What does it mean when a Champagne is made from 40 to 50 crus?
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
This is a very interesting question as it refers to the complex procedures which define a true Champagne (that is, from the eponymous region of France and nowhere else). The word "cru" appears in the terminology of several French wine regions and tends to indicate a specific quality tier. In Champagne, to make things more challenging to understand, cru is also synonymous with an individual village within the region, of which there are 320. There is also a quality hierarchy: 42 of these villages are ranked as premier cru, and 17 as grand cru. The grapes for most Champagnes are purchased by houses and do not come either from their own estate or an individual vineyard. Rather, they are selected from multiple villages (or, in other words, crus). Some producers argue that their Champagnes are more complex because the raw material represents a multiplicity of vineyard origins, and there is certainly a case to be made for this idea.
