French wine

The story begins with the French cru Mr. de Pontac who in 1525 founded his company in the seventeenth century will be a marketing operation with the first wine ever sold under the name of the property where it was produced: and it is the ‘Haut Brion (now 1er Cru AOC Pessac-Leognan). Born in 1570 Chateau Margaux (Margaux 1er Cru AOC) in 1595 Chateau Latour (Pauillac 1er cru AOC).

The grapes were selected for variety and it was not until the late seventeenth century Chateau Latour wines began to make selecting the grapes. It took another century to begin to hear of confidentiality agreements between the experts for some sort of ranking of premier cru that they were in terms of quality in french wine. The first public list was written by Jullien in 1816 and in 1824 a German Negotiation lists properties of four hundred forty four common crus. In 1846 the Englishman Charles Coks published the book that was called the bible of Bordeaux.


Labels take the start in 1855 on the initiative of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce, requested by Napoleon III to provide a merit of the best wines for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, commissioned the Syndicat des Courtiers de Commerce to establish a ranking of the best wines and mediators were familiar because they were also those at greater cost.

In that ranking was not defined the concept of the Chateau, who was the distinguished name of the best cru Bordeaux, and Chateau Mouton Rothschild was ranked second cru. The Rothschild, owners of the novel, was serving a careless handling of the previous property, and disagreed with the classification so that after endless legal battles finally manage to get (1973) to be classified as premier cru, and cited in the ranking 1855.
Since then, one thing was clear: a fine wine takes advantage of a legal designation that protects the consumer and the knowledge that fosters a desire to widen it. This gives the appearance of it and pull up the price with his fame, even the names of second floor of the same area.

In 1900 seventy-two producers in the Chablis region formed a committee to protect their wine, Medoc obtained his law in 1905 and a law of 1908 stated that zoning was enacted by law, but according to local customs, the same year is the decree that delimited areas of champagne and that caused the riots of 1911 for the area near the Aisne.
In 1911, the highlands were excluded from Bordeaux since then indicates only the wines of the Gironde. In 1923 Baron Le Roy, producer at Chateauneuf-du-Pape, created the policy for the AOC and in 1927 the law defines terroir Capus. In 1935 he created the National Committee for Appellations d’Origine, which in 1950 became INAO. In 1953 he made the classification for Graves that became operative in 1959. In 1954 the classification was made for St.Emilion last modified in 1996 and 1984, the latest changes to Burgundy.

The Beaujolais was classified in 1951 and last modified in 1985. Currently, the classification is the base of the pyramid, the vins de pays, then the VDQS (Vins de Qualité Supérieure Délimités) and AOC (Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées).
Inside the names (the highest class) in Bordeaux we talk about Cru classé (first category is divided into five classes) cru exceptionnel (this is the second category) cru bourgeois superieur (third class) cru bourgeois (fourth class) and then two cru artisan groups in disuse and cru paysan.

St Emilion adopting the terms and Premier Grand Cru Classe Grand Cru Classé.
In Alsace, bordering the vineyards but not lose the title if the grapes are grown indicated in the specification. In Champagne vineyards are evaluated on a scale proximate (which is also used for calculating the price of grapes) and which is not declared on the label because it is the result of a Champagne blend.