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You have probably noticed the words Château, Domaine or Clos on wine labels, especially on French wines. Sometimes they precede the name of the wine and take the form «Mis en bouteille au Château « or «Mis en bouteille au domaine», and sometimes they are absent, and only the name of the wine region appears on the label.
And these is a reason why these terms are used. Maybe they indicate the quality level of the wine? Or something else that indicates the uniqueness of the wine? Let’s look at their meaning in more detail.
First, let’s dwell on the basic types of producer. Thus, in French terminology there are the:
- Vigneron – literally “winemaker”, but refers to those who are also winegrowers, i.e. owns his own plots and makes wine from his own grapes.
- Vinificateur is also a winemaker, but he does not own his own vineyards, but buys grapes.
- Viticulteur is a winegrower who does not make wine, but grows and sells grapes.
And now a few words about the Château itself.
By the way, the name “château” has its own short history. The term appeared in the middle of the 19th century, when wealthy owners of large plots of land could afford to build luxurious residences on them.
During the famous classification of 1855 (when the Medoc and Sauternes wineries were classified for the World Exhibition in Paris by order of Napoleon III), only 5 of the 79 wineries included in the classification had such residences – “châteaux”. All the rest, realizing the prestige associated with the definition of “château”, began to add it to the name of their winery. Today in the New World and in Russia there are wineries called “Château”, for example, Château Montelena in California and Château Tamagne in the Krasnodar Territory.
The particularity of Château wines
Their particularity lies in their winery. These can be buildings similar to a castle (although this is rare) or a mansion (more common, especially in the Grand Cru of the Medoc region in Bordeaux). But usually it is a modest building or complex of buildings, where there are the necessary installations for the production and aging of wine. Sometimes these are unremarkable, but quite diverse buildings.
But they all have one thing in common – in a chateau, production is concentrated in one area. The vineyards are in close proximity or, at least, in the same region. Vinification, aging and bottling also take place in the chateau buildings. Sometimes there is an in-house bottling line or they resort to the help of specialists who have the necessary equipment and provide services to many châteaux.
Negociants and cooperatives: definitions
Cooperative (French: Cave cooperative, Italian: Cantina sociale) is a cooperative, or association, of winemakers and winegrowers who own a common production center and can produce wines both under their own brand and under the common brand of the cooperative.
If the wines are produced under the cooperative members’ own brands, the latter only use the necessary equipment to produce wine from their grapes. If the wine is produced under the cooperative brand, the harvest is first provided to the cooperative, which combines it with the harvest from other winegrowers for production.
Négociant – a merchant, although he does not grow grapes or produce wine himself, plays an important role, especially in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne.
A negociant is an intermediary between a buyer of ready-made, bottled wine and a winemaker. In fact, a merchant can be a complex and comprehensive structure, and be both a winemaker, a winegrower, and, in fact, a merchant, i.e. a seller.
He may not own the equipment for wine production (for example, fermentation tanks), but he has the ability to create blends from purchased wine, store it in warehouses, bottle it and sell it under his own brand on the local or international market. In addition, a merchant can purchase ready-made wines from producers, but sell them not under his own brand, but under the brand of the producer (château or cooperative).
Château, merchants and cooperatives: differences in wines
Now let’s return to the comparison of wines made in a château, a cooperative and a merchant.
Château… Mis en bouteille au Château (you can also find Domaine/Mis en bouteille au domaine)
If the wine is named after a château and has the inscription (Mis en bouteille au Château/Bottled at the Chateau) on the label. This means that the grapes are obtained from the vineyards of this chateau and the production process is also completely concentrated on the territory of the chateau.
But the quality of wines made by a chateau will not necessarily be higher than that of wines from a négociant or a cooperative. Everything depends not on the place of production or the type of structure, but on the skill of the winemaker and the quality of the grapes (which in turn depends on climatic conditions and the quality of the terroir). Therefore, the wines of some cooperatives and négociants can be of even better quality than the wines of a château.
Pay attention to the label. Even if the wine is made from grapes harvested from the vineyards of the chateau and the production process from fermentation to bottling was carried out within its walls, the word “château” may not precede the name of the wine on the label, or may not be mentioned first. This is typical for second wines of the chateau (i.e. wines that, unlike the main Grand Vin, are made from grapes from younger vines and have a lighter, more open style). It is also typical for wines made from grapes that were not suitable in quality for the main wine. Both of these cases are examples of wines that do not bear the name of the chateau, but a name referring to it, without the term “château” on the label.
The terms “domaine” and “clos” in the name can be related in meaning to “château”, but they are more common outside of the Bordeaux region (especially in Burgundy, where “clos” has a historical meaning and refers to the low stone wall that monks erected around the cultivated vineyards).
Coopeative
Cooperatives, unlike châteaux, mostly produce wines of IGP appellations (one level below AOP in the hierarchy of appellations) and play an important role in the Languedoc region, where there are the most appellations of this level. But this does not mean that the quality of cooperative wines will be lower than that of châteaux by all indicators. Some cooperatives produce very worthy wines, which are even used as typical representatives of their names in sommelier and wine expert classes (the La Chablisienne cooperative from Chablis, for example, or Nicolas Feuillatte from Champagne).
In addition, the cooperative gives the opportunity to owners of small plots, for whom it is not profitable to have expensive equipment for vinification and to bottle the wine themselves, to use the common equipment of the cooperative or sell the harvest to it.
Négociant/wine merchant
One of the main advantages of a négociant is the opportunity to buy wines of the same name from different winemakers and create their own blends. A classic example is the négociants of Burgundy, who buy wines or grapes from different names from owners of small plots. This approach has at least two advantages:
- relative stability of supply, since the merchant is less dependent on weather conditions and can choose suppliers who had a better or more abundant harvest,
- quality control of wines, since again, the merchant can choose higher quality wines for their premium brands, and simpler wines for a brand with a lower price.
Champagne merchants who own their own plots often specify that the base wine (which undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle and later becomes sparkling champagne) is made from grapes from their own plots. They, in turn, are especially carefully selected by the owners and are distinguished by the best quality.
Champagne houses are a striking example of when a merchant produces high-quality and expensive wines.
There are merchants in many wine regions of France. I will highlight some of them.
Champagne: Champagne houses that both buy grapes for their main wine and own their own vineyards. Examples of such houses are Moët & Chandon, Bollinger, etc.
Bordeaux: Dourthe
- Dourthe No. 1 – wine of a negociant;
- Château La Garde (Pessac-Léognan) – wine of the chateau owned by Dourthe,
- Baron de Lestac, the best-selling negociant wine in France from the negociant Groupe Castel..
Burgundy: Maison Champy, Bouchard Père & Fils, Chanson Père & Fils, Joseph Drouhin…
Valley Rhone: Paul Jaboulet Aînée, Guigal.
Which wine is better?
I would like to point out that it is not necessary to look for wine produced in a chateau to be sure of its quality.
Yes, indeed, if a winemaker is responsible for the entire production process, from growing grapes to selling them, then he will know his vineyard very well and what kind of wine will come out of a particular year’s harvest. He will be able to adapt technologies so that even in a difficult year he will get, if not exceptional, then a pleasant wine, and to some extent, «mis en bouteille au château» will be a guarantee of quality.
But often the more significant financial resources of large cooperatives and merchants, modern technologies in production and the ability to choose wines from different producers for the final blend allow their wines to be no worse, and sometimes even better, than the wines of the château.
