Burgundy [BER-gun-dee] | Wine Terms

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Burgundy
[BER-gun-dee]

One of the world’s most famous wine-growing areas, located in eastern France, southeast of Paris. Bourgogne, as it’s called in France, has about 110,000 vineyard acres, which is about 40 percent of what exists in BORDEAUX. Burgundy consists of five basic regions—CHABLIS in the north, the CÔTE D’OR, the CÔTE CHALONNAISE, the MACÔNNAIS, and BEAUJOLAIS, which is farthest south. The Côte d’Or is futher divided into two well-known sections—CÔTE DE BEAUNE in the south and CÔTE 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. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Grand Duchy of Burgundy flourished, controlling an area that included what are now parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and a large portion of northern France. It was a rich and powerful empire, and the great Dukes of Burgundy savored the region’s marvelous wines as part of their opulent lifestyle. The Burgundy region has established a reputation over the centuries not only for its fine wines but also for its marvelous food. The wines vary considerably from region to region throughout Burgundy, but the focus is on three grape vari-eties—PINOT NOIR and GAMAY for red wines and CHARDONNAY for whites. Though other varieties are grown—such as the white ALIGOTÉ, PINOT BLANC, SAUVIGNON BLANC, and Sacy and the red Cesar—they’re being replaced in many areas by the three most prominent grapes. 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 Côte d’Or. Chardonnay is grown throughout the region and reaches its zenith in the Côte de Beaune. Although the wines made of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay get most of the attention, more wines are produced in Beaujolais (where they make Gamay-based wines) than in the rest of Burgundy. In some ways, the Burgundian system for identifying quality wines is much more straightforward than that of BORDEAUX. In addition to the APPELLATION D’ORIGINE CONTRÔLÉE (AC), Bordeaux uses a complex and inconsistent château classification system. 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 ALIGOTÉ AC, BOURGOGNE GRAND ORDINAIRE AC, and BOURGOGNE PASSE-TOUT-GRAIN AC. Less general are the specific regional appellations like Chablis AC, Beaujolais AC, HAUTE-CÔTES DE BEAUNE AC, and HAUTE-CÔTES DE NUITS AC. Next up on the quality scale are the village appellations, which allow single villages to use their name on the label (for example, GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN, GIVRY, MEURSAULT, POMMARD, and VOLNAY). In the Beaujolais region, there are ten villages (called CRUS) with the right to specific village appellations: BROUILLY, FLEURIE, MORGON, and MOULIN-À-VENT, to name a few. Some vineyards are now adding the vineyard name after the village name to further differentiate themselves. Ranking next to the top of this appellation progression are the PREMIER CRU (first-growth) vineyards, which are individual vineyard sites that have historically produced superior wine. (Note that premier cru is the very top rating for châteaux in Bordeaux.) 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 GRANDS CRUS (great growths), 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, results in myriad small owners. The oft-used example is Clos de Vougeot, a 125-acre grand cru vineyard that now has around eighty different owners, each with a small parcel. The quality of wines made from this vineyard by the multitude of producers varies widely, yet all have the right to call their wine Clos de Vougeot, Grand Cru. It’s 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, true Burgundy lovers study the individual producers to determine which wines they like best.

Related Links: Beaujolais, Bourgogne AC, Cô, Clos de la Roche AC, Vougeot AC

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