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Last week I spoke of the laws of Appellations d’Origine Controlée that govern, among other things, wine making in France. Let’s examine how these rational laws benefit both the producers of wine and the wine drinkers.

In Burgundy before the French Revolution, many of the best vineyards were owned by monasteries, churches, priories, convents and hospitals run by the Catholic Church. During the time commonly called The Dark Ages, learning was still alive in these same monasteries. Scholars, religious and secular alike, learned Latin and used it as their lingua franca, a language that teachers and students from all over the western world used to communicate, no matter which language was native to them. Even today that part of Paris where the Sorbonne University sits is called the Latin Quarter, named for the language that was commonly spoken there.

The monks who owned and tended the Burgundian vineyards were meticulous record keepers, and the record books from many of the most famous vineyards are still in existence. They recorded when a fellow monk returned from a pilgrimage or other journey, and told of the vine cuttings which he brought back with him, known to make a wine “of great richness, much favored by the locals.” When in Spring the budbreak occurred, the amount of grapes produced, their ripeness and flavor and the taste of the resulting wine were all written down. Grapes which made good wine were left to grow in the vineyard, while those which may have flourished in other areas but did not fare well in the cool climate of Burgundy were torn out and replaced.

Over the centuries, Chardonnay was proven to make very good to great wines when planted in the chalkier soils of Burgundy. Pinot Noir planted in the less chalky but more iron-rich vineyards made wines favored by king and commanded high prices at market. Trial and error, scientific experimentation, time and patience, all played a part in determining which grapes would make the best wine in that particular corner of the world.

Because only those two grapes are allowed to be used in any wine grown and made in Burgundy, we know many things simply by simply reading the label. If I see a bottle labeled “Joseph Drouhin, Chambolle Musigny 2001” I am assured that every drop of wine in that bottle was made from Pinot Noir grapes grown within the limited area of Chambolle-Musigny. The town was known as Chambolle but, in the mid 1800s, became one of the dozen villages in the Côte d’Or to attach the name of their most famous vineyard (in this case, le Musigny) to the name of the town, hoping that the status of that vineyard would carry over in the wine buyer’s perception. Chambolle-Musigny is home to twenty four vineyards awarded “Premier Cru” status, noted as 1er Cru on wine labels. This is a carefully guarded assurance of potential higher quality. If the wine is from a Premier Cru vineyard, the name of the village and the name of the vineyard will appear on the label. The name of the vineyard will be printed below the name of the village, in type one-half the size of the former. If the wine is a blend of grapes or finished wines from two or more Premier Cru vineyards, and Premier Cru or (higher rated) Grand Cru only, the name of the village and simply 1erCru will appear. If any of the wine or grapes come from a Village-rated vineyard, none of that wine can be designated Premier Cru. Only the name of the village can appear, and the wine will, historically, bring in a lower price.

That “Joseph Drouhin, Chambolle Musigny 2001”, made by a well known and highly regarded house, will have a taste that falls within a certain “window”, and tastes the way that a red Burgundy from that village is expected to taste. While the vintage does play a part, the grapes have been grown to a regulated level of ripeness, making a wine with enough alcohol for balance. In short, any wine buyer with a minimum of knowledge can look at the label and know reasonably well what to expect once the bottle is opened and the wine poured.

In America, we have a cowboy mentality when it comes to land. Imagine John Wayne (pre-1970, please) in a film about settling the Napa Valley and being told which grapes he can and can’t grow! “It’s my land, Pilgrim, and I’ll do what I want with it, and anyone doesn’t like it is going to answer to me!” So when you walk into a wine shop and see a bottle of red wine that says “XYZ Winery, Napa Valley, Red Table Wine, 2001” you have no idea what is in the bottle. There are no rules governing which grapes are grown, what the alcohol level is, whether the wine is dry or sweet, whether the vines yielded a few tons of grapes or a watered-down huge harvest. It’s truly a “Buyer Beware” situation.

The French laws of Appellations d’Origine Controlée (AOC) were created to protect both the producers and the consumers. These rules are the foundation for the appellation laws throughout Europe and are exactly the kind of rational and enlightened laws that even a Libertarian wine drinker should be thankful for.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper