Burgundy (法國勃艮第)

Apr 15th, 2008 | By Daniel | Category: Burgundy (法國勃艮第)

France - Burgundy (法國勃艮第)

Burgundy, is one of the world’s most famous wine-growing areas, and located in eastern France, southeast of Paris.Bourgogne, as it’s called in France, consists of five basic regions: Chablis in the north, the Cote d’Or, the Cote Chalonnaise, the Maconnais, and Beaujolais, which is farthest south.

The Cote d’Or is further divided into two famous subsections: Cote de Beaune in the south and Cote de Nuits in the north.

Burgundy and its wines have a long history going back at least to the time when the Romans ruled this region. Over the centuries it gone on to flourish and has established a reputation over centuries not only for its fine wines but also its marvelous food.To seasoned wine lovers, the Burgundian system for identifying quality wines is much more straightforward than that of Bordeaux.

In addition to the Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AC), Bordeaux uses a complex and inconsistent château classification system known to many as 1855. Burgundy uses only the AC system to classify regions, villages, and individual vineyards into appellations, the theory being that the smaller and more precise the appellation, the higher the general quality of the wine.

At the lowest quality level (usually), the AC system starts with general regional appellations that cover all of Burgundy, such as Bourgogne AC, Bourgogne Aligote AC which are more common in East Asian wine markets.

Less general are the specific regional appellations like Chablis AC, Beaujolais AC, Hatues-Cotes de Beaune AC, and Hauts-Cotes de Nuits. Next up on the quality scale are the village appellations, which allow single villages or we call it sub-regions to use their name on the label (for example the more common known to us - Gevrey-Chambertin, Meursault, Pommard and Volnay.In the Beaujolais region there are ten villages (called Crus) with the right to specific village appellations though this grape style and variety isn’t very popular and yet is sold in Asian wine culture and markets.

Ranking next to the top of this appellation progression are the Premier Cru vineyards, which are individual vineyard sites that have historically produced superior wine. Burgundy premier cru wines use the village name, the vineyard name, and the term Premier Cru on the label. The only exception is when the wine is a blend of several premier cru vineyards, in which case the village name and the term Premier Cru appear.

At the very top of the quality hierarchy are the Grand Crus, which are the few very select sites that traditionally produce exceptional wines. Grand cru wines need only the vineyard name and the term Grand Cru on the label.

Burgundy’s seemingly straightforward ranking of appellations deteriorates, however, because the ownership structure in Burgundy, triggered by events that began with the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century, this resulted in too many other smaller growers to follow.It’s often thought that many of the best producers do a better job with their premier cru vineyards than some of the poorer producers with their grand cru vineyards.

The same holds true with the best producers and their village-appellation vineyards versus the lesser producers with premier cru vineyards.So, although the appellation system is fairly straightforward, the true Burgundy lover studies the individual producers to determine which wines they like best.

Grape(s):

The wines vary considerably from region to region throughout Burgundy, but the focus is on three grape varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay for red wines and Aligote, Chardonnay for whites.Gamay is the dominant red grape in Beaujolais, while Pinot Noir prevails in the other regions.

The very best red wines come from the grands crus in the Cote d’Or. Chardonnay is grown throughout the region and reaches its zenith in the Cote de Beaune. Although the wines made of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay get most of the attention, there are more wines produced in Beaujolais (where they make Gamay-based wines) than in all of the remaining Burgundy region.

From Left to right: Aligote, Chardonnay, Gamay, and Pinot Noir.

Soils:

This wine region is sown with mainly calcareous soil with marls or clay on south and south-east exposed slopes.

From left to right: Limestone, Clay, and Marl.

Weather Conditions:

This entire region experiences a semi-continental climate with a slight influence of the Atlantic Ocean. It also sees humid spring, long, hot, sunny summer, a relatively warm autumn and a long cold winter. Heavy rainfall, hail or spring frosts can cause problems.