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The percentage increase in sales volume, in the past year alone, of Provence rosé. Even more impressively, in value Provence rosé sales increased 74% during the same period, according to the French customs agency and the CIVP/Vins de Provence. Summer, we’re ready for you.

The highest quality level for a Côte de Beaune wine is:

A. Grand Cru

B. Premier Cru

C. Premier Grand Cru

D. Cru Exceptionel

Ah, the French. So many classification systems. In this case, the Côte de Beaune is the southern part of the 30-mile-long escarpment known as the Côte d’Or, from which come all of Burgundy’s most renowned wines. The top vineyards in the Côte de Beaune (and in the northern part of the Côte d’Or called the Côte de Nuits) are designated Grand Cru. There are only 33 Grand Cru vineyards in all of Burgundy. The most famous Grand Cru is the one every wine lover has heard of: the Romanée-Conti vineyard in the village of Vosne-Romanée.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that umlauts scare away American wine lovers. For whatever reason, bottles with labels bearing those diacritical points, floating above terms like spätlese or grapes called spätburgunder or müller-thurgau or places named Würzburg or Württemberg, are a turnoff for so many English-speaking consumers. Let it be said, then, that I am somewhat out of step with my fellow Americans. Though I speak almost no German, I love wines with umlauts. And I go to significant lengths to seek them out.”

–Jason Wilson, How German Wine Found Its Sweet Spot, The Washington Post, September 5, 2019

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