Burgundy

Burgundy (Bourgogne) is a holy grail for wine connoisseurs: a region impossible to master, impenetrable to the casual observer, and endlessly fascinating. A simple premise—red Burgundy is generally Pinot Noir and white Burgundy is generally Chardonnay—belies a maze of appellations, fractured vineyards, scores of producers, and erratic vintage swings. Just getting the right information can be a chore: the vignerons (winegrowers) of Burgundy are an insular lot, often reluctant to impart their wisdom and experience to outsiders, and even they are rarely experts beyond the walls of their own domaines or confines of their own communes. A vigneron in Meursault is unlikely to know much about the vineyards of Morey-Saint-Denis, and vice versa. New students of Burgundy should keep in mind that understanding this region is a lifelong pursuit. For seasoned Burgundy drinkers, the following guide provides a thorough look at the evolution of winemaking and viticulture in the region, concluding with detailed notes on each commune and appellation.

Note that, unless specifically stated, production and planting statistics throughout this guide do not include the sector of Beaujolais in the Rhône department. Burgundy statistics are courtesy of the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB), and Beaujolais statistics are courtesy of Inter-Beaujolais.

Lay of the Land

Burgundy’s vineyards span four French departments: Yonne, Côte d’Or, Saône-et-Loire, and Rhône, and comprise nearly 30,000 hectares, not including the wines of Beaujolais. While this may seem expansive, compare it with the Rhône Valley’s 70,000 hectares, or Bordeaux’s 117,500 hectares in production. Even Champagne has more acreage under vine.

Winegrowing Areas of Burgundy: 2015 to 2019 Average Acreage (Source: BIVB, Douane, CAVB, FDAC, UPECB et Syndicat des Bourgognes)

Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois: 7,626 hectares
Côte de Nuits and the Hautes Côtes de Nuits: 2,659 hectares
Côte de Beaune and the Hautes Côtes de Beaune: 4,815 hectares
Côte Chalonnaise: 2,238 hectares
Mâconnais: 6,117 hectares
Other Regional Areas: 6,598 hectares
Beaujolais: 16,947 hectares (from 2012)

The Côte d’Or department forms the core of the Burgundy region; it is both historic heartland and the source of the region’s most coveted wines. The Côte d’Or winegrowing region itself (Burgundy’s “golden slope”) is a thin ribbon of vineyard extending roughly 60 kilometers from the outskirts of the city of Dijon southward through the three small communes of Maranges. It is further divided into two subregions: the Côte de Nuits, in the north, and the Côte de Beaune, in the south. The Côte d’Or is a sight to behold: a nearly unbroken string of vineyard plots, inhabiting the eastern- and southeastern-facing slopes of a limestone escarpment (the côtes), whose forested summits essentially mark the winegrowing region’s western edge. The trail of vineyards, which has an average width of about one kilometer, grows slimmest near a break in the slope between the communes of Corgoloin and Ladoix-Serrigny, the dividing line between the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. Dijon is the regional capital, but the city of Beaune is the commercial center for the wine trade in the Côte d’Or.

The winegrowing region surrounding the commune of Chablis is Burgundy’s northernmost major outpost, located 130 kilometers northwest of Dijon, in the Yonne department. It is Burgundy’s largest white winegrowing region, and one out of five bottles of Burgundy annually bears its name on the label. But other, lesser-known vineyard areas, in Yonne communes such as Vézelay, Irancy, Tonnerre, and Joigny, pepper the landscape around Chablis. Collectively, these remaining areas are informally known as the Grand Auxerrois—the land surrounding Auxerre, capital of the Yonne.

The Côte Chalonnaise lies south of the Côte d’Or, in the northern Saône-et-Loire department. It takes its name from the city of Chalon-sur-Saône. Unlike the Côte d’Or, where vineyards essentially follow the contours of a single escarpment, the Côte Chalonnaise lies on the western edge of the Saône River valley, and its vineyards occupy a series of noncontiguous, gently sloping hillsides. And while it is generally regarded as a quality winegrowing region, its wines lack the pedigree and price commanded in the Côte d’Or. The Saône River runs 60 kilometers southward from Chalon-sur-Saône to Mâcon, capital of the department and namesake of the Mâconnais winegrowing region. With over 3,500 hectares under vine, the Mâconnais is one of Burgundy’s largest production areas for white wines, second only to Chablis. The northern reaches of the Mâconnais resemble the Côte Chalonnaise, but its landscape turns more dramatic in the south, as jagged limestone outcroppings rise up in sharp relief from their surroundings. The Rock of Solutré, highest among them, is perhaps the most emblematic site in the Saône-et-Loire.

The changing landscape of the southern Mâconnais signals the arrival of the monts du Beaujolais, a series of choppy, low mountains that reach upwards of 1,000 meters in elevation, and the Beaujolais winegrowing region, Burgundy’s southernmost vineyard area, named for the commune of Beaujeu. While its better wines are produced among the raised northern hillsides and villages, one-third of Beaujolais production occurs in the flatter, broader southern reaches. All but a small northern fragment of Beaujolais, which overlaps the Mâconnais, lies in the Rhône department, and its southernmost villages of production, just minutes from the city of Lyon, are closer to Vienne in the Northern Rhône Valley than the Côte d’Or. While Beaujolais has historically been grouped with the rest of Burgundy, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) and Inter Beaujolais (regional trade organizations) do not overlap, and the INAO publishes separate statistics for each. Beaujolais typically produces about one-third of the wines of Burgundy.

Climate

The region of Burgundy is positioned between 46 and 48 degrees latitude; the 47th parallel runs through Volnay. Its inland, northerly location results in a continental to semicontinental climate, with four true seasons. Rainfall, which averaged 750 millimeters annually from 1980 to 2009, is spread throughout the year, although May is the wettest month, raising concerns of mildew and rot, and the late summer is often mercifully drier. Sunshine hours number around 1,300 for the growing season, and average July–August temperatures hover near 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). During the summer heat, it may be warmer in Burgundy than in many New World regions where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are grown. But sunshine and average temperatures throughout the entire season are lower, and the growing season is compressed, as harvest often comes abruptly because of the fear of bad autumn weather. Chablis is generally cooler and wetter than the Côte d’Or, and much more susceptible to spring frosts. The southern Mâconnais and Beaujolais, on the other hand, are slightly warmer: in the Saône-et-Loire department, compared with the Côte d’Or, temperatures throughout most of the year are higher by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius.

Burgundy has always been considered a marginal climate for grapegrowing. Its successes were dependent on early-ripening varieties, expertly matched to preferred soil, slope, and aspect patterns. Historically, budbreak arrived in late April, flowering in mid-June, and veraison in early August, and harvest began near the end of September. Burgundy’s climate, however, is changing.

Warming trends in Burgundy have seen an increase of approximate 1.3 degrees Celsius in growing season average temperatures and an
increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius during the ripening period, with about 200 more growing degree-days. There has also been a general trend of longer frost-free periods and increases in the number of days above 35 degrees Celsius during the growing season and ripening period.

Phenological changes in Burgundy show that, from 1952 through 2010, budbreak trended earlier (11 days over the time period), bloom was earlier (11 days), veraison was earlier (10 days), and harvest dates were 16 days earlier (all statistically significant trends). There is also some evidence that there were shorter intervals between these events as well.

The climate during the 1955 to 1980 period in Burgundy was on average like the coolest years during the 1980 to 2005 period, while the period from 2005 to 2030 is projected to be on average like the warmest years during the 1980 to 2005 period—which has largely held true so far.

Of late, high variability and extremes of hail, heavy rain, and frost have plagued the Burgundy and Champagne regions. There is every indication that a warmer world can also be more variable and extreme. Talk about a double whammy!
–Gregory Jones, PhD., Southern Oregon University

The Grapes of Burgundy

Chardonnay (15,233 hectares, 2011): Chardonnay is the most planted grape in Burgundy, accounting for almost half the planted land. Known as Beaunois (from Beaune) in the Yonne, Chardonnay is a natural crossing of Pinot and Gouais Blanc, and its modern name may derive from the commune of Chardonnay, in the Mâconnais. Chardonnay’s cradle is likely somewhere among the fields of Burgundy, and it may be quite ancient. Confusion has reigned, however: the variety was once known as Pinot-Chardonnay and has frequently been mistaken for Pinot Blanc.

Pinot Noir (10,634 hectares, 2011): Pinot has a longer history than most modern grape varieties, as it has likely existed for two millennia and may have descended from wild vines. The black-skinned version of the variety is Pinot Noir, which has numerous clonal variations. Pinot Noir was once referred to as Morillon and Noirien, and its modern name first appeared in the late 14th century in Burgundy. Thin skinned, delicate, easily susceptible to any number of vineyard diseases, and scarred by both frosts and heat, Pinot Noir is famously sensitive on the vine and in the winery. It accounts for one-third of the Burgundy vineyard.

Gamay (2,534 hectares in Burgundy, 2011; 17,433 hectares in Beaujolais, 2011): Gamay, or Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc (its full name), is a sibling of Chardonnay and a progeny of Pinot and Gouais Blanc. An old variety, Gamay has been the subject of repeated condemnations, starting in 1395 with Philip the Bold’s ban on cultivation within the environs of Burgundy, and Gamay wines have historically received faint praise at best. Today, however, the wines of Beaujolais, Gamay’s home, are better than ever, and the best are an alternative in quality to midtier examples of Pinot Noir.

Aligoté (1,910 hectares, 2011): Another progeny of Pinot and Gouais Blanc, Aligoté is the second most (if a distant second) important white variety in Burgundy. Aligoté is usually used for varietal white wines, particularly in the commune of Bouzeron, in the Côte Chalonnaise.

