Burgundy Wine Classification

Burgundy's 84 AOCs fall into appellations Régionale, appellations Village (some of which have Climats classified as Premier Cru) and appellations Grand Cru. A Climat is a plot of vines, gradually and precisely demarcated by man, which has been recognized by its name for centuries; the Climats are more than 1,000 individual plots, precisely delimited and classified into a hierarchy. The rank therefore attaches to the plot, and the wine takes the name of the Climat it comes from.

• Grand Cru wines carry only the vineyard name on the label, without any village name. Corton, Montrachet, Romanée Saint-Vivant and Clos de Tart are examples of a single Climat name replacing the village name.
• Premier Cru wines display the village name followed by the vineyard name on the label, although the Gevrey-Chambertin specification also allows the words 'premier cru' to appear without a climat name
• Village-level wines carry a specific commune name such as Gevrey-Chambertin or Meursault, with no individual vineyard designation required. Burgundy has 44 appellations Village; under the Gevrey-Chambertin specification, a village wine from outside the premier cru plots may add a climat name in letters no more than half the size of the appellation name.
• Regional Bourgogne wines, sourced from the broadest geographic areas, represent the entry level and account for roughly half of all Burgundy wine production: 53% on a 2019 to 2023 average. Burgundy has 7 appellations Régionale, among them Bourgogne Aligoté, Coteaux Bourguignons and Crémant de Bourgogne.

Burgundy has 33 appellations Grand Cru, two of which, Chablis Grand Cru and Corton, carry additional geographical denominations. The Côte de Nuits is the center for the region's Grands Crus, and Pinot Noir is used for the majority of them; on the Côte de Beaune, Montrachet is the cradle of five white Grands Crus. Neither Volnay nor Nuits-St-Georges has grands crus.

• The Côte de Nuits Grands Crus include Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Clos de Vougeot, Échezeaux, Grands Échezeaux, Musigny, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti and La Tâche
• The Côte de Beaune has seven appellations Grands Crus: Corton, Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet
• The Climat Montrachet, classified as an appellation Grand Cru, covers parts of both Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet
• The monks of Cîteaux delimited Clos de Vougeot in 1198, and the vineyard has been divided only since 1889; nearly 80 owners now share it, in the commune of Vougeot in the Côte d'Or département

Premier Cru is a mention within a Village appellation rather than an appellation of its own: Premier Cru wines carry an additional geographical denomination noted in the specification of certain Village appellations. The plots are Climats, and on the bottle the name of the commune is followed by the name of the plot. The Gevrey-Chambertin specification, for example, lets the appellation name be completed by a climat name, by the words 'premier cru', or by both, for wines that meet the premier cru production rules.

• For Stephen Brook, writing for Decanter, "Burgundy’s vineyard classification began in 1935 and completed in 1942", and there is "wiggle room between village level and premier cru, and between premier cru and grand cru"
• The Gevrey-Chambertin specification sets a yield of 48 hectolitres per hectare for wines from climats classified as premier cru
• Gevrey-Chambertin premier cru wines must come from the parcel area approved by the INAO national committee at its sessions of 17 and 18 February 1987
• Wines from the nine Grands Crus named in the Gevrey-Chambertin specification, among them Chambertin and Mazis-Chambertin, may also be sold as Gevrey-Chambertin premier cru without a climat name

Chablis, mid-way between Beaune and Paris, has its own set of appellations: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru. All Chablis wines come solely from Chardonnay. Chablis was recognized as an AOC in 1938, on the basis of a 1929 ruling by the Auxerre court.

• Chablis Grand Cru is one AOC with seven official climats, Blanchot, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Preuses, Valmur and Vaudésir; its delimited plots lie on one hillside on the right bank of the Serein valley, next to the town of Chablis
• Chablis has 40 premier cru climats, which can be grouped under 17 names. In 2017 Chablis had about 5,600ha under vine (including Petit Chablis), 779ha of it premier cru; Andy Howard MW, writing for Decanter, names Fourchaume, Montée de Tonnerre, Montmains and Vaillons as key sites most wine lovers are aware of
• Under the Chablis specification, a premier cru wine may be labelled Chablis premier cru alone, Chablis premier cru followed by a climat name, or Chablis followed by a climat name
• Chablis soils are dominated by marly limestone from the Upper Jurassic, known as Kimmeridgian; Petit Chablis tends to be light and lively, with aromas of white blossom and citrus

Burgundy's Climats go back to its monks: the Cistercian Order, founded with the Abbey of Cîteaux in 1098, held land on the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, and the monks classified plots by their quality. At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution divided large estates confiscated from the nobility and religious institutions. The legal framework dates from the decree-law of 30 July 1935, which created the Comité national des appellations d'origine des vins et eaux de vie.

