Burgundy Wine Classification

BIVB groups Burgundy's 84 AOCs into appellations Régionale, appellations Village (some of which have Climats classified as Premier Cru) and appellations Grand Cru. BIVB defines a Climat as a plot of vines, gradually and precisely demarcated by man, which has been recognized by its name for centuries, and describes the Climats as more than 1,000 individual plots that are 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, as each Grand Cru is its own independent appellation. BIVB gives Corton, Montrachet, Romanée Saint-Vivant and Clos de Tart as 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 INAO specification for Gevrey-Chambertin 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. BIVB counts 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. BIVB's September 2024 key figures put Régionale AOCs at 53% of production (2019 to 2023 average), and BIVB counts 7 appellations Régionale, among them Bourgogne Aligoté, Coteaux Bourguignons and Crémant de Bourgogne.

BIVB counts 33 appellations Grand Cru in Burgundy, and notes that two of them, Chablis Grand Cru and Corton, carry additional geographical denominations. BIVB calls the Côte de Nuits the center for the region's Grands Crus and says Pinot Noir is used for the majority of them; on the Côte de Beaune, BIVB calls Montrachet the cradle of five white Grands Crus. Stephen Brook, writing for Decanter, notes that neither Volnay nor Nuits-St-Georges has grands crus.

• BIVB's Côte de Nuits list of Grands Crus includes Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Clos de Vougeot, Échezeaux, Grands Échezeaux, Musigny, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti and La Tâche
• BIVB lists seven appellations Grands Crus for the Côte de Beaune: 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, according to BIVB
• The INAO specification text for Clos de Vougeot (2025 national-opposition version) records that the monks of Cîteaux delimited the clos in 1198, that it has been divided only since 1889, and that nearly 80 owners now share the vineyard, which lies 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: BIVB describes Premier Cru wines as wines with 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 INAO specification for Gevrey-Chambertin, 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.

• Stephen Brook, writing for Decanter, says "Burgundy’s vineyard classification began in 1935 and completed in 1942", and that there is "wiggle room between village level and premier cru, and between premier cru and grand cru"
• The Gevrey-Chambertin specification text (INAO, 2010 national-opposition version) sets a yield of 48 hectolitres per hectare for wines from climats classified as premier cru
• Under the same text, 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, which BIVB places mid-way between Beaune and Paris, has its own set of appellations: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru. BIVB says Chardonnay is used for all Chablis wines, and the INAO specification for Chablis says its wines come solely from Chardonnay. The same specification records that 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; INAO places its delimited plots on one hillside on the right bank of the Serein valley, next to the town of Chablis
• The Chablis specification counts 40 premier cru climats, which can be grouped under 17 names; Andy Howard MW, writing for Decanter, gives 779ha of premier cru against about 5,600ha under vine in Chablis in 2017 (a BIVB figure that includes Petit Chablis), and 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
• Howard describes Chablis soils as dominated by marly limestone from the Upper Jurassic, known as Kimmeridgian, and BIVB describes Petit Chablis as light, lively wines with aromas of white blossom and citrus

BIVB traces the Climats to Burgundy's 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 according to 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, according to BIVB
• 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)
• BIVB says the AOC system introduced in 1935 involved several categories inspired by Dr. Lavalle, and the Clos de Vougeot specification notes that Lavalle placed Clos de Vougeot in his 'hors ligne' category in 1855
• BIVB counts 84 AOCs in Burgundy, more than 23% of all AOCs attributed to French wines, and says 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; BIVB says 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, according to its INAO specification. Stephen Brook, writing for Decanter, notes that "a mediocre producer is unlikely to deliver a great wine even from the most outstanding site".

• Brook reports that 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
• BIVB defines a clos as a plot of vines traditionally surrounded with dry-stone walls, and names Clos de Tart, Clos de Bèze and Clos des Lambrays among the most reputed Climats
• BIVB says the production of 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 2026-09-24