PDO wines

Wine making is a process that requires human intervention. Each winemaker uses different techniques to make his wine. The wine making process can be summarized in 5 steps.

• The harvest is the first step of the wine making process. They can be spread over different periods. The grapes harvested will determine the acidity and flavor of the wine, its sugar and alcohol content. Harvesting can be done by hand or with machines.
• Once the grapes are sorted, they are ready to be destemmed and crushed. For years, men and women have done this manually, trampling the grapes. Today, most winemakers do it with the help of a machine. Mechanical presses crush or crush the grapes. This process produces must, which is simply freshly pressed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds and solid debris.

The red wine remains in contact with the must, which allows it to develop its aroma, its color and develop more or less its tannins.

• The must can ferment naturally between 6 and 12 hours with the help of yeasts present in the air. The winemaker can intervene by adding yeasts that bring consistency to the final result. The fermentation will continue until all the sugars are transformed into alcohol.
• Once fermentation is complete, clarification is initiated. This is the method by which the solid residues are extracted. The wine is then transferred to an oak barrel or stainless steel tank. The choice of the contents will give a different and distinct taste to the wine. Then the wine is clarified by fining or filtration. Filtration is when the winemaker adds a filter to trap the larger particles in the wine. Once this step is completed, the wine is again decanted and prepared for bottling.
• The final steps are maturation and bottling.

The winemaker can bottle the wine directly, or age it further.

And, to complete the process, the wines are bottled.

Several factors explain this trend. First, the structural scarcity of Burgundy’s vineyards: the appellation covers only 30,000 hectares, compared to 120,000 hectares in Bordeaux, with extremely fragmented plots (an average of 6.5 hectares per estate) and Grand Crus that account for only 1% of total production. Some iconic climats, such as Romanée-Conti, cover just 1.63 hectares, making these wines virtually one-of-a-kind. Second, global demand continues to grow—nearly half of Burgundy’s production is exported—while supply remains structurally limited: according to the iDealwine barometer, Burgundy already had the highest average price per bottle in France in 2022 (€242, up 33% in one year), and accounted for 38.3% of the total value of auction sales despite representing only 22% of the volume. Weather-related uncertainties (frost, drought) further reduce yields in certain years, which exacerbates price pressures, as do the Hospices de Beaune auctions, which regularly set the benchmark for the entire market.

This phenomenon is not unique to Burgundy: a similar trend can be observed in other exceptional, low-production terroirs, such as the Rhône appellations of Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu. These vineyards, planted on steep slopes that were long neglected, are now attracting a growing audience thanks to rare and demanding grape varieties—Syrah for Côte-Rôtie, and Viognier, one of the most difficult varieties to grow, for Condrieu—which naturally limit yields and enhance their exceptional character.

The growing international demand for these terroir-driven wines, produced in limited quantities, thus explains the general rise in interest and value observed in both Burgundy and the northern Rhône Valley.

Not really: wine actually encompasses two very distinct realities. On the one hand, it is an agricultural and cultural product that is part of everyday life in many wine-producing countries. Global consumption still stands at 208 million hectoliters per year (though down 14% since 2018), driven by the European Union, which accounts for nearly half of this consumption, with France (22 million hectoliters), Italy (20.2 million), and Germany (17.8 million) leading the way, followed by the United States (31.9 million hectoliters, the world’s largest national market).

On the other hand, there is a market for fine wines, which can truly be considered a luxury segment, but which remains a minority: valued at approximately 30 billion euros in 2024, it accounts for only 1.5% of the global volume of wine sold, yet represents about 11% of its total value—a concentration of wealth in a tiny fraction of the bottles produced. Furthermore, this segment remains highly concentrated geographically: Europe produces 75% of these fine wines, and Europe and the Americas combined account for 80% of demand—far from truly universal consumption.

Wine is therefore not a universal luxury in and of itself: it has become one for a tiny fraction of bottles (the Grands Crus of Burgundy or Bordeaux, for example), while the vast majority of production remains an everyday consumer product, deeply rooted in the cultural and gastronomic traditions of its countries of origin. It is this accessible and authentic aspect of wine—far removed from the logic of investment and speculative scarcity—that we seek to highlight through our Provence AOP appellations.