AOC

The terroir, in Burgundy, is the basis of the Appellation Origine Controllée
It was wine growers, aided by enormous effort of monks who discovered, identified and then developed the terroirs
.Centuries of hard work were necessary for this concept, whose origin goes back to the early Middle Ages, to be passed down to us and be officially recognized and described in the middle of the last century with the creation of the I.N.A.O. and appellations of origin.
The basis of terroir is above all the sub-soil and soil from which the vine draws its nutrients and which create a secret alchemy of colours, aromas and flavours. It enjoys an exceptional range of natural production conditions, thanks to which a highly diverse range of can be found today.
AOC is a symbol of quality, guaranteeing the production characteristics: the terroir of origin, which is used as the basis for the means of classification of the appellations, the production method, the history of the product, and the expertise of the producer. Each AOC is subjected to rigorous controls at all stages of production and marketing.
Burgundy has 100 appellations, out of more than the 477 in France as a whole, and these are divided into 4 levels of appellation:
Regional appellations: 23 in number, these are harvested throughout the Burgundy wine-growing area (eg. Bourgogne Aligoté)
Local appellations: there are 44 of these, produced in winegrowing villages which give them their name (eg. Chablis, Pommard)
Premier Cru appellations: these wines are produced in precisely delimited plots within a village known as "climates"�. Burgundy has 635 climates.On the bottles, the name of the village is followed by the name of the plot from which the wine was produced (eg. Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Vaucrains)
Grand Cru appellations: these wines are grown on the best plots (climates) in the villages. There are 33 Grands Cru (32 in Cote d'Or villages. There are 33 Grands Cru (32 in Cote d'Or and 1 in Chablis)
They express and concentrate all the richness of their unique terroirs. Here, the name of the village disappears in favour of the name of the terroir only, which is often very limited (eg. Corton, Montrachet).These appellations are spread across the Burgundy vineyard, which has a production area of 27,636 hectares (3% of all vineyards in France) : 61% are white wines and 31% are red wines (or rosés), 8% are sparkling wines.

by courtesy: BIVB