Burgundy

Talking about French wine, most people will think of three names: Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. I am going to write in a more detailed way the most complicated one in my opinion - Burgundy. It has quite a number of distinct and eminent wine regions. Cote d'Or is the heart of Burgundy, comprising of Cote de Beaune in the south and Cote de Nuits in the north, which is also most famous for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Chablis, Cote Chalonnaise, and Maconnais also offer high quality wines themselves. Beaujolais, immediately south of Maconnais, is quite different from the rest of Burgundy in both its scale, style, soil and grape.

With its long-history and fame, there is however hardly any big producer from one end of Cote d'Or to the other. Most of the few big holdings of land in fact were broken up during Napoleon times so Burgundy is one of the most fragmented region in France, with an average holding is a mere 6 hectares.

Because of this fragmentation, Burgundy has a problem of unpredictability. Even in the same climate, same commune, same vintage, the wine can be made from quite a number of people in a small plot of land. Monopoles, or whole vineyard in the hands of a grower, are rare exceptions. The smallest growers may have parcels in two or three vineyards and the bigger ones may have 20-40 ha spread in small plots throughout the Cote. A typical example is Clos de Vougeot, with 50 ha divided among more than 90 growers.

As a result about 65% of Burgundy is still bought in barrel from grower by negociants who will blend with other wines from the same appellation, and offer as a given district wine. Reputations of these negociants vary, with Bouchard Pere et Fils, Joseph Drouhin, Faiveley, Louis Jadot and Louis Latour being reliable. Boisset has improved enormously throughout the years and some ambitious emerging negociants like Dominique Laurent and Verget are fast developing in their red and white respectively. Some respected growers also are starting their own negociant business.

There are nearly 100 Appellations Controlees in Burgundy. I will talk more about those later. But the following can be applied to wine from any grape grown in any part of Burgundy, whose soil and terroir may be below par: Bourgogne (for Pinot Nor and Chardonnay), Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire (for a mixture of local Burgundian grapes), Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (for a mixture of Gamay with at least a third Pinot Noir) and Bourgogne Aligote (a tart white made from Burgundy's other white grape). Next week I will focus on Cote d'Or to discuss in more details.