Wine · Terminology

Grand Cru

France's top vineyard classification — but it means something different in each region.

Grand Cru — "great growth" — is the top rank of vineyard classification in several French regions. The trap is that it means something different in each one, and the ranks are not comparable across regions.

In Burgundy it classifies the vineyard; in Champagne it classifies the village; in Saint-Émilion it classifies the estate and is re-examined periodically; and in the Médoc the top wines are not called Grand Cru at all, but Cru Classé.

In practice

  • Burgundy: 33 Grands Crus, each its own AOC — Chambertin, Montrachet, Corton. Around 1% of production.
  • Alsace: 51 Grand Cru sites, restricted to the four noble grapes, with lower yields.
  • Champagne: 17 Grand Cru villages under the old échelle des crus, rated at 100%.
  • Saint-Émilion: Grand Cru, Grand Cru Classé and Premier Grand Cru Classé A/B — a hierarchy revised roughly every ten years.

Where you'll meet it

  • The France country guide and the Burgundy, Alsace and Champagne guides.
  • On labels where the term is doing very different work each time.

What Grand Cru means where

Region Classifies Notes
Burgundy The vineyard Own AOC; village name omitted from the label
Chablis The vineyard Seven named climats on one hillside
Alsace The vineyard 51 sites; noble grapes only
Champagne The village 17 villages; a producer may still make ordinary wine there
Saint-Émilion The estate Revised periodically; a genuine promotion/demotion system
Médoc — Uses Cru Classé instead, from 1855

The Burgundy ladder

The clearest hierarchy in wine, and the one worth memorising:

  1. Regional — Bourgogne AOC. Anywhere in the region.
  2. Village — Gevrey-Chambertin, Meursault. One commune.
  3. Premier Cru — a named site within a village: Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers.
  4. Grand Cru — its own appellation; the village name disappears entirely. Chambertin, not Gevrey-Chambertin Chambertin.

That last detail is the exam's favourite: on a Burgundy label, the shorter the name, the higher the rank.

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