Sauvignon Blanc (1,505 hectares, 2011): This Bordeaux variety is planted in the Yonne department in the vineyards of Saint-Bris AOP.

Pinot Blanc: While not technically a variety distinct from Pinot Noir (Pinot Blanc is a green-skinned mutation), this grape is more often found in Alsace or elsewhere than in Burgundy, its home. It is frequently authorized and occasionally grown for AOP white wines, up to and including grands crus.

Pinot Gris: Like Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris (known as Pinot Beurot in Burgundy) is a color mutation of Pinot Noir that occurred spontaneously in Pinot vineyards throughout Burgundy, the Loire Valley, Germany, and elsewhere. This Pinot, whose hue can range from grayish to rosy, is rarely found in Burgundy today, although it is still included in many appellations.

Other Varieties: There are three rare varieties found in the Yonne department: César, Tressot, and Sacy. César, a tannic red grape likely of German origin, gives strength and longevity to basic Pinot blends and the reds of Irancy, yet it is permitted only as a minor component in AOP wines. Less than 10 hectares remain. Tressot, a red variety dating from at least the 14th century, descends from Duras and Petit Verdot—rare parentage for the Burgundy region. It is commercially irrelevant, as is Sacy (Saint-Pourçain’s Tressalier grape), a variety authorized only for crémant wines in Burgundy. Sacy, like Gamay, Aligoté, Chardonnay, and Melon de Bourgogne, is a progeny of Pinot and Gouais Blanc. A little Melon de Bourgogne remains in Burgundy, but the variety grows primarily in the Loire Valley.

Average Annual Production in Burgundy—1.5 million hectoliters

The Modern AOP System in Burgundy

With almost 100 appellations, Burgundy is the most heavily regulated region in France. The Burgundy AOP system consists of a four-tier hierarchy of appellations—regional, village, premier cru, and grand cru—with wine quantities decreasing but quality theoretically improving up the ladder. Regional wines account for about 50% of production, whereas the grand cru appellations, located only in the Côte d’Or and Chablis, account for less than 2% of the total production of Burgundy. Premier cru technically is not a separate class of AOP; rather, this is a legally defined geographic designation for village AOP wines.

The baseline regional appellation for the entire Burgundy winegrowing region is Bourgogne AOP. Red, white, and rosé wines fall under this designation, and are generally produced from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Increasingly, regional wines prominently state the name of the variety on the label. Other, lesser Burgundy varieties—Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, César—may be included, but they are generally limited to supporting roles and are disappearing from modern vineyards. Bourgogne AOP varietal wines labeled as Gamay are permitted in the area of Beaujolais, but an effort to stem consumer confusion led to the grape’s disqualification for general Bourgogne AOP rouge and rosé wines in 2011. At the same time, authorities rechristened a little-used regional appellation, Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire AOP, as Coteaux Bourguignons AOP in an attempt to revitalize it. Coteaux Bourguignons shares the same broad dimensions as Bourgogne AOP, but its regulations allow the inclusion of Gamay in red blends. Inexpensive blended white and rosé wines are also authorized for the appellation.

While a Bourgogne AOP wine may theoretically contain grapes harvested anywhere in Burgundy—some Chardonnay from Chablis, a little from the Côte Chalonnaise, some from the outskirts of Puligny-Montrachet, and a bit from the Mâconnais, say—many indicate a more limited area of production on the label. Certain villages, vineyards, and geographic regions may legally append their names to Bourgogne AOP, more precisely defining the wine’s origin. Technically, these are geographical designations of Bourgogne AOP rather than distinct appellations. For example, Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise is produced within the Saône-et-Loire department, just south of the Côte d’Or. The red and white wines of Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits and Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune—the “high slopes”—are sourced from scattered vineyards in the low mountains just west of the more prestigious Côte d’Or village appellations. Several villages in the Yonne department may append their name to Bourgogne AOP, including Chitry, Épineuil, and Tonnerre. Finally, four lieux-dits were approved in the 1990s as geographical designations for Bourgogne AOP: La Chapelle Notre Dame, Le Chapitre, Côte Saint-Jacques, and Montrecul. Even if a geographical designation is not listed, domaine producers often source material for Bourgogne AOP from vineyard parcels near their home villages; négociant houses may cast a wider net.

In addition to the Bourgogne Hautes Côtes geographical designations, the Côte d’Or produces Côte de Beaune-Villages AOP and Côte de Nuits-Villages AOP. Côte de Beaune-Villages wines are red, and grape material may be sourced from any village in the Côte de Beaune except Pommard, Volnay, Aloxe-Corton, and Beaune itself. Côte de Nuits-Villages wines are red or (rarely) white, and may be sourced from the villages of Fixin and Brochon, in the north; and Prissey, Corgoloin, and Comblanchien, in the south.

Bourgogne Aligoté AOP is a separate appellation for varietal wines produced solely from the white grape Aligoté. Wines from the appellation are often simple and refreshing, and the grape frequently shows high acidity. In Burgundy, the wine is usually consumed as an aperitif or combined with crème de cassis as the classic base for a Kir cocktail.

Red and rosé wines, modeled on the field blends of the past, are produced throughout the Côte d’Or and southern Burgundy as Bourgogne Passe-Tout-Grains AOP. Pinot Noir and Gamay account for a minimum 30% and 15% of the blend, respectively, and the two grapes must be vinified together. Red Passe-Tout-Grains is far more common than rosé.

Crémant de Bourgogne and Bourgogne Mousseux are Burgundy’s two sparkling wine AOPs. Bourgogne Mousseux is an older, rare appellation exclusively for sparkling reds produced via the traditional method—in fact, once the first sparkling wines appeared in Burgundy in the 1820s, it was not uncommon to see sparkling red renditions of many of the famous crus, such as Clos de Vougeot or Chambertin. Crémant de Bourgogne debuted in 1975 as an AOP for hand-harvested, traditional method white and rosé sparkling wines, principally produced from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Crémant styles may be made throughout Burgundy, but much of the production is concentrated in and around the commune of Rully, in Saône-et-Loire, where Burgundy sparkling wines were born in the early 19th century. There are around 2,000 total hectares—approximately one-fourteenth of the entire acreage of Burgundy—declared for sparkling wine production annually.

All the above appellations are, in one sense, generic: they should offer varietal character and should invoke Burgundy in a basic way, but any serious glimpse at terroir generally begins at the village level. AOPs that carry the name of a village, or commune, are found in every sector of Burgundy, from Chablis in the Yonne to the crus of Beaujolais in the far south. The most important village appellations are aligned in a tidy, nearly north-to-south line in the Côte d’Or, from Marsannay to Maranges, and the relative character each village imparts is the subject of endless debate among connoisseurs and sommeliers. In the villages of the Côte d’Or, vineyards graded simply as village (rather than premier cru or grand cru) are generally located on a commune’s eastern side, where the angle of slope is slight, or along the far western fringe, adjacent to forest-capped ridgelines, where both elevation and slope are far more significant. Between these extremes lie the premiers and grands crus.

Premier cru vineyards in the Côte d’Or, in Chablis, in four appellations of the Côte Chalonnaise, and within the Mâconnais have been singled out for superior potential quality, and they are subject to tighter restrictions on yield, must weight, and minimum potential alcohol than the village AOPs. As these vineyards are technically geographical designations appended onto the village AOPs rather than separate, distinct AOPs themselves, producers can blend fruit from different premier cru parcels within the same village and still use the term premier cru, without the actual vineyard name, on the label. In some instances, smaller premier cru vineyards may be grouped together into larger ones, and a producer may have the option to choose a preferred vineyard name. In Chablis and Chassagne-Montrachet, this is especially common. A premier cru vineyard may be under single ownership (a monopole), and therefore only one producer will make the wine, but, far more commonly, multiple producers will own sections of a single vineyard, and each will bottle small lots of the wine.

Grand cru wines are the apex of Burgundy in terms of price and, hopefully, quality. These represent single vineyard sites of such renown that they have achieved their own AOP status, independent of the village in which they lie. Maximum yield and minimum must weight levels become even more restrictive, and monopole grand cru AOP law mandates hand-harvesting. The 32 current Côte d’Or grand cru vineyards range greatly in size, from La Romanée AOP—which, at 0.85 hectares, is the smallest AOP in France—to the massive Corton AOP, comprising 160 hectares. While they are, in the eyes of the law, theoretically identical in quality, there are certainly “A tier” and “B tier” grand cru vineyards in the court of price and public opinion. Some of the largest AOPs, like Corton and Clos de Vougeot, have sectors that hold greater potential than other sites within the same vineyard—but of course, the skill of the individual producer can be an equalizing factor. Remember, not all grand cru Burgundy is actually grand; poorly or indifferently made wine, despite its price and rarity, is still poorly and indifferently made wine.

Unlike premier cru wines, grand cru wines in the Côte d’Or must be produced solely from the single, stated vineyard. A blend of Chambertin AOP and Griotte-Chambertin AOP (two neighboring grand cru appellations in Gevrey-Chambertin) could claim neither AOP as its origin on the label, just as a blend of Gevrey-Chambertin AOP and Vosne-Romanée AOP fruit loses the right to display either appellation on the label. In these two cases, the wines would be “declassified” as Gevrey-Chambertin AOP (with the right to a generic premier crugeographic designation) and Bourgogne AOP, respectively.

Crus in Beaujolais?

In Beaujolais, the hierarchy of appellations is similar at the regional and village level, but there are no premiers or grands crus, and the term cru takes on a different connotation entirely—instead of referring to individual, superior vineyard sites, it is used to refer to the ten commune appellations in northern Beaujolais.

