levels in the finished wines, and wine ageing.

From the point of view of the consumer, the AOC system is important in the sense that it establishes a hierarchical system for French wines. The intent of the AOC system was to govern wine quality. This is in contrast to US wine regulation, where the actual quality of the product has never been a factor.

The AOC system has four levels, each of which is progressively more highly regulated. From lowest to highest, the levels are: Vin de Table, Vin de Pays (VDP), Vin Délimité de Qualité Superieure (VDQS), and Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée (AOC).

Vin de Table (Table Wine) is the least regulated AOC level. The grapes used for these wines can come from anywhere in France. These wines can only be labeled with the name of the producer, and a designation which states that it is from France. These are the cheapest wines produced in France, and not many of them make it to the US market.

The next level is Vin de Pays (country wine). These wines can be labeled with a specific (usually large) region name within France. Some of the eligible regions are: Vin de Pays d’Oc (from the Mediterranean coast area), Vin de Pays du Jardin de France (from the Loire Valley), and Vin de Pays des Comtés Rhodaniens (from the Rhône Valley). VDP wines represent about a third of the total wine output of France. The wines of this level have the distinction, along with the wines of the Alsace region, as being the only French wines that may display the varietal names of the grapes used in their production. In all other AOC levels, the varietal name is never displayed on the label. An example of a VDP wine that can be found on the Eatingvine wine database is Bouchard Aine Et Fils, a varietally-labeled wine (Pinot  Noir) from the Languedoc (Vin de Pays D’Oc).

The third highest level in the system is Vin Délimité de Qualité Superieure (VDQS) – which translates to “demarcated wine of superior quality.” Although a higher level, with associated stricter regulation, than Vin de Pays, in the real world, regions (and wines) designated VDQS are in a sort of purgatory, awaiting the transition to the highest quality level. French wine law was restructured in 2007, resulting in a simplification of the AOC structure. This simplification will eliminate VDQS as an AOC level. The wines classified as VDQS will be forced to become either VDP or AOC wines. The last vintage where VDQS will exist as a classification is 2010.

The highest level is Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée (AOC) – which literally means “regulated place name.” AOC wines are the most highly regulated, and the most commercially sought after French wines. These wines represent just over half of the total wine production in France.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of French wines that most people in the US will encounter fall into either the AOC level, or the Vin de Pays. If you see a grape name on the bottle, and it’s not from Alsace, you know that the wine is a Vin de Pays. This was permitted to allow French wines to better compete with wines from the New World (the Americas, Australia, South Africa, etc.), where consumers are more familiar with specific grape varieties.

The AOC level of wines is much more daunting to the uninitiated. These wines are only allowed to display their specific region of origin, which can be quite confusing if you don’t know the wine regions of France. As I stated earlier, the AOC regulates which kinds of grapes can be grown where, so with a little practice, knowing what region a wine is from means knowing what kind of grapes where used to make the wine.

Burgundy

Burgundy is located just east of central France. Burgundy is among the easiest regions to remember, because it basically only grows two kinds of grapes. If it’s a red wine, it will be Pinot Noir, and if it’s white, it will be Chardonnay. Below is an idealized wine label from one of the sub-regions of Burgundy, which you can find in the EatingVine tool box. It shares some items of information with the US wine labels we discussed in the last post, namely, the alcohol content, the bottle size, the producer name, and the bottler. It also includes a vintage year. Unlike the US, if the vintage is stated, all of the grapes must be from that year. The only exception to this is the region of Champagne, where the sparkling wines can be blends of wines from many different years.

In this example, you can also see three other important things. The first is the Appellation -in this case, Gevrey-Chambertin. The town of Gevrey-Chambertin only produces red wines made from Pinot Noir. No other grape can be planted. The second and third items of importance are located just below the Appellation. This is the Cru and the Lieu Dit.

The Cru (Growth) is a wrinkle that the folks in Burgundy came up with to further subdivide their wines. In Burgundy, there are four additional sub-levels of quality. These are, from highest to lowest: Grand Cru, Premier Cru (1er Cru), Village, and Bourgogne. Unlike in other parts of France, these quality levels are attached to specific sites, not to a given producer. This means that no matter who owns a site, the wine made from it will always carry that site’s designated quality level. This also means that producers can make wines of different quality from the fruit of a given site, and the wines will all carry the site’s designated quality level. This is an expensive lesson that people have been learning the hard way for generations.

To further illustrate this last point, let’s compare two wines. The wines are Dubreuil Fontaine and Jacques Prieur, both from 2002. These two wines are made by different producers, but the grapes come from the same Premier Cru vineyard, Les Bressandes, in the commune of Aloxe-Corton. Given their similar origin, a consumer might therefore expect these wines to be similarly priced. They aren’t. The Jaques Prieur is more than twice the price of the Dubreuil Fontaine.

The four Burgundy levels have been in existence since the Middle Ages, when the vineyards belonged to the Catholic Church, and were tended by an array of monasteries. As the story goes, the quality levels were meant to convey who the wine was for. Bourgogne wine was for the commoners, Village wine was for the priests and monks, Premier Cru was for the Bishop, and Grand Cru was for the Pope.

The other item of information that usually appears on the same line as the Cru is the Lieu dit. In Burgundy, this is the name of the vineyard the wine originated. Since a given town may have vineyards of varying fame and quality, this term is used on labels to distinguish between the vineyards.

Burgundy has a number of communes (towns) where grapes can be planted, and whose names can be displayed on the label. These are collectively known as the Côtes d’Or (Gold Slopes), which can be taken to mean just how valuable the wine from the area was, and is.  The area can be further broken up into two major groups, the Côtes de Nuits in the North, and the Côtes de Beaune in the South.

The Côtes de Nuits has made its reputation on the red wines it produces from Pinot Noir. Chardonnay is also grown here, but very little. With one exception, all the Grand Cru wines from the Côtes de Nuits are Pinot Noirs. The exception is the Grand Cru vineyard Le Musigny, located in the commune of Chambolle-Musigny, which can produce both red and white Grand Crus (from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, respectively). The major winemaking communes of the Côtes de Nuits, from north to south are: Marsannay, Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Flagey-Échezaux, Vosne-Romanée, and Nuits-Saint-Georges.

The Côtes de Beaune produces slightly more Pinot Noir than Chardonnay, but all of its Grand Cru wines are whites made from Chardonnay. I was taught that a handy way to remember the difference between the two regions is to remember “bone white” when thinking of the Côtes de Beaune. As in the Côtes de Nuits, there is also one exception to the general rule, the Grand Cru vineyard Corton. This is the only vineyard in the Côtes de Beaune that can produce both red and white Grand Cru wines. The major winemaking communes of the Côtes de Beaune, from north to south are: Ladoix-Serrigny, Aloxe-Corton, Pernand-Vergelesses, Savigny-lés-Beaune, Chorey-lés-Beaune, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Monthelie, Auxey-Duresses, St. Romain, Monthélie, Meursault, Blagny, Puligny-Montrachet,St. Aubin, Chassagne-Montrachet, Santenay and Maranges.

As simple as Burgundy may initially appear (just two grapes!), you can clearly see from this crash course that there is a lot more to it than that. Do not despair, though - for lovers of exceptional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, a little effort will be repaid many times over by tasting some of the most legendary wines to ever exist.

The next post in this series will walk through a label from one of France’s other great wine regions, Bordeaux.