Is wine about the label or the sense of place?

I never understood or appreciated wine when I was young. I thought it was just like any alcoholic beverage. Yes, I probably knew it was fermented grape juice which created ethanal. I might understand for some it might just be a brand. A symbol of appreciating the finer things in life. However, that’s about it. It didn’t appeal to me how some might be such a snob and talk about it like a noble figure.

It was not until I was older and started to learn more about wine that I realized some really just drink wine as a status symbol. They only drink the first growth of a Bordeaux and think they have the “knowledge” to drink the best of the best. Basically, they just drink the label. Understandably, it is really an ultimate status symbol as many of the vintages they do drink are really impossible to find nowadays.

The 1855 Bordeaux Classification

I then question, what is people really drinking? Do they have to know the difference between the left bank or the right bank of Bordeaux? Or back in 1855 Napoleon III already knew how shallow we all human beings are. He knew we will only be drinking the labels; therefore, asked for The 1855 Bordeaux Classification (Les Grands Crus classés en 1855) to be created which is still in place today. Based on this classification, the best wines are classified as 1st growth (Premier Crus) and the worst being the 5th growth (Cinquièmes Crus). This classification includes 58 Château where there are 4-first growth, 12-second growths, 14-third growths, 11-fourth growths and 17-fifth growths. Interestingly all of the wines in this classification is from the left bank Medoc region and with only one from Graves.

The Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce by the order of Napoleon III made this 1855 Classification for the Paris Exposition Universelle in1889. The goal is to promote Bordeaux wine to the world and have an easy enough classification system so everyone will easily identify which ones are the “best wines”. Of course, after all these years, you would have imagined that many Château today will argue why we are still using this outdated classification system. Those other famous region on the right bank such as Saint Emilion and Pomerol was completely left out. As a result in 1955 Saint Emilion created their own classification system. However, some like, Pomerol, still do not have any classification system.

Does this mean Saint Emilion or Pomerol is less of a wine than say the 1st growth of Château Lafite from Pauillac? This article is not to discuss the wines of Bordeaux but to understand why wine is always about a sense of place.

For me, sense of place, is about the history, the geography, the geology, the climate, and the land. The wine snobs might call this “terroir” but in essence it is this sense of place. I specifically brought the Bordeaux 1855 Classification as an example where I argue the Chamber of Commerce completely ignored the sense of place in a wine. Don’t get me wrong, the left bank and those in the classification makes one of the best wine in the world but why did they left out the right bank? Why is the classification is based on the specific wine made from the Château but not the land of the vineyard like in Bourgogne?

Bourgogne and the Napoleonic Code

Of course, the reason why Bourgogne wine is so difficult to navigate is because of the Napoleonic Code. The code meant that family land must be split off equally among their heir. You would imagine how the vineyards continue to split into smaller and smaller pieces of parcel or wine snobs might call them Climat or Lieu-dit. (The difference between Climat and Lieu-dit.) It might give consumers a difficult time to pick a Bourgogne wine but it gives so much more reason for the wine snob to talk about the different terroir of Bourgogne. Historically, the Napoleon Code gave us a chance to split the land in such a minute way that we really could discuss the minute differences within each parcel of land within a vineyard.

What about Romanée-Conti and La Tâche and all these wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti? These are Bourgogne labels that are the most expensive wines in the world. We have to remember that many of the Grand Cru vineyards in Bourgogne could be traced back to catholic monks who was making wine in the region hundreds of years ago. They often identified plots of land that made the best wine in their village. The Bordeaux 1855 Classification was a task set out by Napoleon III for the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce to pick the best wines in the region.

Why wasn’t Bordeaux affected by the Napoleonic code? The people of Bordeaux are businessmen and women. Many of the Château are owned by wealthy families. They worked around the Napoleonic code by incorporating their estates. Shareholders of a corporation are not affected by the Napoleonic code.

Champagne as the ultimate brand name wine?

