How Domaine Ferret Rewrote the Story of Pouilly-Fuissé

The rules governing French appellations d’origine are so arcane that even chess grandmasters admit defeat. When those rules are applied in Burgundy, where the classification system includes a pyramid which ascends from regional wines to Grand Cru via village wines, village wines from a designated “climat” to Premier Cru, thence to single site Premier Crus before attaining the heights of Grand Cru, you can see their difficulty. I have omitted from this summary the side show of Chablis, where a Grand Cru does indeed signify a better site than a Premier Cru, but not a wine equal to a Grand Cru from the Cote d’Or.   These rules were established over an extended period of time, but only became enshrined in law in the 19...