Creators Syndicate
In the event you missed it, there was big news out of Bordeaux last week. Two
estates in Saint-Emilion, one of the most important wine districts in the
Bordeaux region, were elevated to the lofty status of Premier Grand Cru Classe A
within the district’s official classification.
Chateau Pavie and Chateau
Angelus joined Chateau Cheval Blanc and Chateau Ausone at the pinnacle of the
hierarchy in Saint-Emilion. Thus Pavie and Angelus became the first chateaux to
overcome the stranglehold on the top classification that Cheval Blanc and Ausone
have enjoyed since the ranking was established in 1955.
While
this is a huge development in Bordeaux circles, the casual wine enthusiast,
unversed in the byzantine structure of French wine appellations, probably has
good cause to wonder why this is such a big deal. After all, we’ve been schooled
by the French in the importance of terroir, or place. That’s why wines are
identified throughout France, and indeed much of Europe, by place names rather
than grape names.
The best example of that is in Burgundy. To be labeled
Burgundy a wine must be made from grapes grown in one of the classified zones of
the Burgundy region. The qualitative ranking of each wine within that classification is
based upon the location of the vineyard. Grand cru sits atop the rankings heap.
A grand cru wine must be made from grapes grown in a grand cru
vineyard.
Premier cru is the next level down, followed by AOC Villages
and then the most generic of all Burgundy appellations, AOC Bourgogne. In
theory, and generally in practice, grand cru wines are better and more expensive
than premier cru wines, and so on down the line.
Bordeaux, on the
other hand, takes an entirely different tack with its classifications, which are
based upon performance rather than terroir.
The infamous classification
of 1855, which remains in place, only ranked the chateaux on the left bank of
the Gironde river, which took in all of the Medoc and Graves districts. The
rankings at that time were based upon the prestige of each chateau and the price
it could fetch for its wine. The only significant change in the ranking since
its inception was the elevation of Chateau Mouton to First Growth status in
1973.
It is worth noting that Chateau Mouton didn’t move to a new
location to achieve that success. It merely made the strong case that its wines
were every bit as good and just as prized as those of Chateau Lafite, Latour,
Margaux and Haut-Brion.
And so it was with Chateau Pavie and Chateau
Angelus. An independent commission established by the Institut National des
Appellations, which oversees French wine appellations, was charged with
reviewing the rankings of the right-bank commune of Saint-Emilion. The INAO
seven-member panel determined that over the past 10 vintages (the Saint-Emilion
classification is reviewed and adjusted every ten years) Pavie and Angelus have
been performing at the same level as the storied chateaux of Cheval Blanc and
Ausone.
I applaud the new INAO evaluation, but more than that I
applaud the courage on display. It is no small thing for the French to go
against tradition when it comes to wine. Until now, no one in the more than a
half-century since the ranking was established has dared to suggest that Cheval
Blanc and Ausone have an equal in Saint-Emilion, let alone two.
With all
due respect to those passionate adherents of terroir, I have to say I love it
any time performance trumps place.
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