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- Administratively, Beaujolais is considered part of Burgundy, but its unique history, terroir and winemaking style render it a wine region of its own. Burgundy is renowned as the birthplace of both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but more significantly, it endures as a benchmark for production of these varieties worldwide.
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May 2, 2009 · Loren Sonkin discusses the history of the burgundy wine region, the wines, grapes, terroir, and major producers. There is a saying among wine aficionados that on the journey to wine understanding, all roads eventually lead to Burgundy.
- Top Burgundy Red Wines
France's Burgundy wine region produces some of the world's...
- Chablis
About 110 miles southeast of Paris, at the northern tip of...
- French Wine Journeys
If you are a wine lover, wine connoisseur, wine aficionado...
- Top Burgundy Red Wines
- Background to Burgundy with Reference to Bordeaux
- Classification and Naming of Wines in Burgundy and Bordeaux
- Tasting Burgundian Pinot Noir: Great Expectations Infrequently Met
- What Should Red Burgundy Taste like?
- Buyers' Guide to Burgundy
Variation due to the Style of the owner: Family companies and corporate giants When buying Burgundy we suggest you get to know a few growers' wines, then follow the growers you like. This is because the influence of the grower is huge in Burgundy. It frequently produces a characterful wine with a distinct personality and may often reflect the produ...
Simple Bordeaux, confusing Burgundy
The two things of greatest importance in producing quality wine are the producer (ability, motivation and resources) and quality of their vineyards. The ideal would be to classify both, but this is very difficult. Bordeaux chose to classify by the producer and Burgundy by the vineyards. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but that of Bordeaux is simpler and, of course, that of Burgundy is more difficult!
Classification and Naming of Bordeaux
In Bordeaux it is the producer or château that is classified, not the land. The 1855 classification was done on price. The weakness of the system is when properties become badly run or change hands, and that over time wine from different vineyards bought from other properties post classification can be included in a château's bottling. Château Margaux was producing poor wines under the Cruse ownership not worthy of its status. That changed overnight in 1978 when the new owner, Mentzelopoulos,...
Classification and Naming of Burgundy
In Burgundy it is the vineyards that have been classified, not the producers. The classification is broadly very accurate. It divided the land into into four ascending grades, bourgogne, village, premier cru and grand cru. So far so good. What is difficult for many people to understand is that the vineyards in Burgundy often have many owners. So Le Chambertin, for example, is owned by 21 producers, who may bottle some or all of the production or sell some to a negociant. Thus in Burgundy, to...
We probably get more complaints about red Burgundy than any other wine we sell, especially the cheapest ones. In many cases this is because expectations are out of kilter with reality. Some people expect red Burgundy to look and taste like Châteauneuf-du-Pape; dark, rich, sweet, full bodied, alcoholic and powerful. It doesn't. It is almost its pola...
Young, modest Burgundy
A simple, young Bourgogne rouge should have a light ruby red colour, a pretty aroma of cherries, a medium-bodied palate of highish, refreshing acidity and light and soft tannins. Its structure comes more from its acidity than its tannins. As we have seen previously, most are produced from highish yields for pinot in cool, wet soils so one cannot expect too much of a modest wine.
Vintage and hierarchical variations
Pinot noir at its best has a haunting perfume. When young, cooler vintages smell of red fruits, such as cherries, redcurrants or raspberries, warmer ones smell of more black fruits, such as black cherries, and have sweeter and denser palates. As one moves up the quality hierarchy, one should be rewarded by greater complexity, aromatic intensity and a finer or richer texture on the palate. Frequently in the best wines there may be a kirsch-like or almondy note of a cherry kernel. A hint of van...
Maturity
As it ages it develops earthy aromas the French call sous bois, the wonderful amalgam of smells you take in walking through a wood in autumn: leaf mold, undergrowth, freshly turned earth, mushrooms, truffles and perhaps some smoke from a bonfire. (What is wine but decaying vegetal matter?) Towards full maturity it can taste more animal, leathery and like hung game. Some exceptional wines keep the purity of fruit throughout their life, overlaying it wth hints of the vegetable and animal.
Producer first
The way to buy well in Burgundy is to experiment by tasting the wines of different producers to find one or some you like. This is because a producer has such a determining influence on style and quality that it may override that of both appellation and quality hierarchy. I have written a guide to the style of wine typically produced by the different villages and described the character of the grower's wines. Sometimes a producer's style is untypical of the village. There are some contradicti...
White Burgundy
Unlike red Burgundy, white Burgundy is relatively easy to understand, and there are many delicious wines below £10 because it can be made successfully from much higher yields than pinot noir. It is made from the chardonnay grape which has no particularly distinctive typical aroma or flavour, but quite a broad palate. Instead it reflects where it is grown and how it is made. The cooler northerly vineyards of Chablis produce a firm, steely wine, more mineral than fruity, with a refreshing acidt...
Red Burgundy
Red Burgundyis one of the world's greatest wines. However, because pinot noir produces good quality only from relatively low yields it is necessarily expensive and there is little good wine under £15 a bottle. It is also a relatively elegant wine. Some expect Burgundy to look and taste like Châteauneuf-du-Pape: dark, rich sweet and powerful. It doesn't. Indeed it is its polar opposite. Burgundy is made from the thin-skinned pinot noir grape and from the most northerly, and hence coldest, fine...
The history of Burgundy as a ‘wine region’ dates back two millennia to the Roman conquest of Gaul (roughly modern-day France) in 52 B.C. The Gaul’s were already producing wine and the Romans quickly recognized the region as highly suitable for grape cultivation.
Dec 4, 2023 · 3 baffling things to know about Burgundy. Burgundy is one of the greatest wine regions of the world, the homeland of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the origin point for the idea...
With around 2,000 years of wine history, Burgundy sets the benchmark for the purest expressions of the region’s star grapes— Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Major Wine Regions of Burgundy. Burgundy is a narrow 30-mile region situated in central eastern France bookended by Dijon in the North and Lyon in the South.
Winemaking in Burgundy is traceable back to the Romans in the 1st century A.D. But it was the monks of the Cistercian Order of the Catholic Church who recognized the region's ability to grow grapes that impart a unique quality that is unmatched by anywhere else in the world.
Mar 21, 2024 · First, Emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus introduced the region to Gouais Blanc. Then, prompted by an unusual climate warming period, the grape variety crossed with others native to the region,...