Most village vineyards, all but one premier cru vineyard, and every grand cru appellation in the Côte d’Or is located to the west of the Route Nationale 74—now the D974—a two-lane highway that runs roughly parallel to the Côte d’Or’s vineyards. As one drives up and down the D974, the incredibly fragmented nature of Burgundy’s vineyards is on full display. The Côte d’Or’s gentle slope is carpeted with vines, divided by old stone walls—some half-crumbled, some restored—low stone terraces, chevets (water channels), murgers (piles of rock removed from the vineyards during tilling), and more than a few completely enclosed, gated clos. All represent arcane divisions of land: some set in stone for centuries; others subtly shifted over time. Some walls have been demolished completely, rendering vineyard borders unclear. Befittingly, wine drinkers use a number of overlapping terms when describing the vineyards of Burgundy: climats, parcels, lieux-dits, clos and crus. Generally, these can be defined as follows:

Climat: A Burgundian term used to denote “a parcel of vines defined and named to be associated with the wines it produces”; in other words, a single vineyard in Burgundy. But the modern meaning goes a little deeper: as its homonym le climat—also “climate”—signals, the climats of Burgundy draw from the notion of terroir, and become tracts of land whose wines are shaped not only by location, but by other environmental and manmade conditions particular to the vineyard. As described below, the mosaic of climats evolved over hundreds of years, and the modern boundaries of grand cru, premier cru, village, and régionale vineyard land does not always neatly fit with the named, defined climats themselves. For instance, the single climat of Monts Luisants in Morey-Saint-Denis is divided into tracts classified as Morey-Saint-Denis AOP, Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, and Clos de la Roche Grand Cru AOP. In other cases, there are multiple climats within a single classified Premier Cru or Grand Cru. The word climat has been regulated by the INAO for use throughout Burgundy since 1935. There are over 1,200 climats in Burgundy today.

Lieu-dit: Nearly synonymous with climat, a lieu-dit is a named single vineyard, and forms one contiguous parcel within a single commune. Frequently, the names of lieux-dits recall historic uses of the land or former owners. In The Wines of Burgundy, 12th ed. authors Sylvain Pitiot and Jean-Charles Servant distinguish between the two related terms: “You could say that the lieu-dit is a technical cadastral unit used by geographers, while the climat is a vigneron’s notion.” Sommeliers pay special attention to the names of the grand cru and premier cru vineyards, but even village and regional AOP vineyard land is parceled into lieux-dits. Producers in Marsannay and Meursault commonly label village AOP wines by lieu-dit, and other examples of lieu-dit labeling occur throughout the Côte d’Or, even for Bourgogne AOP wines.

Cru: An imprecise term, cru is used both to denote quality and to indicate a delimited place; depending on the region and the wine in question the term can carry legal weight or simply evoke popular meaning. Cru derives from croître (“to grow”), but in Burgundy its use since the late 1500s has seemingly been to indicate high quality. Today, the term is generally reserved for use in the manner laid out in the AOC system, defining certain vineyard areas as premier cru or grand cru. As noted above, cru designations and climat boundaries do not always neatly overlap.

Parcel: A parcel is a single contiguous holding within a vineyard, owned entirely by one grower. Often, domaines may hold several different parcels in the same climat; for instance, Domaine Leflaive owns three separate parcels in the grand cru Bâtard-Montrachet.

Clos: A clos indicates a vineyard enclosed within a stone wall. While there is temptation to assume that these walls were built with foresight of the vineyard’s exactingly prime location, they are basically medieval fences, originally erected to keep animals away from the vines. Today, Clos de Vougeot is the largest and most famous example. In some, like Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, the walls have long since fallen but the name remains.

Additionally, the terms village, commune, and hamlet are used throughout this guide. Village is a bit imprecise, indicating one of the many small towns that dot the Burgundy landscape or the wines produced in village appellations. A commune is an administrative unit of local government encapsulating a town and its immediate surroundings. A hamlet is the smallest form of settlement, often included administratively within the commune of a larger neighboring town. For example, Puligny-Montrachet is a village appellation and a commune, whereas Blagny is a village appellation and a hamlet located within the Puligny-Montrachet commune.

Declassification?

Remember, in Burgundy grapes harvested from a parcel that qualifies for a grand cru AOP are also entitled to any lesser appellation beneath it, including premier cru (without a vineyard name), village, and even the basic Bourgogne AOP. In a particularly small or challenging vintage, or in the case of recent replanting, a producer may choose to label his or her grand cru wine as something else, “declassifying” it. One of the most severe examples of declassification is Comte Georges de Vogüé’s Musigny blanc: in the wake of replanting, the wine was labeled simply as Bourgogne AOP from 1994 to 2014. Declassification is not limited to grand cru wines; premier cru bottlings could be labeled as village wines, and village wines could be released as basic Bourgogne AOP.

Vin de Pays (IGP) in Burgundy

There are several IGP appellations that overlap areas of Burgundy. The Yonne département has its own departmental IGP (Yonne IGP). In the Côte d’Or itself, there are two zonal IGPs: Coteaux de l’Auxois and Sainte-Marie-la-Blanche. The Coteaux de l’Auxois IGP covers much of the Côte d’Or département north and west of the Hautes-Côtes appellations and does not overlap any AOPs of the Côte d’Or. Sainte-Marie-la-Blanche IGP is a much smaller appellation; it sits to the east of the D974 and the Côte de Beaune. It is adjacent to Bourgogne AOP, but they do not overlap. Thus, there is no IGP that covers the actual Côte d’Or winegrowing region.

The entire Rhône département—including the area of Beaujolais AOP—is included, along with the Northern Rhône Valley and some areas of Savoie, in the regional Comtés Rhodaniens IGP. The Saône-et-Loire département has a departmental appellation—Saône-et-Loire IGP, which covers its entire area. The latter is rarely used. A smaller zonal IGP, Gaules, which overlaps most of Beaujolais itself, was initially ratified by French authorities but remains off the INAO’s books as of mid-2014.

The History of Burgundy

Monks, Barbarians and Legionnaires

Winemaking in Burgundy may date back 2,000 years or more. Celtic tribes likely cultivated vines in the region prior to the arrival of the Romans in 52 CE, who in turn planted numerous vineyards on the flat plains surrounding the site of Dijon. Archaeological evidence uncovered near Gevrey-Chambertin supports the existence of such early wine production, but the first written evidence of winemaking in the region came in 312, during the reign of Emperor Constantine. The first Burgundians—Germanic barbarian tribesmen—arrived in the year 436 as the Western Roman Empire was crumbling, and embraced viticulture, expanding its practice onto the hillsides. But Europe plunged into dark ages after the fall of Rome, and the Catholic Church rose as a powerful political force, becoming a shepherd of culture—and viticulture—in such difficult times. Bishops in two local Catholic dioceses, Langres and Autun, became powerful political figures and landowners, and monasteries in the region began to appear as nodes of power and influence, often on land bequeathed by dukes and other patrons. Traditionally, the year 630 marks the earliest appearance of a modern grand cru vineyard, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze—the parcel was a gift from Duke Amalgaire of Burgundy to the monks of the Abbey of Bèze, founded in that same year.

The Benedictines and the Cistercians emerged as the two most powerful Catholic monastic orders of the Middle Ages. Each acquired vast holdings across Burgundy, and attracted pilgrims from far and wide. In 910, the Benedictines built their motherhouse—the Abbaye of Cluny—near Mâcon, and from there extended their influence throughout Europe. In the 11th century, it was the most richly endowed, powerful monastery in the western world, and its abbots established a network of smaller, subordinate priories—both in nearby Burgundy and as far afield as Italy and Poland. In accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict, with its emphasis on work and prayer as moral imperatives (and a little relief: an allotted quarter-liter of wine per day!), the Benedictine monks amassed and expanded the vineyards of Burgundy, and satellite priories throughout Burgundy typically housed wine cellars.

The most famous modern Pinot Noir vineyard in the world has its origins underneath a Benedictine plow: in 1131, the Priory of Saint-Vivant de Vergy, a subordinate of Cluny located in Vosne, received numerous gifts of unplanted land in the village, including a plot which would become the vineyard “Clos de Cinq Journaux”—the modern-day Romanée-Conti. By the mid-13th century, Cluny and its priories held prime vineyard land in the Côte de Nuits—including the vineyard of “Champ Bertin” (Chambertin)—and large parcels further south, in the Mâconnais and Côte Chalonnaise. But by that time the Benedictines’ power was on the wane, and a new monastic movement, the Cistercians, was flourishing.

The Cistercian Order, a stricter offshoot of the Benedictines, takes its name from the order’s motherhouse, the Abbaye of Cîteaux, founded near Dijon in 1098. This abbey, like Cluny, would rapidly grow in power and influence, and develop a network of subsidiary priories. Under the Cistercians, the first clos vineyards appeared—the walls surrounded the vineyard, the winemaking facilities and the monastic dwelling itself. Cîteaux’s marquee vineyard was the Clos de Vougeot, a large mosaic of parcels acquired from the 12th through the 14th centuries. The Clos de Tart—first documented in 1141 as the Clos de la Forge—and the Clos des Lambrays, first appearing in Cîteaux archives in 1365, both belonged to Cistercian abbeys. In 1114, the Cistercian Abbaye of Pontigny was established near Chablis, under the authority of Cîteaux, and expanded viticulture in that northerly area. Musigny, Echézeaux, Richebourg, and Montrachet were all cultivated by Cistercian monks; the order gained a reputation as défricheurs, or land-clearers, as they expanded Burgundy’s agricultural landscape and laid the foundation for the modern climats of Burgundy. Modern reminders of monastic influence in Burgundy are readily evident in vineyard nomenclature. Moine (monk), chapitre (religious chapter), chapelle (chapel), croix (cross), prieur (priory), abbaye (abbey), and the names of old orders and saints are prominently incorporated in many vineyard names today.

