Bourgogne Vineyard Classification

By Catherine Yen

Photo credit: winetourism.com

Vineyard Classification

• Chablis

• Cote d’Or

• Cote Chalonnaise

• Maconnais

Chablis - 4 levels of appellation (AOC)

1. Petit Chablis

2. Chablis

3. Chablis 1erCru

4. Chablis Grand Cru.

Chablis 1erCru and Chablis Grand Cru comprise wine from several different climats

Chablis has in total 47 climats which can be put on the wine label

Cote d’Or - 4 levels of AOC

1. Regional (Example: Bourgogne Blanc/Rouge AOC, Bourgogne Cote d’Or AOC, Bourgogne Hautes, Cotes de Nuits AOC, Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune AOC)

2. Village (Example: Gevrey Chambertin AOC, Meursault AOC)

3. 1erCru (Example: Vosne Romanee 1erCru Aux Malconsorts AOC, Chambolle Musigny 1erCru Les Amoureuses AOC)

4. Grand Cru (Example: Richebourg AOC, Batard Montrachet AOC)

Cote Chalonnaise - 3 levels of AOC

1. Regional (Example: Bourgogne AOC, Bourgogne Aligote AOC, Cremants de Bourgogne AOC)

2. Village (A total of 5 villages: Bouzeron AOC, Rully AOC, Givry AOC, Mercurey AOC, Montagny AOC)

3. 1erCru (Example: Mercurey 1erCru Les Clos du Roy)

Maconnais - 3 levels of AOC

1. Regional - (Example: Bourgogne AOC, Bourgogne Aligote AOC, Bourgogne Passe-Tout-Grains AOC, Coteaux Bourguignons AOC, Cremant de Bourgogne AOC) – more specific to Maconnais are Macon AOC, Macon-Villages AOC, Macon + a named village AOC)

2. Village – Pouilly-Fuisse AOC, Pouilly Loche AOC, Pouilly-Vinzelles AOC, Saint-Veran AOC, Vire- Clesse AOC

3. 1erCru – 22 climats in 2020 were awarded the 1erCru status. They are all from the village of Pouilly- Fuisse. (194 ha and 24% of the entire Pouilly-Fuisse). They are all white wines from Chardonnay. (Example: Vers Cras, Sur La Roche, En France etc.)

Summary

The number of AOC in Bourgogne (excluding Beaujolais)

- Do you know how many Grands Crus AOC there are?

(44 Village AOC, 23 Regional AOC)

• Each Grand Cru vineyard of Cote d’OR is an AOC (However, in Chablis, there is only ONE Grand Cru AOC - Chablis Grand Cru AOC but it has 7 Climats within the one Grand Cru).

• There are 640 1erCru vineyards/climats but each of them is not an AOC. They are additional geographical denominations related to a Village. If the wine is from one 1erCru vineyard/climat, the name of the vineyard will be written on the label just below the Village name. If the wine is made from grapes of a few 1erCru vineyards/climats, then it is merely labelled as a 1erCru wine without mentioning the name of any of the vineyards/climats.

• Some AOC are very large. Even some Grands Crus AOCs are large. Example: Clos de Vougeot is 50ha+. Classification itself is not a guarantee of quality. It depends on the producers and the position of the plot of vines within the large AOC. Example: with Clos Vougeot, it is often said that grapes from the top and middle sections are better than the bottom section of the vineyard. But the label will not indicate where the grapes come from. It will only say Clos de Vougeot.