What do cru, premier cru and grand cru mean?

Cru stands for a delimited origin, but what exactly is delimited differs per French wine region.

The word comes from croître, to grow, and means something like crop or growing site. On a label it is always a designation with a rule behind it, laid down in the rulebook of the appellation.

The pitfall lies in assuming that premier cru means the same everywhere. In Burgundy, Champagne and Bordeaux the term refers to three different things.

In Burgundy, premier cru and grand cru belong to a plot, not to a house or a village.

Such a plot is called a climat. UNESCO added the climats to the World Heritage List in 2015 and counts 1,247 of them, each delineated on the basis of geology, water management and location. The hierarchy runs from regional wine via village wine to premier cru and grand cru.

On the label you therefore often see a plot name. Two houses can make wine from the same grand cru, each from their own rows of vines.

In the Champagne region, grand cru belongs to an entire municipality, not to an individual vineyard.

The Champagne appellation covers more than 300 municipalities and villages. Some of them may put grand cru after the name, others premier cru; the designation then applies to all vineyards within that municipal boundary.

On a bottle with grand cru from Champagne there is therefore a village name behind the term, not a plot name.

In Bordeaux, cru classé belongs to a wine house that has been awarded a rank in a classification.

The best-known list is that of 1855, drawn up at the request of Napoleon III, who wanted to show a clear ranking of the best vineyards in France. Saint-Emilion, the Graves and the Medoc each have their own list; the Saint-Emilion one is revised every ten years.

A house can buy more land or sell land and keeps its rank. The designation is tied to the name on the label, not to a plot.

The rules for each appellation are set out in a cahier des charges, drawn up by the trade and approved by the European Union.

In France, the INAO manages the recognition and protection of those designations of origin, for well over 1,200 products. Independent bodies approved by the INAO check that the rules are followed.

A rank such as grand cru is therefore not a quality mark awarded by a jury at every harvest, but a fixed designation tied to a plot, a commune or a house.