Era of the Valois Dukes (1363-1477)

From the beginning of the last millennium through 1361, the descendants of the feudal Capetian kings of France presided over the Duchy of Burgundy—one of the king’s most treasured and wealthy fiefs. But the line in Burgundy died out, and in 1363 the first of four lords of the House Valois, Philip the Bold, claimed the title and took his seat in Dijon. Under the Valois Dukes Burgundy became a powerful, nearly independent state, enlarged through marriage with lands in the Low Countries. To secure his power, Philip the Bold had good reason to promote Burgundy wines—they were a significant economic resource and a symbol of his reign’s prosperity. According to wine historian Rod Phillips (A Short History of Wine), during this period the wines of Beaune “shot from obscurity to being regarded as the greatest wines of France,” and they were shipped from the Côte d’Or to Paris, Italy, and the papal court in Avignon.

In 1375, Philip the Bold requested a shipment of vermeil Pinot (“red” Pinot) for English and French peace negotiators meeting amidst the Hundred Years’ War—the earliest recorded mention of the grape under its modern name. His interest in Pinot Noir as the quality red grape of Burgundy is well documented, and in the summer of 1395 he ordered growers to uproot the “disloyal” Gaamez (Gamay), which appeared in Burgundy only a few decades prior, by the following Easter. In the same ordinance, he advocated the planting of Pinot Noir in Burgundy’s ten best vineyards. While Philip the Bold attempted to enforce an early form of encépagement, Philip the Good published an ordinance in 1441 demanding the removal of vines on flat lands east of Dijon. Instead, he campaigned for the continued movement of vines to the bonnes costes (“good slopes”) around his capital city. The nobility of Europe treasured the wines of Burgundy, and the Valois Dukes attempted to protect their image and innate quality through law.

During Philip the Good’s reign, the Duchy of Burgundy veered toward conflict with the French, and he attempted to exert total independence from the French crown. His son, Charles the Bold, continued down his path, and open warfare between the two states (the Burgundian Wars) occurred from 1474-1477. In that last year Charles the Bold perished on the battlefield, without sons, and legal ownership of the Duchy of Burgundy reverted to Louis XI, King of France. As a result of the reunification of the duchy and France, the wines of Chablis were firmly linked to Burgundy.

l’Hôtel-Dieu and the Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction:

In 1443 Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Burgundy under Duke Philip the Good, founded the Hôtel-Dieu (“hospital of god”) in Beaune with his wife Guigone de Salins. One of Burgundy’s most recognizable landmarks today, this charity hospital received sick and infirm poor free of charge, from the 1452 until 1971—when patients were moved to modern hospital facilities and the original Hôtel-Dieu building was restored as a museum. In 1794—during the Revolution—the Hôtel-Dieu and several other religious charities in Burgundy were seized by the state, carrying their charitable missions forward under a new collective banner: les Hospices Civils de Beaune. Throughout the centuries, the institution has received many vineyard donations in Beaune and elsewhere in Burgundy. Today the domaine holds about 60 ha, making the Hospices de Beaune one of the largest vineyard owners in the region. With its harvests the Hospices de Beaune has, since 1859, held an annual wine auction, occurring on the third Sunday of November. It is the central event of the Trois Glorieuses, a weekend-long celebration that kicks off with a Saturday event at the Château du Clos de Vougeot and concludes with the paulée of Meursault on Monday. Each year, the Hospices de Beaune produces nearly four-dozen red and white cuvées under labels like “Cuvée Nicholas Rolin,” “Cuvée Guigone de Salins,” and “Cuvée Dames de Flandres.” These wines are auctioned en primeur as whole barrels, from the current vintage, and are aged and bottled by other producers in Burgundy. Therefore, the final label will carry the name of the cuvée and the name of the négociant-éleveur—the producer who bought and bottled the wine. Prior to 2005, only producers in Burgundy could participate in the auction; since that year, it is open to anyone, and nowadays the final label may additionally carry the name of the winning bidder.

For detailed information on the Hospices de Beaune holdings and cuvées, click here.

The Climats of Burgundy: Evolving Meaning

In Burgundy the modern concept of single vineyards hatched with medieval monks’ demarcations of land for vineyard use, and solidified under the leadership of the Valois Dukes in the 15th century, who strove to limit plantings to the hillsides. Under the Duchy of Burgundy a rudimentary sense of place was already in force, and wines from Beaune and Dijon were highly regarded by the mid-1400s. But they were cuvées, blended from different—and often unnamed—parcels in and around the two towns. Vineyards within or nearest to Dijon and Beaune were considered superior, yet vin de Beaune itself was a generic name, applied to many of the wines of the Côte d’Or throughout the Late Middle Ages. In the 1500s, however, the link between geographic names and wine quality gained greater traction, and attention turned toward smaller and smaller geographical areas. The hills between Gevrey and Dijon gained renown as “la Montagne,” and by the late 1500s there were clear distinctions between the cru wines of Dijon, Chesnove (modern-day Chenôve), and other northern villages, and those of lower quality. A surviving 1584 document penned by the monks of Langres refers, for the first time in print, to the “climat of Champt Berthin.” The word, stemming from the Greek klima (referring to a site’s incline and exposure to the sun), was first used in a more general sense to denote parcels of land, but from the 17th century onward usage became increasingly limited to the indication of specific vineyards. By 1651, the Diocese of Langres had awarded a layman, Claude Jomard, a perpetual lease on the climat of Chambertin-Clos de Bèze; he worked to return a then-malnourished vineyard to health, and planted several areas of the clos that had reverted to charmes, or fallow scrubland. In 1676 the wines of climats Chambertin and Baize (Clos de Bèze) appeared for the first time in Dijon, and were accorded equal status (and tax rates) alongside the lauded wines of the town itself. They soon surpassed the Dijonnais wines in reputation, and in 1691, for the first time in Burgundy’s history, a wine marked by climat (Chambertin) rather than town of origin arrived in the cellars of Paris. Thus, while modern Burgundy accords its medieval monks great credit in the development of the climats, the first example of climat labeling did not occur until the dawn of private ownership!

In his 1728 work Dissertation sur la situation de la Bourgogne, Abbot Claude Arnoux praises the wines of climat Montrachet as among the finest whites of France, and singles out other vineyards, such as Champans in Volnay and Comaraine in Pommard. From the 1740s onward, identification and differentiation of climats sped forward as new villages began to create their own winemaking identities, and links between soil and wine style were proposed and debated by scientists and gentlemen. By the end of the 1750s, nine out of ten barrels of Burgundy were labeled by the name of an individual village or individual climat—the days of vin de Beaune were gone. In 1766, a proposed law stipulated that wines bearing a town or climat of origin must be the product of that place—the first attempt to legally define appellations. In 1831, Denis Blaise-Morelot completed the first real classification of the Côte d’Or’s climats, only to be supplanted in 1855 by Jules Lavalle’s seminal classification of Burgundy’s wines and vines. Lavalle’s Historie et statistique de la vigne et des grands vins de la Côte-d’Or became the benchmark classification of Burgundy’s climats in the 19th century, and would inform the development of Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées (AOCs) in the early 20th century. Lavalle’s 1855 map of the climats, refined and completed in 1860, established a quality hierarchy for the Côte d’Or’s climats: tête de cuvée (the best plots, subdivided into two echelons), première cuvée, deuxième cuvée, and troisième cuvée. While this may recall another French classification of the same year, remember that Lavalle’s approach—and the AOC system that followed—had the quality of the vineyard, and not necessarily the price of the wine, as its stated foundation. With the vineyard classifications of Morelot and Lavalle, the prestige of top climats began to overshadow the name recognition of the villages. And so, throughout the latter half of the 1800s, Burgundy’s greatest climats gained symbolic and permanent status as many villages of the Côte d’Or legally appended the names of their most hallowed vineyards to their own.

1847: Gevrey becomes Gevrey-Chambertin
1862: Aloxe becomes Aloxe-Corton
1866: Vosne becomes Vosne-Romanée
1879: Puligny becomes Puligny-Montrachet
1879: Chassagne becomes Chassagne-Montrachet
1882: Chambolle becomes Chambolle-Musigny
1886: Flagey becomes Flagey-Echézeaux
1892: Nuits becomes Nuits-Saint-Georges
1922: Pernand becomes Pernand-Vergelesses
1927: Morey becomes Morey-Saint-Denis
1928: Auxey becomes Auxey-Duresses

The climats of Burgundy were a fully realized concept by the end of the 19th century, but a maelstrom of challenges—phylloxera, fraud, loss of historic vineyards in the environs of Dijon to urban sprawl, and a returned interest in generic commercial branding among the négociant houses of Beaune—threatened the model on every side as the new century dawned. Phylloxera first struck the Côte d’Or at Meursault, in 1878. As Burgundy weathered its devastation, and vignerons begrudgingly adopted the grafting solution, the appearance of the climats’ landscape changed completely. Instead of disorderly, cluttered fields of head-trained vines, replanted by provignage (layering), Burgundy’s growers replanted in orderly rows, which could accommodate horses (and later machines), in a training fashion first prescribed by Dr. Jules Guyot in the 1860s. To combat fraudulent practices, such as the frequent adulteration of Burgundy wines with the vins médecins of the Midi, various laws were passed in the early 20th century, including the first Appellation d’Origine law of 1919, which formally defined appellations and eliminated the practice of coupage. (Not unlike the declarations of age for Tawny Port today, Burgundy wines prior to the 1919 law could be labeled with a particular village or climat based on taste profile alone. If the wine tasted like Vosne-Romanée, then Vosne-Romanée it was. If a little Monthélie needed to go into the more marketable Meursault, so be it.) Furthermore, this legislation reduced the effectiveness of generic négociant labeling of wines by providing recognized appellations and the judicial tools to enforce them; thereby spurring the evolution of domaine bottling by giving growers a marketing tool, no matter how small their production.

