Unraveling French Wine Labels (Part 3)

We've got Bordeaux figured out, so now the rest of France will be easy. With our newfound knowledge, the rest of the country is going to be intuitive. Right?

Bourgogne, or Burgundy as we English speakers call it, is up next. While we were in Bordeaux, we learned that the finest wines that the area has to offer were Premier Cru. And, in looking through our selection from Burgundy, we see a striking number of wines that are labeled Premier Cru. That seems surprising. Something must be rotten in the state of Bourgogne. And, to some extent, while not rotten, it is different. 

In Burgundy, Premier Cru is the second highest classification of wines (you know, Premier is first, so make it number two as that makes oh so much sense). The highest classification is Grand Cru and that represents roughly the top 2% of all labels. So, here, Grand is first and first is second and second is third and so forth. You can remember that, can't you?

Now fully confused, let's go to the wonderful world of sparkling wines. And, what better place to do that than in France, the home of Champagne. 

The first level of confusion is in the sweetness. The least sweet or most dry, if you prefer, of these wines is the Brut Nature or raw from nature wieghing at 0-0.5 grams of residual sugar per liter of bubbly. This is followed by Extra Brut at 0-1, and Brut at 0-2. Now, here is the first part of the confusion. Note that each of these classifications starts with 0. Because Brut has more commercial appeal than these other lesser known terms, it is not unusual to put a Brut side by side with, for example, and have the Brut be drier than the Extra Brut.

Moving up the scale, we progress to Extra Dry at up 2.8 grams of residual sugar per liter, Dry (not very dry at all) at as much as 5.3 grams per liter and Demi-Sec (half-dry) at as much as 8.3 grams of residual sugar per liter. That's a lot of sugar. If you don't think so, get a kitchen scale and weigh out 8.3 grams of sugar and put it in a champagne flute.

Finally, rounding out the group is any Champagne with more sugar than Demi-Sec. We call that Doux, which actually means soft, generally speaking, but does mean sweet when referring to dreams.

And, then there are the bottles that look like Champagne bottles, but they are labeled Cremant. Cremant is a special term in France. It means wines that are produced using methode champenoise or methode traditionelle, but are produced in some part of France that is not Champagne. So, if you are looking for value, find a Cremant because if you do, you are getting a wine made the same way, but simply produced in a different way. That said, Cremants are often made from grapes other than Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, or Chardonnay, the three primary grapes of Champagne. But, if you are like most people I know, that is simply not the end of the world for you.