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Burgundy wine

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Chardonnay vineyards in the south of the Côte de Beaune surrounding the town of Meursault.
A glass of Pommard wine

Burgundy (French: Bourgogne) is the name given to certain wines made in the Burgundy region of France.

Red Burgundy wines are usually made with the Pinot Noir grape, and white Burgundy wines are usually made with Chardonnay grapes, as dictated by the AOC.

Geography

The wine region starts just south of Dijon at Marsannay-la-Côte and runs southward to just short of the city of Lyon. The area of Chablis stands on its own to the northwest of Dijon, about as close to Paris as it is to the heart of Burgundy. The main wine regions in Burgundy proper (those that are entitled to the AOC Bourgogne designation) are the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune (collectively known as the Côte d'Or or "golden slope") and further south the Côte Chalonnaise. The Route des Grands Crus (which loosely translates as the "road of great vineyards") traverses the Burgundy wine region.

The area is made up tiny villages surrounded by flat and sloped vineyards. The sloped vineyards have the most exposure to sunshine and the greatest drainage. The best wines (Grand Cru) from this region are usually grown from the middle part of the slopes while the "Premier Cru" come from a little less favourably exposed slopes. The relatively ordinary "Village" wines are produced from the flat territory nearer the villages.

Beaujolais, Chablis[1], and Mâcon are also viticulturally part of Burgundy.

Climate

Burgundy experiences a continental climate characterized by very cold winters and hot summers. The weather is very unpredictable with rains, hail, and frost all possible around harvest time. Because of this climate, there is a lot of variation between vintages from Burgundy.

Wine characteristics and classification

2 bottles of Red Burgundy from Gevrey-Chambertin, Côte de Nuits.

Burgundy is in some ways the most terroir-oriented region in France; immense attention is paid to the area of origin, and in which of the region's 400 types of soil a wine's grapes are grown. As opposed to Bordeaux, where classifications are producer-driven and awarded to individual chateaux, Burgundy classifications are geographically-focused. A specific vineyard or region will bear a given classification, regardless of the wine's producer. This focus is reflected on the wine's labels where appellations are most prominent and producer's names often appear at the bottom in much smaller text.

Burgundy classifications, in descending order of quality, are: grand crus, premier crus, Commune or village, and finally generic Bourgogne.

  • The Grand Cru refers to the best wine produced at the best vineyard sites. Grand Cru wines make up 2% of the production at 35 hectoliters/hectare. These wines need to be aged a minimum of 5-7 years, however, can be good when aged up to 15 years. Very few chardonnays in the world can be aged as well as these wines. Grand Cru wines will usually only list the appellation on the wine label.
  • The Premier Cru wines are excellent, but not as great as the Grand cru wines. Premier Cru wines make up 12% of production at 45 hectoliters/hectare. These wines need to be aged 3-5 years. Premier Cru wines will list both the village and the vineyard on the wine label.
  • The Village wines are generally characteristic of the village in which they are produced. Village wines make up 36% of production at 50 hectoliters/hectare. These wines can be consumed 2-4 years after the release date. Village wines will only show the village name on the wine label, however, the village name is tied to the best Grand Cru vineyard in the village.
  • AOC Bourgogne classification refers to wines that come from anywhere in the Burgundy region. This classification is where grapes other than Chardonnay and Pinot Noir begin to be introduced, allowing pinot blanc and Pinot Gris, two Pinot Noir mutations that were traditionally grown and now are in decline in the area. These wines make up the rest of production at 55 hectoliters/hectare. These wines can be consumed up to three years after the vintage date.

Other Burgundy AOCs that are not as often seen are Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (which can contain up to two thirds Gamay (the grape of Beaujolais) in addition to Pinot Noir), Bourgogne Aligoté (which is primarily made with the Aligoté grape), and Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire. The latter is the lowest AOC, and Grand definitely refers to the size of the area eligible to produce it, not its quality. There are certain regions that are allowed to put other grapes in miscellaneous AOCs, but for the most part these rules hold. These regulations are even confusing to the majority of French adults, according to research (Franson).

Production

Burgundy vineyards make up some 60,000 acres of production. Generally, the small wine growers sell their grapes to larger producers called negociants who blend and bottle the wine. The roughly 115 negociants who produce the majority of the wine only control around 8% of the acreage. Individual growers have around 67% of the acreage, but produce only around 25% of the wine. Some small wineries produce only 100-200 cases/year while many producers make a few thousand cases/year. Grower/producer made wines can be identified by the terms Mis en bouteille au domaine, Mis au domaine, or Mis en bouteille à la propriété. The largest producer is Maison Louis Latour in Beaune with 350,000 cases/year. The negociants may use the term Mis en bouteille dans nos caves (bottled in our cellars), but are not entitled to use the estate bottled designation of the grower/producers.[citation needed]

Grape Varieties

For the white grapes, Chardonnay (Bourgogne blanc) is the most common. A secondary grape is Aligoté which is lower cost and higher in acidity; this is a very aggressive grape and is grown in small quanties. Aligoté from Burgundy is the wine traditionally used for the Kir drink, where it is mixed with blackcurrant liquor.