The 1919 law formally introduced an appellation system in Burgundy, yet problems persisted as the law focused on geographic origin, rather than viticultural or winemaking practices. But Burgundy was not alone in its fight against fraud; 1935 saw the advent of the Comité National des Appellations d’Origine (forerunner to the INAO) and the AOC system, designed to define appellations and control the production of wine on a national scale. With the rollout of the original Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées in 1936 and 1937, Burgundy’s first grand cru, village, and régionale appellations were enshrined into law, and “local, loyal, and constant” viticultural and winemaking practices were established. The first premier cru geographic designations, while modeled on longstanding climats, would arrive in 1942. Drawing from the expertise of Lavalle and others, divisions of vineyard land under the new AOC regime followed historical patterns, but economic and political factors—and sometimes a simple lack of foresight—muddied the purity of the exercise. Domaine Lamarche, sole owner of the modern La Grande Rue Grand Cru AOP, did not see its prized parcel achieve grand cru status until 1992—in 1936 Henri Lamarche declined to apply for an appellation as it would raise his taxes! On the other hand, the original Clos de la Roche Grand Cru AOP got on the books in 1936 but the appellation enlarged by over 10 hectares by 1971, as it absorbed pieces of neighboring climats. Chablis’ premier cru designations did not materialize until the 1960s. And so on. From our perch in the present, it is tempting to believe that these vineyards were incontrovertibly etched in stone, unchanged through the ages. But they are immutable in neither scope nor status—at the time of writing in mid-2014, the INAO is deliberating over premier cru applications for both Marsannay AOP and the Mâconnais, and several premier cru vineyards in the Côte de Beaune are awaiting upgrades to grand cru status. The climats evolve, still.

In early 2014, the French government and the Association des Climats du Vignoble de Bourgogne formally applied to UNESCO to attain “World Heritage” status for the climats of the Côte d’Or. The application was approved in 2015.

Why are there different spellings for the same climats?

Examples abound, provoking confusion among the would-be students of Burgundy. While the official INAO Puligny-Montrachet AOP cahier des charges lists one 1er Cru climat as “Clavaillon,” Domaine Leflaive, the vineyard’s most famous producer, labels the wine as “Clavoillon.” How did one climat become both “Montrachet” and “le Montrachet?” “Les Forêts” or “La Forest?” According to Antoine Lepetit of Domaine Leflaive, the explanation is simple, and all too human: clerical error. In the early 1800s Napoleon commissioned a cadastre (a census map) for the entirety of France, and on these maps lieu-dit names in Burgundy’s communes were recorded. But as men copied and distributed them, slight errors were inevitably made: here an “a” became “o”; elsewhere letters and definite articles were dropped or once-separate words were combined. Over two centuries traditional spellings and official spellings diverged. In its documents, the INAO uses the official cadastre spellings, but local usage and labels today may differ. The Guild of Sommeliers likewise has adopted the official cadastre spellings throughout our guides and compendium.

Fragmentation

During the French Revolution (1789-1799), widespread seizures of ecclesiastical and aristocratic lands occurred throughout the country; Burgundy was no exception. The great monasteries of the region lost their lands, as did those nobles related to the house of Bourbon, which lost power when revolutionaries overthrew the French monarchy in 1792. (The Prince of Conti, whose name graces the grand cru vineyard Romanée-Conti, was one such disempowered noble.) These once-vast tracts of vineyards sold at public auction, often passing into the hands of multiple owners. Of course, this system simply replaced old wealth—the clergy and aristocrats—with new money, concentrated in the hands of a new middle class, and the peasants still did the work. After the revolution, landlords frequently controlled their holdings in absentia and leased vineyard plots to local tenants through different arrangements, including fermage (a simple agreement in which the tenant paid cash to lease the land) and métayage, a form of sharecropping. Both forms of tenancy still occur today; for instance, Domaine de la Romanée Conti leases three separate vineyard parcels in Corton AOP (fermage), and Domaine Georges Roumier farms a parcel in Ruchottes-Chambertin AOP owned by Michel Bonnefond, producing the wine for both labels (métayage). Given the insular nature of modern Burgundy, it is often difficult to determine exactly which parcels are owned and which are covered under one long-term lease or another.

Fragmentation of ownership did not stop with the sale of church and aristocratic lands to multiple bidders; in fact, it was accelerated under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte, who ended the practice of primogeniture in France. Primogeniture, the right of the firstborn son to inherit his family’s entire estate, assured that the aristocracy’s holdings remained intact over generations. The Napoleonic Code, established in 1804, ended this practice in France and many areas of continental Europe occupied by the French army during the Napoleonic Wars, and set a new precedent: all male citizens would be henceforth equal under the law, and equal in inheritance. From this point forward, Burgundy estates would be split evenly among all male heirs—women’s rights came later—and through the ensuing generations vineyard parcels continued to grow smaller and smaller. In this fashion did a vineyard like Clos du Vougeot pass from one owner in the 18th century—the Cistercians of Cîteaux—to more than 80 in the modern era. This splintering of estates among heirs continues today; one recent example saw the lauded estate of Louis Carillon divided amongst his sons, Jacques and François, in 2010. This continuing fragmentation of vineyards is the chief reason for the rarity—and perceived value—of monopole vineyards in the region.

Domaines and the Négociant

In Burgundy, it is important to distinguish between two camps of producers—the domaine and the négociant. In the most basic sense, domaines are the properties of winegrowers who produce wines from parcels that they own—a parallel to estate-bottling in the USA. Négociants, on the other hand, are merchants: they purchase fruit, musts or wines, and bottle the finished product under their own labels. Domaines tend to produce smaller lots of individual wines, particularly at the level of Bourgogne AOP and village appellations, as négociants have the option of sourcing from a number of different growers to amass larger quantities of a blend. Therefore, domaine bottlings tend to be more expensive, and ostensibly offer a greater sense of place—yet a domaine vigneron has fewer options for correcting his or her blends in a poorer vintage. Domaine wines may have the greater capacity to both enchant and disappoint; négociant wines may be more reliable from year to year. However, these presumptions assume that the division between négociants and domaines is completely clear. It is not. In reality, the largest négociants own vineyard land as well, and produce wines from their own vineyards as well as purchased fruit. The négociant Bouchard Père & Fils, for instance, is actually the largest landowner in the Côte d’Or, with 130 ha of vines under its control. Joseph Drouhin, another major négociant house, owns over 70 ha of vineyards stretching from Chablis through the Côte Chalonnaise. Louis Jadot owns over 150 ha, but like Drouhin not all parcels are within the Côte d’Or. A more recent trend witnesses domaine vignerons who start their own small-scale négociant operations. Dubbed “micro-négociants” by the press, these ambitious producers may lack the capability to buy additional vineyards, but nonetheless want to expand what may be very limited production. Sourced fruit is typically released under a different label; examples include Domaine de Montille’s “Deux Montille” wines and Domaine Dujac’s “Dujac Fils & Père” project. Comte Armand’s Benjamin Leroux produces négociant wines under his own name. Often, when operating both domaine and négociant branches, a vigneron will use the term maison—“house”—to refer to the latter. Today, it is difficult to parade old assumptions about quality of négociant vs. domaine wines; the lines are too blurred.

The first négociants in Burgundy appeared in the early 1700s—a time when many Burgundy vineyards were still in the hands of lords and the Church, and most wine was still sold through brokers, in barrel rather than bottle. Maison Champy and Maison Claude Marey, both founded in 1720, were the first private merchant houses, followed shortly thereafter by Maison Lavirotte and Poulet Père & Fils in 1725, and Bouchard Père & Fils in 1731. Their commercial power and vineyard holdings increased after the French Revolution. Other prominent négociants, like Joseph Drouhin and Louis Jadot, appeared in the mid- to late-19th century. As Burgundy’s vineyard ownership fragmented through the generations, holdings dwindled to the point wherein economies of scale greatly favored the model of the négociant. The machinery of winemaking was essentially unaffordable to the small grower until the 20th century, and even if growers had the means to produce wine they lacked access to any sales infrastructure beyond their own cellar doors. The very idea of domaine bottling is an invention of the 20th century, spearheaded by estates like Marquis d’Angerville, Tollot-Beaut, Henri Gouges, Etienne Grivot and Armand Rousseau. Raymond Baudoin, founder of the (still) influential publication La Revue du Vin de France and Frank Schoonmaker, a seminal American wine writer and importer, were key persuaders, convincing the aforementioned domaines to reserve a portion of their production for bottling under their own names around the 1920s. Even so, domaine bottling remained rare until the 1980s, when, as domaines became associated with high quality and care in the vineyard, more and more cancelled long-term contracts with négociants and started bottling their own wines.

The BIVB at the close of 2013 reported that there were 3,949 domaines (including more than 1,100 that produce more than 10,000 bottles of wine), 300 négociant firms, and 19 cooperatives in Burgundy (not including Beaujolais). Domaines hold, on average, 7-8 ha apiece. BIVB statistics show that the volume of sales is still in favor of the négociant—60% of all Burgundy wines are sold by the merchant houses—but the majority of grand and premier cru wines carry a domaine label.

