Newbie Burgundy question: Are vineyards in Burgundy designated as Cru for a specific type of grape, or a particular style of wine? Or does the Cru designation apply no matter what grapes or wine is made from the site?
For example, imagine a hypothetical 1er Cru site that is known for its Chardonnay and the still Bourgogne Blanc made from that Chardonnay. If Pinot Noir was found in some corner of the site, would a red wine made from that site still be 1er Cru? If one year a sparkling wine was made from the Chardonnay (instead of a still wine), would that sparkling wine be 1er Cru?
The grape varieties are proscribed. For example, Cabernet is illegal. There are many many rules in Burgundy and this will be an interesting thread. The classification is not based on style but on the heights it was considered that the wines could reach—that and a lot of politics. Some vineyards can make both red and white—look at Corton, Meursault, many others.
For instance the only Grand Cru in the Côtes-de-Nuits also for white wine is Musigny (blanc) … when they replanted the parcel of Chardonnay they had to declassify the wine from young vines to „Bourgogne“ because there is no Chambolle-Musigny blanc.
Sparkling wines cannot be produced from „1er-Cru“ vineyards – the are called „Cremant de Bourgogne“.
And this is yet another interesting case of Burgundy’s regional / village appellations versus Grand Cru appellations.
All the Grand Crus are appellations of their own, not regional appellations. This means that even if some styles were permitted in the village and even at 1er Cru level, things might be entirely different at the Grand Cru level as they are not sub-appellations of the village (like 1er Cru wines are). For example in the case of Clos Vougeot, only red wine made (predominantly) from Pinot Noir is allowed. Since the appellation does not have a definition of white wine, it’s impossible to bottle a white Clos Vougeot, the only way to declassify the fruit to the next highest appellation that both covers the vineyard and allows for the production of white wine - which is 1er Cru level appellation of the commune of Vougeot.
What’s noteworthy here is that the wine is not labeled “1er Cru Clos Vougeot Blanc” since that would signify an appellation that didn’t exist - the name “Clos Vougeot” exists in the realm of Grand Cru alone. Instead, the wine is labeled as “Vougeot 1er Cru Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot”. Here the appellation is communal-level AOC Vougeot 1er Cru and instead of labeling the vineyard (which is not necessary at 1er Cru level), the producer chooses to use an imaginary name “Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot” instead of the true vineyard name Clos de Vougeot, which is protected by the Grand Cru appellation.
Of course there are village wines - AOC Vougeot is a village-level Appellation! This is what I said in my earlier post: the appellation is communal-level AOC Vougeot 1er Cru. And in an even earlier post I said the 1er Cru appellations are always under their local commune appellations.
To clarify: there are no separate 1er Cru appellations in Burgundy - all the 1er Crus are sub-appellations of village-level (communal) appellations. If you have AOC Vougeot 1er Cru appellation, that means you also must have an AOC Vougeot appellation. Village-level appellations can be without 1er Cru-level sub-appellations (like AOC Marsannay that doesn’t have any 1er Cru vineyards), but 1er Cru appellations don’t exist without a village they belong to.
And, yes, AOC Vougeot 1er Cru allows for red wines, so there are some red wines made under AOC Vougeot 1er Cru.
No, only not completely comprehensive … because we both know that we could write thick books about all Burgundy details …
Marsannay: simple … if any new INAO rules create 1er Crus in Marsannay it will be exactly indicated for which grapes it applies … there are others vineyards that are 1er Cru for one colour but not for the other …
So Clos de Vougeot is recognized as a Premier cru vineyard under the AOC Vougeot rules to allow 1er labeling at winery’s choice? I’m assuming Village AOC rules do not mention its Grand Cru status as that is in a separate AOC classification.
I always find this level of detail interesting in Burgundy…does anyone except a small handful of people on the planet really find this useful? It does not really signify much in terms of quality when there are hairs split this finely. Either it is GC, or not. If it is Premier Cru, that should signify something. Village or regional is also useful. All of these other exceptions are kind of the made up rules of a couple of dudes in a village to give us something to argue about!!!
All wine regions have some kind of splitting hair rules. Tuscany created an IGT classification so that producers didn’t have to use Vino da Tavola. Burgundy has taken it a bit too far though. Maybe placating special interests. Take Cote de Beaune and Cote de Beaune Villages, WUWT? And Cote de Nuits Villages has to come from specific vineyards but Cote de Beaune Villages can come from any declassified village AOC in Cote de Beaune?
Distinction without meaning is not helpful. Then of course there are the lieu dits, which actually is meaningful at times because they imply that these geographic locations are unique or special. They seem to be the wild card designation as they don’t seem to have to follow any rules of hierarchy, as they can exist at the village, premier Cru and grand Cru vineyards. You just have to kind and memorize those…
All Grand Crus are within a Village and can be declassified into a Village wine, e.g. La Tache into Vosne-Romanee …
Fortunately for about 30 years there has to be a clear Grand Cru or 1er Cru designation on the label, before that it was often a matter of type size …