• Burgundy's first AOCs, among them Chambolle-Musigny, Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Musigny, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti, Beaune, Pommard and Pouilly-Fuissé, were adopted on 23 and 24 July 1936 and set into law on 11 September 1936
• The Comité national became the Institut national des appellations d'origine des vins et eaux-de-vie (INAO) on 16 July 1947; since 2006 the acronym has stood for the Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO)
• The AOC system introduced in 1935 involved several categories inspired by Dr. Lavalle, who in 1855 placed Clos de Vougeot in his 'hors ligne' category
• Burgundy has 84 AOCs, more than 23% of all AOCs attributed to French wines; the older claim of around 100 AOCs counted the Dénominations Géographiques Complémentaires within the Bourgogne AOC
• The Climats of Bourgogne were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 4 July 2015; the listed area covers the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits along a 60km geological fault line, plus the towns of Dijon and Beaune

The classification ranks sites, and one site name can cover the wines of many producers: nearly 80 owners share Clos de Vougeot. In Stephen Brook's words for Decanter, "a mediocre producer is unlikely to deliver a great wine even from the most outstanding site".

• In the 1930s leading growers in Volnay and Nuits-St-Georges chose not to petition for grands crus, partly from a reluctance to pay the higher taxes levied on grand cru wines
• A clos is a plot of vines traditionally surrounded with dry-stone walls; BIVB names Clos de Tart, Clos de Bèze and Clos des Lambrays among the most reputed Climats
• Each Climat is vinified separately, from a single grape variety, and the wine takes the name of the Climat it comes from

Primary sources (BIVB and INAO): https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/decoding-the-aocs/bourgogne-wines-decoding-the-aocs,2467,9263.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-climats-and-lieux-dits/world-heritage-status/the-climats-win-their-place-on-the-world-heritage-list,2466,9261.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-climats-and-lieux-dits/climats-and-lieux-dits-in-the-bourgogne/climats-and-lieux-dits-the-ultimate-expression-of-bourgogne-terroir,2461,9256.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-vineyards/chablis-and-the-grand-auxerrois/chablis-and-grand-auxerrois-the-green-gold-of-the-bourgogne-region,2469,9312.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-vineyards/cote-de-nuits-and-hautes-cotes-de-nuits/cote-de-nuits-and-hautes-cotes-de-nuits-purple-and-gold,2470,9313.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-vineyards/cote-de-beaune-and-hautes-cotes-de-beaune/cote-de-beaune-and-the-hautes-cotes-de-beaune-a-winegrowing-region-renowned-for-its-legendary-wines,2471,9314.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/winegrowers-and-expertise/a-story-of-time/towards-an-international-profile/the-20th-century-towards-universal-recognition,2520,9393.html, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/en/history-1935-1970, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/en/history-inao-key-dates, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/winegrowers-and-expertise/a-story-of-time/the-contribution-of-the-monks-and-dukes-of-bourgogne/from-5th-to-15th-c.-wines-made-by-monks-and-trumpeted-by-the-dukes-of-bourgogne-across-europe,2517,9387.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/winegrowers-and-expertise/a-story-of-time/bourgogne-wines-at-court/the-wines-of-bourgogne-from-royalty-to-revolution-regime-change,2518,9390.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/press/gallery_files/site/289/78093.pdf, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/CDC-ClosdeVougeot-ou-ClosVougeot-250910-PNO.pdf, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/produit/chablis-grand-cru-21903, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/PNOCDCGevreyChambertin.pdf, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/PNO-cdc-Chablis-cn23062930.pdf. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/learn/burgundy-premier-cru-vs-grand-cru-vineyards-ask-decanter-410099/, https://www.decanter.com/learn/a-guide-to-chablis-premier-cru-426909/, https://decanter.com/wine/wine-regions/burgundy-wine/chablis. Last verified 2026-10-05