Post-Phylloxera Vineyard Architecture

Phylloxera first struck Villié-Morgon in Beaujolais in 1874, then Meursault in 1878 and Chablis in 1887. Radiating outward, it changed the vineyard landscape of Burgundy completely. Officials in the Côte d’Or did not begin recommending the adoption of American rootstocks for grafting until the late 1880s, and many vignerons, fearful for their livelihoods, had to rely on expensive submersion techniques—flooding vineyards with water—or carbon disulfide treatments to keep P. vastatrix at bay. In Beaujolais, vignerons often lacked the funds for chemical treatments, and were early adopters of American vines. In the Côte d’Or, however, many producers feared that phylloxera-resistant rootstocks would dilute the quality of the scion grape; thus, some of the greatest grand cru vineyards were not wholly replanted until absolutely necessary. The owners of Romanée-Conti, for instance, fought the insect with carbon disulfide for decades, and the Romanée-Conti Grand Cru vineyard itself was not uprooted and replanted on resistant rootstocks until after the 1945 vintage. In Burgundy, as elsewhere in France and the world, phylloxera was a systemic threat, and successful management of the bug required years of scientific experimentation, debate, and persuasion.

The devastation of phylloxera ultimately allowed the vineyards of Burgundy to assume their modern shape. Orderly rows appeared, replacing the chaotic en foule (“in a crowd”), gobelet-trained vineyards of the past. As grafting became a necessity, the old method of replanting by provignage was rendered obsolete. The new vineyards of the Côte d’Or were trellised and head-trained chiefly in the single Guyot method, a cane-pruning system bearing one cane and one spur. Double Guyot training—cane-pruning with two fruiting canes—is infrequently encountered in the Côte d’Or, but in Chablis it is prevalent (whereas the method named for the region, a cane-pruned system known as Taille Chablis, is much more common in neighboring Champagne than in its area of invention). Cordon de Royat, a system of cordon training—in which the vine retains a permanent arm rather than a one-year-old cane—is also encountered in both Chablis and the Côte d’Or. In the crus of Beaujolais, on the other hand, gobelet training remains widespread.

Most rows in the Côte d’Or run along an east-west orientation, trailing up the slope rather than parallel to it. (Clos de Tart, Clos des Lambrays and La Romanée are notable exceptions.) The vines are, by law, tightly spaced: Côte d’Or AOPs stipulate no fewer than 9,000 plants per hectare, and 1x1 meter spacing (10,000 vines per hectare) is nearly universal. Due to the high density, vines’ fruiting canes or cordons are trained low to the ground, typically at a height of no more than one-half meter. At this height, shading from one row to the next is reduced, and mechanization is made possible by high-clearance tractors (enjambeurs), which straddle the rows. Additionally, growers claim that such low-trained vines can take greater advantage of heat released from the soil at night during the growing season—but frost damage poses a greater risk as well. And the harvests may be a bit more backbreaking!

In Chablis, AOP law requires a minimum density of 5,500 plants to the hectare, and spacing between rows has traditionally been wider than in the Côte d’Or—1.5 or 1.65 meters rather than one. However, modern vineyards are being replanted at higher densities, and it is not uncommon now to see 1x1 meter spacing here, too. Beaujolais vineyards are also densely packed with vines. Many producers have 8,000-12,000 plants to the hectare; however, a number are replanting with wider spacing following a 2004 loosening of legal minimums for the region. Jean-Paul Brun of Terres Dorées, for instance, is slowly replanting his gobelet-trained vineyards in Beaujolais’ crus with cordon-trained Gamay, at a density of 8,000 rather than 10,000 vines per hectare currently in the ground. Others are trimming vine density down to 6,000 vines per ha—the lowest amount authorized by law in the crus.

The net result of phylloxera and its attendant economic devastation was to reshape the architecture of the Burgundy vineyard—and to reduce the overall acreage dramatically. In Dr. Jules Lavalle’s 1855 text, he claims that the Côte d’Or contained 26,500 ha of vines—and 23,000 ha were Gamay, not Pinot Noir. (Sorry, Philip.) Today the Côte d’Or has little more than one-quarter of that amount under vine. In Chablis, phylloxera and the devastation of two world wars hobbled a vast 19th-century vineyard of 38,000 ha, leaving less than 500 ha under vine in 1945! Only in the wake of phylloxera was the vine finally uprooted from the fertile, flat plains and less desirable sites—a cause to which both monk and duke rallied in the past.

The Vigneron’s Struggle

One of the first things I did when I took over the vineyards in 1994 was to stop the herbicides. I wanted to find the same type of grass today that I saw when I was a kid playing in the vineyards.
-Jean-Marie Fourrier, Domaine Fourrier

19th- and early 20th-century applications of carbon disulfide—a highly toxic, flammable insecticide—to combat phylloxera foreshadowed a much wider adoption of chemical fertilizers, weed-killers and insecticides following the Second World War. Vignerons returned from the battlefield to rebuild alongside the rising popularity of what is now termed “conventional” agriculture—intensive use of nitrogen-based fertilizers and systemic application of insecticides and fungicides. Decades of heavy chemical treatments ensued; pesticides were applied habitually, for instance, without consideration of an individual season’s actual risk. (Much like carbon disulfide in the phylloxera battle, synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are not curative—they simply suspend the problem for another season.) By the 1990s, however, a new generation came of age, and awoke to the ravages a half-century of conventional agricultural practices had wrought on the land and ecology of Burgundy. In 1992, agricultural scientist Claude Bourguignon famously declared that some soils of the Côte d’Or cradled less life than those of the Sahara Desert. The “green revolution” era had left Burgundy’s soils compacted, prone to erosion, lifeless, and imbalanced in both chemistry and pH. In response, vignerons started to turn toward restorative, or at least less harmful, viticultural practices.

As one walks among the vines of the Côte d’Or today, there are still many visible swaths of vineyard farmed conventionally. (Jasper Morris MW refers to conventional viticulture’s practitioners as the vieux bonhommes—rednecks.) Their rows are easy to spot: the soils are hard and compact, and nothing but the vine grows. However, many vignerons opt for one of the following more sustainable approaches.

Lutte Raisonnée / Lutte Intégrée: The “reasoned struggle,” lutte raisonnée is a tempered approach to vineyard management wherein the grower limits chemical applications to times of necessity, rather than spraying recurrently. In 2002, the French Ministry of Agriculture defined lutte raisonnée as a sustainable practice that “enhances the positive impacts of agriculture on the environment and reduces the negative impacts, without jeopardizing the economic viability of farms.” If, in addition, the vigneron first uses natural alternatives or methods in place of synthetic ones when combatting pests, they are practicing lutte intégrée—the “integrated struggle.” With this approach, vignerons prefer to employ natural copper- or sulfur-based sprays rather than synthetic ones, and may choose sustainable options like sexual confusion—the release of pheromones to bewilder male insects and decrease their ability to mate—or the release of natural predators as a first line of defense against grapevine pests. Cover crops are frequently employed to minimize erosion and enrich biodiversity, and manure or compost may be substituted for synthetic fertilizers. However, this is still a “reasoned struggle,” and a grower retains the right to use whatever means necessary if the threat requires it. In the absence of certification, the exact meaning of necessity is left to each individual’s sense of reason; thus, lutte raisonnée and lutte intégrée are not dissimilar from the “sustainable” viticulture of the USA—often the techniques are honestly intentioned, but sometimes they are just marketing smokescreen.

Lutte Biologique (Organic Viticulture): In Burgundy, some producers take it a step further and forswear the option of synthetic applications entirely, choosing to cultivate organically instead. Some do so without any oversight, but others choose to gain certification, through third-party organizations like Ecocert. At the close of 2012, the BIVB estimates between 8-12% of the entire Burgundy vineyard is cultivated organically (or biodynamically); the number grows each year.

Biodynamic Viticulture: While the biodynamic philosophy is covered elsewhere on this site, it has emerged as an important topic in modern Burgundy. Domaine Jean-Claude Rateau was the first estate in the Côte d’Or to adopt a biodynamic approach—way back in 1979—and the movement gained steam in Burgundy by the late 1980s. The ever-growing list of biodynamique producers in Burgundy now includes heavyweights like Domaine Leroy, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leflaive, Vincent Dauvissat, Comtes Lafon, and Comte Armand. Many are Demeter-certified; others are in the process of converting some or all of their parcels to biodynamic methods. However, it is not always possible to farm in this fashion: among Burgundy’s fragmented vineyards, it is arguably much more difficult to truly adhere to biodynamic (or organic) tenets if your neighbor’s vines are treated conventionally.

Whatever path a vigneron takes, viticulture in modern Burgundy is rife with challenges, and fungal diseases present a constant threat in the vineyard. Vignerons must engage in regular, preventative spraying—with either synthetic or natural applications—in order to combat powdery and downy mildews, and remain vigilant against other fungal diseases like Eutypa dieback, esca, and grey rot. In some vintages (e.g. 2007, 2011, 2012), rot and mildew can wreak havoc on grapevines and the quality of wines overall—timely spraying, careful harvesting and attentive sorting become crucial. The wood-rotting fungal diseases (Eutypa dieback, esca, and dead arm), which can infect vines through grafting or pruning wounds, have become a greater source of worry in recent years, particularly as sodium arsenite—a wintertime chemical application that successfully controlled this complex of pathogens in the past—has been banned for agricultural use in France since 2001.

Of course, rot and mildew are not the only disease pressures that a Burgundy vigneron regularly faces: all manner of insects, from grape worms to various leafhoppers and arachnids, cause direct damage to vines in the tradition of phylloxera, while others act as viral disease vectors. For instance, a species of soil nematodes (Xiphinema index) spreads court-noué (grapevine fanleaf virus), a feared viral contagion in Burgundy that causes significant fruit set loss, stunted vine growth, and yellowing and curling of leaves. Some bugs are just plain annoying: “ladybugs”—Harmonia axyridis beetles—have been blamed in 2004 and 2011 for green off-flavors in red wines. They secrete pyrazines as pheromones!

