Ladies Tasting Society

Heather's "White Burgundy 101" Report from August 04

Recap from Terri's Tasting: All Burgundy wines come from the Burgundy (Bourgogne) region of France, about an hour southeast of Paris. Burgundy runs north to south from Dijon to Macon, but its most famous wines come from a stretch in the middle called the Cote d’Or (“the golden slope”). Generally speaking the most powerful reds come from the northern half of the Cote d’Or, the Cote de Nuits (pronounced “coat deh nwee”), the best whites from the Cote de Beaune (coat deh bone) to the south. Also usually included as part of the Burgundy region are Chablis in the North and Beaujolais in the south.

Unlike most other French wines, Burgundy is not a blend. The whites are made from 100% Chardonnay (reds from Pinot Noir, Beaujolais from Gamay).

Because Burgundy is divided into so many small vineyards and farmed by so many winemakers, some of them producing only a few thousand bottles of a particular wine, Burgundy is notoriously difficult to comprehend (and painful financially to acquire). The key to understanding Burgundy is the fact that, like all French wine, it’s all about place, rather than (as in California wines) producer or grape variety. Things to know:

1. The Village it Vomes From
Most fine Burgundies come from grapes harvested from vineyards around a particular village, and will display the village’s name (e.g. "Pouilly-Fuisse," pronounced Poo-EE-yeh fwee-SAY) most prominently on the bottle. If the grapes come from various vineyards around a village, the wine is called "village" (vil-AHJ) Burgundy. It is also possible to make a good Burgundy out of grapes sourced from a whole region or even all around Burgundy, in which case you would call it a regional or generic Burgundy.

2. Grand or Premier Cru?
The best Burgundies come from vineyards that are classified according a centuries-old grand/premier cru system (cru means “vineyard”). Only 1% of all Burgundies come from grands cru vineyards; 11% from premiers crus. Because cru Burgundies can command extra high prices, their labels will always remind you that this source has been rated “great” or “first rate.”

3. The vineyard it Comes From
Most cru Burgundies come from a single vineyard in a village, and the bottle will say so, usually after it names the village—except grand cru wines, which will highlight just the vineyard. Also, sometimes a premier cru wine will be sourced from two or three vineyards; in which case the label will just denote the village and the rating. Finally, sometimes a wine will come from a good vineyard that for whatever reason has not been rated; these vineyards are called lieu dit (loo dee), which means “named place”.

4. The Producer, the Vintage, the Grape Variety
Because the flavor of Burgundy is believed to be determined by the place where the grapes were grown, it's considered to be relatively less important who made this wine, when, or from what. For sure, some producers and vintages are better than others, but most people don’t organize their Burgundy in their mind this way.

Example of how to talk about your Burgundy: So, if you’re reporting on a white Burgundy you drank, you’d say, “We enjoyed the most delicious Chassagne-Montrachet (shah-SAHN-yeh MOAN-rah-shay [that's the village]) last night. And since my friends were paying, it was a grand cru [the rating], a Batard Montrachet (BAHtard [the vineyard].” Later you may flaunt the producer. Note you never refer to the grape variety.

Great villages for white Burgundy: Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet (poo-LIN-yee), Corton Charlemagne, plus relative values from around Macon, Chalon, Chablis

Great producers of white Burgundy: Marc Colin (koh-LAN), Colin-Deleger et Fils (DEL-eh-zhay), Drouhin (DROO-han), and many many others.

Thank you Terri!

# posted by heather at 7:07 PM