Beaune wine

Beaune wine is produced in the commune of Beaune in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. The Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) Beaune may be used for red and white wine with respectively Pinot noir and Chardonnay as the main grape variety. The production consists of slightly over 85 per cent red wine, and slightly less than 15 per cent white wine. While there are no Grand Cru vineyards within Beaune, there are several well-known and highly regarded Premier Cru vineyards, including some that are owned by the large négociant houses in Beaune and produce some of their "flagship" wines at the Premier Cru level. The AOC was created in 1936.

In 2008, there was 411.7 hectares (1,017 acres) of vineyard surface in production for Beaune wine at village and Premier Cru level, making Beaune the largest village-named appellation of the Côte d'Or, just ahead of Gevrey-Chambertin AOC in vineyard size. A total of 15,652 hectoliter of wine was produced in 2008, of which 13,319 hectoliter red wine and 2,333 hectoliter white wine. Some 357.06 hectares (882.3 acres) of this area was used for the red wines in 2007. The total amount produced corresponds to almost 2.1 million bottles, of which almost 1.8 million bottles of red wine and a little over 300,000 bottles of white wine.

First Growth

First Growth (French: Premier Cru) status is a classification of wines primarily from the Bordeaux region of France.

History

Bordeaux reds

The need for a classification of the best Bordeaux wines arose from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris. The result was the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, a list of the top ranked wines, named the Grand Crus Classés (Great Classified Growths). With several thousand different Chateaux producing their own wines in Bordeaux, to be classified was to carry a mark of high prestige.

Within the Grand Cru Classé list, wines were further ranked and placed in one of five divisions. The best of the best wines were assigned the highest rank of Premier Cru; only four wines, Château Latour, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Margaux and Château Haut-Brion were deemed worthy. Of all the 61 great classified wines, all but one came from the Médoc region. The exception was the premier cru Château Haut-Brion, produced in Graves.

The 1855 list remained unchanged for over a hundred years until finally Mouton Rothschild was promoted to Premier Cru status in 1973, after decades of relentless lobbying by its powerful owner, Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Of lesser importance, in 1988 the premier cru Château Haut-Brion was changed in appellation from Graves to Pessac-Leognan to represent apparent changes in soil structure caused by the urbanisation of areas surrounding Bordeaux.

Cru (wine)

Cru is "a vineyard or group of vineyards, especially one of recognized quality". It is a French wine term which is traditionally translated as "growth", as it was originally the past participle of the verb "croitre" (to grow). As a wine term it is closely connected to terroir in the sense of an "extent of terrain having a certain physical homogeneity . . . considered from the point of view of the nature of the soil as communicating a particular character to its produce, notably to wine". It may thus be defined as: "Terroir as a place of production" or an "Ensemble of terrains considered from the point of view of what grows there, from a particular cultivation." More specifically, cru is often used to indicate a specifically named and legally defined vineyard or ensemble of vineyards and the vines "which grow on [such] a reputed terroir; by extension of good quality." The term is also used to refer to the wine produced from such vines. The term cru is often used within classifications of French wine. By implication, a wine that displays (or is allowed to display) the name of its cru on its wine label is supposed to exhibit the typical characteristics of this cru. The terms Premier Cru, Grand Cru, etc., are generally translated into English as First Growth, Great Growth, etc.; they designate levels of presumed quality that are variously defined in different wine regions.

Beaune

Beaune (French pronunciation: ​[bon]) is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Paris and Geneva.

Beaune is one of the key wine centres in France and the annual wine auction of the Hospices de Beaune is the primary wine auction in France. The town is surrounded by some of the world's most famous wine villages, while the facilities and cellars of many producers, large and small, are situated in Beaune itself. With a rich historical and architectural heritage, Beaune is considered the "Capital of Burgundy wines".

It is an ancient and historic town on a plain by the hills of the Côte d'Or, with features remaining from the pre-Roman and Roman eras, through the medieval and renaissance periods and up to recent history and modern times.

Beaune is a walled city, with about half of the battlements, ramparts, and the moat, having survived and in good condition, and the central "old town" is extensive. Historically Beaune is intimately connected with the Dukes of Burgundy.

Burgundy wine

Burgundy wine (French: Bourgogne or vin de Bourgogne) is wine made in the Burgundy region in eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here—those commonly referred to as "Burgundies"—are dry red wines made from Pinot noir grapes and white wines made from Chardonnay grapes.

Red and white wines are also made from other grape varieties, such as Gamay and Aligoté, respectively. Small amounts of rosé and sparkling wines are also produced in the region. Chardonnay-dominated Chablis and Gamay-dominated Beaujolais are formally part of the Burgundy wine region, but wines from those subregions are usually referred to by their own names rather than as "Burgundy wines".

Burgundy has a higher number of appellations d'origine contrôlée (AOCs) than any other French region, and is often seen as the most terroir-conscious of the French wine regions. The various Burgundy AOCs are classified from carefully delineated Grand Cru vineyards down to more non-specific regional appellations. The practice of delineating vineyards by their terroir in Burgundy goes back to medieval times, when various monasteries played a key role in developing the Burgundy wine industry.