The most distressing disease currently appearing in Burgundy vineyards is neither viral nor fungal, however, but bacterial in origin: flavescence dorée, a disease caused by the spread of phytoplasma, specialized bacteria that are parasitic to plant material. Leafhopper insects spread the bacteria from vine to vine; growth slows, berries shrivel, leaves yellow, and the vine itself may die. Currently there is no cure beyond uprooting the vine and starting anew. While it first appeared in Burgundy in 2004, a major outbreak in the northern Mâconnais in 2011 triggered alarms. French agricultural officials mounted a counterstrike, which—among other preventative measures—required vignerons in areas with large leafhopper populations to apply a synthetic insecticide. One biodynamic producer in the Côte de Beaune, Emmanuel Giboulot, gained notoriety for publicly refusing to spray synthetic material, and was prosecuted by the government. The resulting fine, while small, raised significant questions about government’s role in future outbreaks of dangerous vineyard diseases—could another phylloxera be successfully contained if each grower is left to his or her own preferences?

Disease pressures may leave growers sleepless, but some of Burgundy’s greatest viticultural challenges are presented by the climate itself: frost and hail. In the northerly climate of Chablis, situated along the 48th parallel, spring frosts during budbreak and flowering are especially worrisome, and carry the potential to mercilessly reduce yields if vignerons are caught unawares. After a handful of mid-century vintages (1945, 1951, 1953, and 1957) were nearly wiped out by frost, aggressive anti-frost measures became more and more common, and gave vignerons confidence to begin expanding the vineyard area once again. Chaufferettes (diesel-burning smudge pots, designed to heat the vines at night) first appeared in Chablis vineyards in the 1950s, but the cost of fuel—both to the vigneron and to the environment—remains high. A greener alternative, aspersion, arrived in Chablis in the 1960s. With this technique, vignerons spray vines with water, and hope to protect delicate spring buds in a cocoon of ice, which prevents the temperature inside from plummeting further. But aspersion has its drawbacks, too: water must be applied constantly when the temperature dips below freezing, and blocked/frozen pipes can pose a real challenge. The volume of water increases the humidity around the vines, which may cause frost to linger. And on a windy day, one might end up protecting a neighbor’s vines rather than his/her own! Frustrated with such shortcomings, some growers have resorted to expensive but effective and environmentally friendly electric heating cables, which run along the vines and keep the bud zone at a safe temperature when switched on. Introduced in 2004, early adopters included William Fevrè and Maison Bichot, who armed their grand cru plots in Vaudésir and La Moutonne (respectively) with the technology. A combination of diligence and warming temperatures has reduced the overall negative impact of spring frosts—the last truly devastating frost year was 1985—but earlier seasons still pose problems. May frosts, which can disrupt flowering, are less common nowadays; however, budbreak often occurs two weeks earlier than it did in the 1950s, and April frosts loom larger. In fact, the warmest modern vintages (like 2003) can sustain significant frost damage, as the vines begin to develop that much earlier in the season!

The apparatus of frost protection in Chablis is widespread, but in the Côte d’Or there is far less machinery devoted to this cause. In Chablis, the frost itself will destroy buds, but in the Côte d’Or frost damage is often more indirect: frosts “scorch” buds—essentially ice crystals magnify sunlight, which damages the delicate buds—making aspersion’s further coating of ice useless.

Hail, like frost, can greatly limit yields and wreak economic devastation for the vignerons of Burgundy, particularly if it strikes during key events (budbreak, flowering, fruit set). However, hail—analogized by many a crestfallen Burgundy vigneron as machine gun fire among the vines—can be even more devastating during fruit ripening: smashed berries invite rot and ruin. Hail damage is frequently localized, capriciously ravaging one village or vineyard while leaving its neighbors unharmed, and is a constant threat throughout the region. In 2010, for instance, parts of Chablis and Beaujolais suffered hail damage but the Côte d’Or was spared. On the other hand, the Côte de Beaune has been ripped by hail in three recent vintages—2012, 2013, and 2014—resulting in a 50% or more reduction in some producers’ yields. As of the 2018 vintage, Hail netting is legal in Burgundy and while cannons (fired upward, with modern versions carrying a silver iodide payload) have been employed since the early 20th century in an attempt to liquefy hailstones, there is really little growers can do other than rely on luck or prayer to avoid it.

Hailstorms and severe frosts may be headline-grabbing, but simple cool, overcast and wet springtime weather, particularly in the period leading up to flowering, can bring significant detriment to vineyards in the form of coulure (shatter) and millerandage (uneven fruit set). Both conditions impact yield considerably: the first reduces the overall number of berries and the second creates clusters of “hens and chicks,” or unevenly sized berries. Millerandage, however, may sometimes increase quality in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir—some winemakers like the increased phenolic character and concentration provided by smaller berries, if conditions are right.

Replanting and Vine Selection

With a great number of adversaries, diseases, and vagaries of climate to fend against, the Burgundy vigneron occasionally faces the need to replant single vines or, more infrequently, whole vineyards. Typically, a domaine may lose 1-2% of its vines annually; curiously, it is not always the oldest that perish—young vines, around 2 decades old, are most likely to suddenly die from esca, for instance. When replanting, growers have a choice: select and use a certified clone (sélection clonale) or propagate with cuttings from various existing vines in the vineyard (sélection massale). Both approaches have critics and defenders. With clonal selection, one knows exactly what to expect from the vine (and, it is hoped, the wine); with mass selection, greater complexity may result from the array of cuttings, but negative traits can be renewed if the grower is careless in the selection process.

Rootstocks in Burgundy

Although growers in Burgundy may choose a number of multi-clonal or massale selections for budwood, they tend to settle on one or two favored rootstocks. In the past, Côte d’Or growers likely turned to V. riparia rootstocks, despite their very low tolerance to active lime. Limestone is the building block of the Côte d’Or, but there was actually little active lime in the soil until the advent of machinery—heavy tractors grind up surface stones, releasing limestone dust; it then dissolves and its calcium carbonate then becomes available for uptake to the vine. Thus, the Côte d’Or’s oldest post-phylloxera vineyards are frequently planted on riparia, but such rootstocks are uncommon today. Instead, growers look to riparia hybrids, which confer greater lime tolerance. SO4, a V. riparia x V. berlandieri hybrid rootstock, gained popularity in the Côte d’Or in the 1950s but has fallen out of favor due to excessive vigor and shallow root systems. 161-49 trended for a time, but displays a worrisome susceptibility to esca. 420A and 3309C are becoming more popular today.

In the white, lime-rich soils of Chablis, the original American V. riparia rootstocks failed. 41B, a vinifera (Chasselas) x berlandieri hybrid first developed in 1882, was the answer—its American parent conferred phylloxera resistance and its vinifera parent made it lime-tolerant. 41B is still widely planted in Chablis today, as is SO4.

Various Pinot selections based on color mutation were among the earliest cases of selection in Burgundy. Pinot Gris appeared in Burgundy’s vineyards by the 1780s, and Pinot Blanc by the 1890s—and possibly earlier, but the grape was not even distinguished from Chardonnay until 1868. One Pinot Blanc selection, nicknamed “Pinot Gouges” by Clive Coates MW, famously appeared in 1936 among Pinot Noir vines in Domaine Henri Gouges’ Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges parcel.

In 1810, vigneron A. Liébault identified a Pinot Noir vine with unique characteristics (high, consistent yields) among his plantings in Gevrey-Chambertin, and used it to propagate cuttings (known, like many early selections, by the name of the proprietor or winemaker: Pinot Liébault). The idea of vine selection, like many modern vineyard concepts in Burgundy, really gained traction after phylloxera and the end of provignage—when replanting with cuttings rather than layering canes became the preferred method of reproduction. Two broad categories of Pinot Noir field selections emerged: Pinot Droit, a high-yielding, upright-growing vine, and Pinot Fin, a lower-yielding vine that delivers more concentrated juice. By the 1960s, just as Burgundy’s vignerons were wholeheartedly embracing the supposed ease of conventional viticulture, they welcomed vine selections that emphasized quantity over quality, and many planted Pinot Droit. Today the reverse is true. Within these two categories—Droit and Fin—are whole subsets of laboratory-analyzed and tested clones. The first generation of true clones—single selections that are isolated in the vineyard, tested in the laboratory and field, registered, and finally numbered and sold from a nursery—did not appear in Burgundy until 1971. These included the first “Dijon” clones of Pinot Noir, which originated with cuttings a decade earlier in Domaine Ponsot’s Clos de la Roche Grand Cru parcel.

The original Dijon clones of Pinot Noir—also known as “Bernard clones” for their creator, Raymond Bernard—were selected primarily for resistance to disease, and secondarily for their tendency to form smaller bunches and berries. Today quality improvements—lower yields, more concentration—are just as important in the minds of nurserymen. According to research by Sarah Marsh MW, Dijon clones 115, 667, and 777 accounted for over three-quarters of the Pinot Noir material distributed to Burgundy’s vignerons in the late 2000s. Chardonnay clones, which were also certified and distributed by the 1970s, receive less overall attention than those of Pinot Noir as winemaking techniques frequently mask minor clonal differences in wine character.

Modern Winemaking Practices

The cellar of Domaine Dujac.

As the shape and practices in the vineyard have changed through time, so has the approach in the winery. Trends and technologies affect even Burgundy. Prior to the 1980s, winery hygiene was generally poor, and trained enologists were rare. In the 1950s and 1960s, AOC law still allowed wines to be sold in barrel, and bottled elsewhere—in the UK, the US, or Belgium, for instance. By the early 1980s, winemaking pioneers like Henri Jayer and newfound interest in domaine bottling spawned a wave of quality improvements and new ideas in the winery—one that was perhaps over-enthusiastically embraced by some. The era of the 1980s-90s saw rising tides of new oak for both red and white wines, rising levels of ripeness at harvest, a preoccupation with color, greater reliance on cultured yeasts, enzymes and the like; and a lot of new equipment: de-stemmers, sorting tables, temperature control, pneumatic presses, etc. Big Wine Science had arrived in the cellars of Burgundy—but its emergence was divisive. In hindsight, especially, many concede that some wines were overworked. Today, there is a return to the vineyard as the source of quality—or lack thereof—in the resulting wines, and less, or at least more sophisticated, reliance on enological solutions in the winery.

