How to Read a French Wine Label

  The other evening the Lovely Sharon and I shared a red burgundy from the Gevrey-Chambertin  region of Burgundy.  Not knowing much about this region, I later googled the area and obtained the following information from the Wine Searcher web site:

http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-label-burgundy.lml

Gevrey-Chambertin is a village in the Cote de Nuits sub-region of Burgundy that is home to some of the world's most prestigious (and correspondingly expensive) red wines. Apart from its own Gevrey-Chambertin village appellation, the parish lays claim to 26 Premier Cru climats and nine Grand Crus.

 Gevrey-Chambertin wines are exclusively red and made predominantly from Pinot Noir grapes. Widely regarded as being the most full-bodied and masculine of the region, the village's wines have a particular intensity of color and rich, deep flavors that have earned Gevrey the title 'King of Burgundy' (the 'Queen' being nearby Chambolle-Musigny). The distinguishing feature of these wines is their intensity, longevity and a distinctive gamey note that is not found in the wines of any other Burgundy commune.

The village was originally called just Gevrey, but in 1847 the parish council added the name of the most prestigious local vineyard, Le Chambertin. This started a trend that ran the length of the Cote d'Or's wine-producing villages, right down to Chassagne-Montrachet in the south. There are 11 Cote d'Or villages with a prestigious vineyard name appended to that of the village.

The website also had a helpful example of how to understand a French wine label:

The wine we drank was good but not one of the highest end wines.