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2017 Brought Changes To The Way We Look At Bourgogne Wines

2017 Brought Changes To The Way We Look At Bourgogne Wines

Bourgogne has applied some new math to count its AOCs. They have shed their claim to 100 AOCs and reorganized their appellations to fit within a count of 84.

How?

The 23 regional AOCs have been collapsed into 7; regional Bourgogne now has 14 Dénominations Géographiques Complémentaires (DGCs) within it.

  • Bourgogne + 14 DGCs
  • Bourgogne Aligoté
  • Bourgogne Mousseux
  • Bourgogne Passe-tout-grains
  • Coteaux Bourguignons
  • Crémant de Bourgogne
  • Mâcon, Mâcon-Villages, Mâcon + Village

The  14 DGCs are: Bourgogne Chitry, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre, Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, Bourgogne Côtes du Couchois, Bourgogne Côte d’Or (new), Bourgogne Côte Saint-Jacques, Bourgogne Coulanges-la-Vineuse, Bourgogne Épineuil, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits, Bourgogne La Chapelle Notre-Dame, Bourgogne Le Chapitre, Bourgogne Montrecul/Montre-Cul/En Montre-Cul, Bourgogne Tonnerre.

Although many sources state that Bourgogne has added two new AOCs in 2017, Vézelay (village-level) and Bourgogne Côte d’Or (regional-level), a more accurate statement is: Bourgogne has gained one new village-level AOC (Vézelay) and regional Bourgogne has added one new DGC.

Prior to these new additions, the total number of village level AOCs in Bourgogne was 44. With the addition of Vézelay, it remains the same since Marsannay Rosé and Marsannay are now counted as one AOC. Premier crus are still included within the village count.

The grand cru count remains the same at 33.

So the equation moving forward is 7 regional AOCs, 44 village-level AOCs, 33 grand cru AOCs (7+44+33=84). The new AOC count in Bourgogne is 84.

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Lisa Airey

Lisa M. Airey, FWS, CWE has thirteen years of experience selling wine at the wholesale level and in training both sales force and wait staff. She sat on the Board of Directors for the Society of Wine Educators from 1998-2004 and co-chaired the committee which launched their Certified Specialist of Wine program and authored and edited the first CSW Study Guide. She served as Education Director of the SWE before assuming the same role for WSG. She oversees all WSG educational programming.

Lisa was knighted by the French government (Order Mérite Agricole) for her contribution to French agriculture, namely the development of the French Wine Scholar Program. She is an Accredited International Bordeaux Tutor through the CIVB, a Certified Burgundy Instructor through the BIVB and a Certified Rhône Educator through Inter-Rhône. Lisa graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Language and Linguistics, Magna Cum Laude.

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