Introduction to French Wine Labels 101

Any introduction to French wine labels would have to begin with an understanding of the French wine term "Terroir".

Terroir is the interaction of soil, topography, growing conditions and climate that give wine grapes a unique character. Years ago someone deemed it appropriate that only certain types of grapes grow best in certain types of locations. This gave way to the regulatory system called Appellation d'origine Contrôlée, or AOC. A wine producer must grow only those grapes allowed in his or her AOC region to produce AOC wines.

The big idea behind AOC was to give the wine consumer a type of quality assurance. In time, AOC regions added criteria governing production such as allowable grape yields per acre, what kind of grapes may be blended together, how vineyards are irrigated, and so on.

Which leads us to how we're supposed to know how to purchase French wines – by growing region.

For example, only Chardonnay grapes are allowed to be used in white AOC wines from Burgundy. It is presumed that we know that a white wine labeled "Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Burgundy" contains Chardonnay. This works okay if you're familiar with the hundreds of appellations and sub-appellations in France. But for most of us born in the United States, our understanding of French wine geography is about as broad as the French understanding of our love for Velveeta.

So the first step in learning about French wine labels is to learn what grape varieties are allowed to be grown and bottled under what AOC regions. You just learned that White Burgundy is made from Chardonnay grapes, so you're on your way!

AOC is just one category of quality for French wine. The VDQS (Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure) is a designation just below AOC, and is usually a temporary designation for smaller, experimental wine regions that are eventually granted full AOC status.

Vin de Pays, below VDQS, means "country wines." Wines carrying this designation have ties to specific geographical regions and are made following guidelines similar to AOC designations. Vin de Pays designations are beneficial to wine producers who can't meet the strict standards of an AOC, or who want to experiment with different grape varieties or develop vineyards in new growing regions which don't carry an AOC designation. Because of this, Vin de Pays producers are allowed to put the grape variety name on their label.

Finally, there is Vin de Table - "table wines" - the most basic wine quality designation in France.

Let's take a look a three imaginary wines we created to help understand French wine labels.

Label A, the Premier Grand Cru, comes from the AOC of Pauillac, a small wine growing region in Bordeaux. Because we know (or are presumed to know) that all AOC red wine from Bordeaux is made from blends of several grape varieties - most notably, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc - we are buying a red wine made from a blend of those grapes. We further know that this is the main wine ("Grand Vin") produced by the chateau. And the classification "Premier Grand Cru Classe" tells us this chateau was one of the five original "First Growth" chateau from the Classification of 1855. If this were a real wine, we might pay dearly for the privilege of drinking it.

Label B, the Appellation Contrôlée, tells us this chateau produces wines in the larger AOC of Bordeaux which means it could be made from a blend of the same three grapes as the Premier Cru. It also tells us that it is not the main wine produced by the chateau, although it is bottled there. We would pay a fraction of the price to drink this wine with our dinner.

Label C, the Vin de Pays, is altogether different. First, it has the name of the predominate grape variety (Merlot) on the label. Second, it does not have an AOC designation. Instead it says Vin de Pays d'Oc - indicating that this wine comes from the growing region of Languedoc-Roussillon in Southern France (the majority of Vin de Pays comes from this area). But why isn't it an AOC wine? Well, maybe our winemaker, Mr. Bollerot, did not want to adhere to the strict growing practices of the AOC in his region. Or maybe he wanted to make his wine with grapes not allowed to be grown under AOC regulations. What we do know from this label is that he used Merlot as the predominate grape variety in his wine - perhaps even rounding out the blend with the same grapes used in the Bordeaux wines. We also know that it was bottled at the chateau. And we further know, although it does not have an AOC designation, that it does conform to growing practices established by the Vin de Pays d'Oc. We might pay a little more or a little less for this than label B, depending on the reputation of the chateau.

Therefore, we know from the labels that all three wines were made and bottled at the chateau where they were produced. We also know that two of the wines (A and B) have a similar blend of grape varieties in them (most probably Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc) and that the third (C) contains at least one (Merlot). Assuming all were produced with the same loving care by experienced winemakers from grapes of good quality, what is the difference between wines A, B and C? Location - the "Terroir"! And it is because of this location of origin - plus, of course, the reputation of the wine producer - that establishes the price we pay.

Remember that while the label gives us information as to the location of the producing chateau (which in turn tells us in most instances the grape variety we are presumed to know), it is of itself not an indication of superiority. Nor is the price of the wine. In theory, there's nothing in any of these labels to indicate the wines of labels B and C are not of equal quality - even superior to - the wine of label A.

So grab that shopping cart and head for France! It's Timeforwine!