What about other wine regions like Champagne? Champagne is probably famous for drinking the Grand Marques, the biggest champagne houses such as Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot which is owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH. If we are talking about drinking the label, maybe there is nowhere more true than champagne. Most people recognize the brand names in champagne. They are synonymous with celebration and luxury. Although, I argue otherwise in my other post on this topic, champagne is changing. Although, we will always be drinking the brand names of champagne, the rise of the so called grower champagnes or récoltant manipulant is changing how wine snobs view champagne.

The Cru system in Champagne (Échelle des Cru)

In fact, the Champagne AOC does have its own classification of Grand Cru and Premier Cru. Interestingly, the classification is based by the village. For example, the whole village of Avize in Côte des Blancs is classified as Grand Cru. Therefore, any wines made with vineyards grown within the village of Avize can be called a Grand Cru. In a way this is similar to Bordeaux where the whole Château is classed as 1st growth. How can the whole village of Avize with its vast difference in “terroir” be classified as Grand Cru? This Cru system in champagne or the Échelle des Cru system started in 1920 when the champagne houses and growers were arguing about how much their grapes should be sold for. There is a point system where the grapes from Grand Cru villages are sold more than the other villages. Although, this system is no longer in use, the classification is still widely used for the villages to classify their wine as Grand Cru. There are 17 villages in the whole of Champagne that is classified as Grand Cru and 43 Premier Cru villages. The village of Champillon in the photo is classified as a Premier Cru village.

Is all about tradition and the rising stars

The label comes hand in hand with the terroir of the land. There is a reason why Bourgogne Grand Cru vineyards are better than its Premier Cru or Village wines. It could be because of its mid-slope location, slope aspect and specific soil composition. These are all part and parcel of having a great bottle of wine. The traditional first growth Bordeaux are making wines for generations. Their label not only portray a certain aura but almost a stamp of quality. The rising stars but have an opportunity to buy a parcel of land in Bourgogne but only classified as a Village appellation (lowest quality wine classified in the appellation). How could they argue that their wine is less of a terroir specific wine than a Premier or Grand Cru vineyard? Indeed a terroir is specific to each parcel and who is to judge a Village parcel is less than a Premier Cru?

The Wine Maker vs the Terroir

The Wine Makers are the ones that vinify the wine. The wine maker needs to use his or her skills to vinify a wine that best suits the character of the terroir in which their vines are grown. One of the reasons why biodynamic or natural wines are such a fashionable way to vinify wine is because the wine maker use minimal intervention to vinify their wine. They want to truly display the terroir of the land that their grape vines are grown. Their skills are not in adding unnatural substance to the wine but using skills such as the duration of maturation in different types of oaks, or when to utilize pump over or punching down of the wine during fermentation, all these skills and variables will determine the final result of the wine in the bottle. The skill is for the wine maker to get the best out of the years harvest.

Is never only about the label or the terroir

The label could tell you a lot about the wine. The character of the wine from different wine makers are what makes their wine special. One could argue that champagne is about the label as non-vintage champagne is a blend of different base wine from different vintages in order to create a wine that the same style year in and year out. This is what makes champagne special because a Moët & Chandon non-vintage Brut will taste the same every year. However, this doesn’t mean it taste the same as a Veuve Clicquot non-vintage Brut. Each have its distinctive style. Does a non-vintage champagne show its terroir? You might argue not because that is not the idea of a non-vintage champagne. Non-vintage champagne is all about the styles of the different champagne houses. Almost like a Bordeaux Château, where each specific Château will have its own distinctive style. However, the difference is unlike champagne, there are no non-vintage Bordeaux wine. Each wine is from the harvest of that particular year. No matter how much each vintages wine is similar to the Château’s style, it will always be influence by that vintages weather. Weather is an integral part of the terroir in influences how the vine will growth during the growing season of that vintage.

This is why I love wine

Once I understood wine is not just only about the label, it changed my perspective on wine completely. It gave me a new sense of appreciation on why wine lovers and wine snobs debate about wine so much. Once you realize there are so many factors that influences the bottle of wine you are drinking, you will no longer be just drinking a bottle of wine. You will be drinking the terroir and the style of the wine maker. The label and the sense of place always comes hand in hand.