Burgundy wine

History

Archaeological evidence places vineyards in Burgundy by the 2nd century AD. In the Middle Ages the monasteries shaped the region: in 1336 Cistercian monks created the walled Clos de Vougeot. In 1395 Duke Philip the Bold banned Gamay from the duchy's best slopes, calling it disloyal, which left the Côte d'Or to Pinot Noir. The national AOC system arrived in 1936, and in 2015 UNESCO inscribed the climats of the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune as a World Heritage site.

Terroir and appellations

The vineyard runs north to south through several districts. Chablis, isolated near Auxerre, makes flinty Chardonnay such as Chablis. The Côte d'Or, a narrow limestone escarpment, splits into the Côte de Nuits, famous for reds from villages like Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée, and the Côte de Beaune, where Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet produce great whites alongside reds from Pommard and Volnay. Further south come the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais, home of Pouilly-Fuissé. The continental climate brings frost and hail risks, so vintages vary sharply.

Grapes and wine styles

Burgundy is largely a two-grape region. According to the interprofession, Chardonnay covers about 57% of the vineyard and Pinot Noir about 34%, with Aligoté at about 6% and small amounts of Gamay and other varieties. White wine makes up the majority of production (about 62%), red about 29%, and sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne about 8%. Wines are almost always single-variety and labelled by place rather than grape, so a bottle of Corton-Charlemagne is Chardonnay and a bottle of La Tâche is Pinot Noir, even though neither label says so.

Classification

Burgundy ranks land, not producers. Its 84 AOCs form a pyramid of 7 regional appellations (such as Bourgogne), 44 village appellations, premier cru climats within those villages, and 33 grands crus at the top. Grand cru vineyards cover about 2% of Burgundy's production. Most sit in the Côte de Nuits, including Romanée-Conti, Chambertin and Musigny; the Côte de Beaune has the white grands crus of Montrachet and its neighbours plus Corton; Chablis has a single grand cru appellation divided into seven climats, such as Les Clos. A grand cru label names only the vineyard, not the village.

Burgundy wine: questions and answers

Other wine regions of France

• Bordeaux
• Champagne
• Alsace
• Rhône Valley
• Loire Valley
• Beaujolais
• Provence
• Languedoc-Roussillon
• South West France
• Jura