Chablis produces 100% chardonnay grapes.

For the red grapes, all production in Cote d'Or is focused on the Pinot noir grape while the Gamay grape is grown in Beaujolais. In the Cote de nuits region, 90% of the production is red grapes.

History

From about the year 900 up to the French Revolution, the vineyards of Burgundy were owned by the Church. After the revolution, the vineyards were broken up and sold to the workers who had tended them. The Napoleonic inheritance laws resulted in the continued subdivision of the most precious vineyard holdings, so that some growers hold only a row or two of vines. This led to the emergence of négociants who aggregate the produce of many growers to produce a single wine. It has also led to a profusion of increasingly small family-owned wineries, exemplified by the dozen plus "Gros" family domaines.

Burgundy wine has experienced much change over the past seventy-five years. Economic depression during the 1930s was followed by the devastation caused by World War II. After the War, “the vignerons returned home to their unkempt vineyards. The soils and vines had suffered and were sorely in need of nurturing. The growers began to fertilize, bringing their vineyards back to health. Those who could afford it added potassium, a silver-white metallic chemical element that contributes to vigorous growth. By the mid-1950s, the soils were balanced, yields were reasonably low and the vineyards produced some of the most stunning wines this century.

“Understandably, the farmers had no inclination to fix what wasn't broken. So for the next 30 years, they followed the advice of renowned viticultural experts, who advised them to keep spraying their vineyards with chemical fertilizers, including potassium. While a certain amount of potassium is natural in the soil and good for healthy growth, too much is bad because it leads to low acidity levels, which adversely affect the quality of the wine.
“As the concentration of chemicals in the soil increased, so did the yields. In the past 30 years, yields have risen by two-thirds in the appellations contrôlées vineyards of the Côte d'Or, from 29 hectoliters per hectare (yearly average from 1951 to 1960) to almost 48 hectoliters per hectare (1982-91), according to a study by the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine. And with higher yields came wines of less flavor and concentration.
“The Burgundians pushed their vineyards. They fertilized them, sprayed them and replanted them with high-yield clones to increase crop levels. Like overfishing that can leave a lake practically sterile, overworking the soil sapped it of its natural balance. Soils that had contributed to Burgundy's reputation for a millennium became depleted by overdependence on chemicals and other modern techniques in just 30 years” [1].
“The period between 1985 and 1995 was a turning point in Burgundy. During this time many Burgundian domaines renewed efforts in the vineyards and gradually set a new course in winemaking. All this led to deeper, more complex wines” [2]. Today, the Burgundy wine industry is reaping the rewards of those impressive efforts.

Expensive reputation

Burgundy is home to some of the most expensive wines in the world, including those of Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Domaine Leroy, Henri Jayer, Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Dugat-Py, Domaine Leflaive and Domaine Armand Rousseau. However, some top vintage first growth Bordeaux wines and a few iconic wines from the New World are more expensive than some grand cru class Burgundy.

The British wine critic Jancis Robinson emphasizes that "price is an extremely unreliable guide" and that "What a wine sells for often has more to do with advertising hype and marketing decisions than the quality contained in the bottle" (Robinson). While Grand Crus often command steep prices, village level wines from top producers can be found at quite reasonable prices.

It has been pointed out that "There are no shortcuts to understanding the region of Burgundy.... If you want to become a Burgundy expert, be prepared to memorize 1,000 names, take a course in French pronunciation and expect to get lost in a maze of appellations (officially delineated wine zones). In addition, get ready to part with a good chunk of change—Burgundy wines are expensive. It is like buying designer wine, you pay for the name. And the smaller the appellation within burgundy, the rarer the wine and the higher the cost"[2].

Good Producers

  • Chablis: William Fevre, Henri Laroche, Pascal Bouchard, Moureau, Vocoret
  • Cote de Beaune: Domaine Bachelet-Ramonet, Domaine Gagnard-Delagrange, Domaine Albert

Morey, Domaine Jacques Prieur, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Ramonet-Prudhon, Bonneau du Martray, Domaine de la Pousse d'Or.

  • Côte de Nuits: Daniel Rion, Jean Grivot, Armand Rousseau, Mongeard-Mugneret, Domaine Georges

Mugneret

  • Côte Chalonnaise:
  • Côte Maconnais:

Some well known negociants include: Louis Latour, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Jadot, Bouchard, and Patriarche et Fils.

Notes

  1. ^ Walton, Stuart (2005). Cook's Encyclopedia of Wine. Anness Publishing Limited 2002, 2005. pp. pgs.122, 123. ISBN 0-7607-4220-0. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  2. ^ Appellations of Burgundy

See also

Source

  • Franson, P. Labels Gone Wild. The Wine Enthusiast, March, 2006, pages 28-33.
  • Robinson, Jancis. Cheap at half the price? Wine, 2006 (February-March), 6(3), 30-31.
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