With all of this talk of French AOC reform, I've been thinking a lot about the current Grand Cru system in place there. The big four regions that designate Grands Crus are Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne (whose GC/PC system is loosely in line with Burgundy, but doesn’t have as much bearing on this argument.) Each has a very unique way to go about it.
The top 61 estates of the Médoc are classified by a hierarchy based on historical quality and significance. The properties themselves are rated 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th growth.
The advantage to this system is that each Chateau is (or rather was) judged on the quality of the wines it produces, instead of relying on the prestige of a single vineyard with disregard for the actual quality of the wine produced instead of just the perception or potential of its greatness. Certainly there are major geologic phenomenons at play here as well, but the differences tend to be more drastic from sub-appellation to sub appellation instead of property to property. Despite the classification of the Chateaux, the market still has the final say in Bordeaux with 3rd or fourth growths not uncommonly selling for more than some 2nd growths. There are also some excellent values to be found from ‘over-performing’ 2-5th growths.
St-Emilion is very different and should be considered separately. It is broken up into: Premiers Grands Crus Classés, Grands Crus Classés, and Grand Cru and are theoretically reclassified (promoted and demoted) based on quality by a tasting panel every decade. The major problem here is that while the first two designations can actually be seen as a benchmark for quality, the third 'Grand Cru' designation is so watered down (and often includes hundreds of Chateaux) that it has effectively lost all meaning for quality.
Burgundy (sans Beaujolais) is broken up into Chablis, the Côtes de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnais, and the Mâconnais. The system here has everything to do with geography. Along the almost continuous slope that is Burgundy are a few thousand vineyards. At the top end, they are classified by the unique soil, climate and exposure to the sun caused by various faults, prehistoric mountain building, ancient sea deposits, and erosion. The vineyard temperatures, drainage, and frost protection vary greatly and the vineyards are classified by their potential to produce great wines. The best are classified Grands Crus and can be found in Chablis, the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. The 2nd tier are Premiers Crus, found in Chablis, the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, and the Côte Chalonnais. These are primarily made up of vineyards situated on the sweet spot of the Cote, not too high up on the crown, and not too low down on the plains.
Burgundy also classifies it’s vineyards by vine-type and with very few weird exceptions (like Corton-Charlemagne/Le Corton Blanc) the Grands Crus are either Pinot Noir OR Chardonnay, not both. The advantage of the Burgundy system is that nature, vintage, and the ‘Grace of God’. These vineyards have proven themselves capable of extremely high quality over the course of history.
The disadvantage of Burgundy is that because so many producers own vines in so many vineyards (Grand and 1er Cru included), the quality can vary tremendously -hence the Bourgogne reputation of being a crap-shoot.
Alsace has taken a bit of a ‘me too’ approach to the Grands Crus. There are now 51 of them with the recent addition of part of the Kaefferkopf vineyard, arguably one of the top vineyards in Alsace. The Grand Cru movement in Alsace was set up, like that in the rest of France, to showcase her top vineyards based roughly on the same criteria as that in Burgundy. There is much historical precedent here as many of the Grand Cru vineyards have been recognized for their quality since the middle ages. Only certain vine types are allowed to use the Grand Cru designation in all vineyards (Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris, and Gewurztraminer, with Sylvaner being granted Grand Cru status only in the Zotzenberg vineyard.) There has been some well-publicized reluctance to the Grand Cru designation in Alsace, mainly from bigger merchants like Hugel and Trimbach (who makes one of the finest wines in the world from within the Rosacker Grand Cru, the Clos Ste. Hune Riesling, although there is no mention of GC), and also from Domaine Marcel Deiss, who fought successfully to include blends for Grand Cru vineyards.
The advantage to the Alsatian version is that the wealth is spread out more democratically between growers. Because the market still has the final word, you can often pick up a Grand Cru wine from Alsace for less than 20 USD, sometimes of very good quality. The disadvantages are that there is no Premier Cru vineyard designation in Alsace, and many of the Grand Cru vineyards have proven inferior to ‘ordinary’ lieu-dits. Grand Cru is not a guarantee of quality in Alsace.
SOOOO...I’m curious to know which system you find more appealing, either in relation to quality or ease of understanding or in combination. Or doesn’t it matter? Should the whole notion of Grand and Premier Cru just be thrown out the friggin’ window? Why/why not?
Thanks,
-Bill
