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Burgundy
If you think Bordeaux is a complicated region to get to grips with, just take a look at Burgundy! About half the size, but with nearly twice the number of appellations (classified geographical areas), or distinct names that can appear on a label. However, the region rewards a little knowledge and experimentation with wines that are wonderful with food.
A visit here is a delight, although you can cover a lot of miles heading north to south. With many producers across the region, from small family-owned winemakers such as the Brocard’s in Chablis,to the larger, well organised and modern cooperatives such as Caves de Buxy.
Each minute parcel of vineyard creates wines with their own unique flavour and style. It’s wonderful to be able to sample the wine with the winemakers, direct from the barrel in the cool cellars, moving from one barrel to the next. Each wine can be produced from just a short row of vines, and each with a personality of its own.
Where is it?
Burgundy sits in the heart of France where its continental climate and relatively cool temperatures create some of the finest French wines.
Chablis
One of the best-known Burgundy names is Chablis, a sub-region some 100 miles southeast of Paris. Chablis is famed for its minerally whites made from the Chardonnay grape.
Following the main motorway south you reach the Cote d’Or, the heart of the region based around the pretty town of Beaune, with its colourfully tile-roofed Hospice in the centre. This is the region where most of Burgundy’s finest wines originate.
The vineyards follow the low hills south to the Maconnais, an area that produces a large amount of white wine including some good value Chardonnays.
Further on is Beaujolais, with its rolling hills and pretty hill top villages, where the red Gamay variety is grown. There are 10 villages that can use their name on the Beaujolais label, the most famous of which is Fleurie.
Burgundy’s grapes
Burgundy grows one of the world’s least varied range of grapes due to its variable climate which is generally too cool to ripen most varieties. Almost all the region’s best red and white wines are produced from the hardy Chardonnay and thin skinned Pinot Noir.
Whites
Chardonnay is the most widely planted grape, found in most regions around the world, but famed for the white Burgundies of Chablis and the Cote d’Or. In Burgundy, it creates a varied style of wine from the crisp, minerally Chablis to the fuller bodied elegant barrel-aged Mersault.
Aligote is the second white grape variety that creates crisp zingy wines in northern Burgundy.
Reds
Pinot Noir can make some of the most complex wines, particularly here in Burgundy on the gentle slopes of the Cote d’Or. Young wines have a lovely raspberry fruit quality, but as they age, they develop leathery, dark fruit flavours.
Gamay creates light and intensely floral wines that are light in tannin with strawberry and cherry fruit.