Wine

A Quick Guide to Burgundy Wines

A wine region steeped in prestige and mythology. It's time to dissect Burgundy and build a clearer understanding of why it commands such reverence.

BY MATTHEW BISHOP

Fortune and glory

Burgundy is one of, if not the most, renowned wine regions in the entire world. The region is known for producing some of the finest expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with individual bottles fetching tens of thousands of pounds. But why? Can it really be that good?

The answer is a little bit yes and a little bit no.

Like most things in life, people tend to over-glorify a certain region or producer, which is then reflected in the price, sometimes costing literally a fortune for a single case.

However, that said, it is also true that Burgundy can produce some incredibly expressive wines unlike anything else you will taste. Moreover, the diversity of flavour is remarkable, with both grape varieties expressing themselves very differently depending on where they are grown. Lastly, it tends to be forgotten that they also make their own sparkling wine, which can be a pleasant surprise if you have never tried it.

Eat, pray, drink, sleep

Burgundy's wine history began with the Romans cultivating and planting the first grapevines. During the Middle Ages, Benedictine and Cistercian monks meticulously mapped vineyard quality, observing that tiny parcels produced dramatically different wines.

They began establishing the first clos. A clos is simply a vineyard enclosed by walls, originally built to protect the vines, mark ownership and distinguish individual vineyards.

In 1804, Napoleonic inheritance laws were introduced to ensure estates were divided equally among children instead of being passed solely to the oldest son. The result was dozens of people owning small sections of a single vineyard. Put simply, start with one vineyard divided among five children, then divide those shares again among their children, and so on. Fast forward two centuries and it creates a rather difficult situation when it comes to making and bottling wine.

Scarcity naturally helps drive prices even higher. However, as mentioned earlier, it also creates a situation where micro-plots produce wines with noticeably different characteristics.

The only time this does not happen is when you have a Monopole. It may sound fancy, but it simply means one vineyard owned entirely by one producer.

Lots of wine, so little time

Burgundy stretches from just south of Dijon to the outskirts of Mâcon and is split into five main regions. Chablis, known for its clean, crisp Chardonnay. The Côte de Nuits, producing primarily Pinot Noir. The Côte de Beaune, where both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay flourish. The Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais.

These two southern regions are noteworthy for a couple of reasons. Firstly, being on the tail end of Burgundy, they are often overlooked in favour of the more famous villages further north. However, they are also home to Aligoté and can produce seriously good wines. Secondly, particularly in the Mâconnais, many of the wines are driven by bright citrus and saline notes that are reminiscent of Chablis, but without the same price tag.

Within these regions sits Burgundy's classification system.

The first, and broadest, classification is Bourgogne wines, also known as regional wines. These can come from anywhere within Burgundy but tend to originate from flatter sites throughout the region.

They usually retail for relatively affordable prices and provide an excellent introduction to what Burgundy has to offer. Even at this level, the expression of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can still stand up for itself.

When you want to dive a little deeper into the region, you can move on to village-level wines. These are harvested from vineyards within a village's boundaries and are identified by the village name on the bottle, such as Beaune, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Meursault and many more.

There are eighty-four recognised village appellations to work through, and immediately the differences between wines become clear. I would highly urge you to start with two reds, perhaps a Nuits-Saint-Georges and a Santenay, and you will quickly see how one grape can taste so different.

When you have made your way through the village-level wines, you will then be faced with more than 640 Premier Cru (often abbreviated to 1er Cru) climats found across forty-four of these villages. These are vineyards that benefit from superior soils, drainage, exposure or a combination of all three.

The step up here is noticeable, and it now starts to become evident that you will discover your own tastes and preferences in Burgundy. You may find yourself leaning towards either the pricier examples or the more modestly priced ones.

To round off your wine journey is the absolute peak, the thirty-three Grand Cru vineyards. These are tiny, making up only around one percent of total production in the region, and the bottle will often display only the name of the vineyard rather than the village, as it has enough prestige to stand alone. You may also come across Hospices wines, which come from excellent vineyards, but the details of those deserve their own article.

All of these classification levels sit upon a gently sloping limestone and clay escarpment.

It may seem extreme, but the philosophy is to put terroir first. Status is not granted to the biggest or wealthiest estate, but to the soil and the land itself. When you begin tasting more and more Burgundy, you will discover that even a small change in slope can influence the style of the wine. The top of the slope tends to have thinner soils and produce lighter wines. The mid-slope often enjoys optimal drainage and sunlight, yielding many of the highest classified sites. The lower slopes offer deeper soils, producing broader, richer wines. The hierarchy reflects centuries of observation, much of which was formalised during the 1930s.

Removing the confusion

Given all of this information, it should now become much easier to dissect the label on a bottle.

You will see the producer's name and the vintage. Simple enough. It is not worth worrying too much about vintage until you are well into your wine journey. It can be fascinating to taste a "good" and a "bad" vintage side by side, but if you obsess over it too early, you risk losing sight of simply enjoying the wine.

If the label says Bourgogne, it tells you the grapes have been harvested from various vineyards across the region. A bottle labelled Gevrey-Chambertin clearly indicates it is a village-level wine from that specific village.

You may also see the name of a vineyard beneath the village. This usually means the wine has been produced from one specific vineyard within that village. A Saint-Aubin Premier Cru is a perfect example, where the bottle displays both the village and the vineyard name.

If you are curious, look up exactly where that vineyard sits and perhaps try a wine from a neighbouring plot. Or, for those who are particularly keen, taste two wines from the same vineyard made by different producers to see just how much winemaking techniques can influence the finished result.

Grounding time

Burgundy wine is genuinely fascinating and often exceptional. But a few things.

I have seen some producers charge extremely high prices for their Bourgogne-level wines, which can be perplexing. Some have surpassed the price of certain village-level wines, which is difficult to justify when they lack the expression that can come from a single defined area.

Secondly, do not think you need to spend hundreds of pounds to experience a great Burgundy. Do they taste incredible? Of course. But it is often far more rewarding to discover a well-made example around the £50 to £70 mark. It is still a serious purchase, but it does not need to be excessive.

You will always have people who brag about buying a £500 bottle from a famous vineyard. And yes, they can be impressive. But they are not always proportionally better than something far more accessible.

Finally, we all have that friend, or perhaps it is even you, who claims they do not like Chardonnay. I struggle to believe that entirely. A Chablis tastes vastly different to a Meursault, and that is only the beginning.

As you begin your Burgundy journey, you will quickly discover just how diverse one grape variety can be. Over time, your palate will broaden, and you will find yourself seeking out new villages, producers and vineyards. Before long, you may even understand why so many people become completely captivated by this remarkable little corner of France.

You may see people scoring wines ninety-seven points or something along those lines. Keeping it simple and scoring out of ten, factoring in price. To keep it realistic, I will also give a score relative to the broader scale of wines in the world.

The bottle retails for roughly £60 and, in its category and price bracket, easily scores a ten out of ten. When compared to wines globally, it still sits comfortably at a nine. Few genuinely surpass it, and for many it would qualify as a bucket list bottle.

This is what Burgundy should taste like. A similar profile found in more famous villages can cost more than twice the price, yet not always deliver twice the pleasure. Saint-Aubin remains somewhat of a hidden gem. Part of me hopes it stays that way, as wider recognition usually means higher prices. Until then, you can expect to see more articles on Saint-Aubin and the impressive wines it produces.