Following is a look at several winemaking techniques that drive style in red and white Burgundy, Chablis, and Beaujolais.

Cold Maceration (Red Winemaking)

An idea espoused by Henri Jayer and taken to extremes in the early 1990s by winemaking consultant Guy Accad, cold maceration (cold soak) occurs prior to fermentation. Red grapes are crushed and kept on their skins at cool temperatures (10-14° C) for days—sometimes a week or more—which, alongside prudent sulfur dioxide additions, preclude the onset of fermentation. Advocates suggest that the aqueous solution provides a good environment for extracting color, produces less astringent tannins, and enhances the development of fruit aromatics in the wine. And the technique mirrors the slow onset of fermentation that occurs naturally in Burgundy’s cool underground cellars, where yeasts take a few days to get moving. Etienne Grivot (of Domaine Jean Grivot) began using the technique in 1984 and accelerated its practice during the Accad era of the late '80s and early '90s; he believes a cold maceration of 5-7 days improves a wine's capacity to age and renders organic acids more stable. Others see it as an intrusive technique: Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac views cold soaking as "an element of convergence, when we are really trying to make wines that are different."

Carbonic and Semi-Carbonic Maceration (Red Winemaking)

In Beaujolais, carbonic maceration and semi-carbonic maceration are popular techniques used in the production of red wines. To induce carbonic maceration, a winemaker will seal whole clusters or whole berries of red grapes in a closed vat and pump in carbon dioxide. In the absence of oxygen, intact whole berries undergo a short intracellular fermentation, metabolizing individual stores of glucose and malic acid to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide without the aid of yeast. During carbonic maceration, tannins and anthocyanins move from the skins to the flesh of each grape, giving the juice color. The grape can develop an alcohol level of approximately 2% before it dies and the cellular activity ceases. The grapes may then rupture due to an internal build-up of carbon dioxide, or the winemaker may simply press the juice off the skins; either way, the wine ferments to dryness with the normal activity of yeast.

Semi-carbonic maceration is more common, and it is actually the more traditional technique in Beaujolais. Here, carbon dioxide is not added to the fermentation vat but produced naturally. Whole clusters at the bottom of the tank crush under the weight of those above and begin fermenting normally. As the carbon dioxide released by standard fermentation blankets the whole berries above, they begin to ferment internally. Typically, semi-carbonic maceration is conducted in an open vat.

Certain telltale aromas—bubblegum, banana, or "pear-drop"—are often cited as evidence of carbonic maceration, yet it is more likely that these aromatics result from certain yeast strains or, simply youthfulness. Regardless, wines produced with some degree of carbonic maceration are often fruity and highly floral, and tend to exhibit a softer tannic structure than those produced solely through the work of yeast. The semi-carbonic technique is favored among producers of Beaujolais nouveau as it tends to suppress the dominant yeast notes in an extremely young wine, but also implemented by high-quality producers in the northern crus. Carbonic maceration, once considered a phenomenon of Beaujolais, has been enthusiastically adopted in other areas of France (the Rhône and Loire Valleys), Spain, and even California. It is rarely practiced in the Côte d’Or, but winemakers that favor whole-cluster or whole-berry fermentations with Pinot Noir will see some carbonic character develop, as the grapes are not crushed prior to fermentation.

Whole-Cluster and Whole-Berry Vinification (Red Winemaking)

Jayer preached total de-stemming of Pinot Noir clusters prior to fermentation, but it is again fashionable to include some percentage of whole clusters in the vat. Domaines de la Romanée-Conti and Dujac are high-profile practitioners of whole-cluster fermentation; depending on the site, both domaines may use higher proportions of clusters—up to 100%—in warm vintages, and lower percentages (70-80%) in cooler years. While winemakers’ opinions about the benefits of whole cluster differ, when expertly handled one typically achieves more aeration and cooler temperatures during fermentation, lighter color, slight carbonic notes, and firmer tannins in the final wine. Advocates of whole-berry fermentation, in which the grapes are de-stemmed but not crushed prior to fermentation, can achieve some of the same high-toned, floral, carbonic aromatic complexity that results from whole cluster, without risking the green tannins that can prevail if stems are not properly lignified. Stems can also harbor potassium, raising pH in the final wine.

Whole-Bunch Pressing (White Winemaking)

For white wines, Burgundy vignerons often press whole clusters without crushing the fruit. This produces a cleaner, less phenolic must with a slightly lower pH and fewer attendant dangers of oxidation. However, there are two camps: opponents of whole-bunch pressing believe that crushing—which exposes the juice to oxidation—produces a more complex and more phenolic wine that, counter-intuitively, may shield the wine from “premature” oxidation in the long run. Indeed, whole-bunch pressing, while producing brighter wines of purer aromatics, may actually be a contributing factor to the lingering “premox” problem in white Burgundy.

Must Adjustments

Chaptalization—the addition of white (beet) sugar to increase alcohol content in a fermenting wine—is a common enrichment practice in Burgundy. If a vigneron chooses to chaptalize his or her wine, it is subject to the maximum alcohol levels stipulated in each AOC/P cahier des charges. Once added by rote at the beginning of fermentation, many producers now add sugar toward its conclusion, and often in multiple additions, performing a sort of “sweet spot” tasting. Chaptalization has been widely practiced since its namesake, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, began advocating for its adoption in 1801, but climate change and viticultural enhancements increasingly alleviate its necessity in modern vintages. And in any case Burgundy winemakers now have a new tool available to them: subtractive must enrichment. The technique, illegal before 2009, allows the producer to remove water from the must to concentrate the remainder by a maximum factor of 10%.

Acidification, like chaptalization, is also legal in Burgundy, provided it is declared and documented. In fact, despite recent hot vintages like 2003 or 2009—two years in which acidification was not uncommon—the need to acidify today is reduced from what it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Years of heavy synthetic fertilizer use left high levels of potassium in the soil—potassium will raise pH in red wine macerations—and many growers acidified to combat it. As potassium levels slowly ebb with modern interest in soil health and organic viticulture, the need to acidify actually decreases.

It is technically illegal to chaptalize and acidify the same wine, but this too occurs.

Malolactic Fermentation and Bâtonnage

Malolactic fermentation has been naturally occurring in Burgundy for centuries, generally beginning in the spring as the weather and cellars warm. Today, most domaines in Burgundy still allow it to begin naturally, without inducement. Often “malo” may begin in March and conclude by June, but every barrel behaves differently—even in the same cellar—and in some years malolactic fermentation may not finish until the following fall! All red Burgundy undergoes malolactic fermentation, as do most white wines in the Côte d’Or and Chablis.

While bâtonnage—stirring the lees—also occurs in both red and white winemaking, its effects on flavor are much more pronounced in white wines. Used sparingly, bâtonnage can reduce reduction in barrel, but overuse may invite concerns of premox and produce an obvious leesy aromatic character.

New Oak and Élevage in Burgundy

While some producers abhor the character of new oak entirely and others slather every wine in the cellar with wood, the general modern recipe in the Côte d’Or calls for levels of new oak to increase as the quality level of the wine rises. Grand Cru AOP wines, the conventional thinking goes, have much greater concentration and weight than basic wines, and can therefore receive and absorb more new wood. For example, an average vigneron may use the following percentages of new oak for red wines: 0-10% for Bourgogne AOP, 0-25% for a village wine, 25-50% for a premier cru, and 50-100% for a grand cru. In the Côte de Nuits, winemakers are usually more generous with new oak than in the Côte de Beaune. With white wines, modern percentages are usually a bit lower than for reds, but the premise is the same. Domaine Leflaive, for instance, only uses 30% new oak for the estate’s white grands crus. In Chablis, with the exception of the grands crus, classic styles are aged in little if any new oak at all. Beaujolais producers are likewise not typically interested in the flavors and impact of new barrels. Even in the Côte d'Or new oak is a recent phenomenon—before the 1980s most producers simply could not afford new barrels on an annual basis. Those that reject new oak in Burgundy might suggest that it was absent for many of the greatest 20th-century vintages; defenders argue that it creates more captivating young wines, while oak character is in any case subsumed by the wine over years in the cellar.

The length of élevage in Burgundy is dependent on the color and quality level of the wine, and even mundane considerations like the size of one’s cellar. Good white Burgundy is often bottled after a year in barrel, while the best red wines may remain in oak for 15-18 months. Preferred toast levels in Burgundy are rarely higher than medium, although there are outliers—like Gevrey-Chambertin’s Domaine Joseph Roty, an ardent fan of high-toast oak. The favored cooperage of the Côte d’Or has long been François Frères, a local tonnellerie originally established in Saint-Romain. The traditional barrel size employed in the Côte d’Or is the 228-liter pièce; however, producers are beginning to move to larger-format barrels for Chardonnay: 350- and 400-liter barrels are an ever more common sight in cellars. The larger barrels reduce surface exposure of the wine to wood and leave less of an oaky impression in the final wine. Côte de Beaune star white wine domaines Pierre Yves Colin-Morey and Henri Boillot both prefer 350-liter barrels, and more surely follow. In Chablis, most growers employing oak use pièce barrels. According to Fabien Moreau of Domaine Christian Moreau, the smaller feuillettes, which hold 132 liters of wine, remain the official unit of measurement for growers selling wine to négociants but are rare in actual wine production. Few coopers even make feuillettes today.

Chablis

Chablis, a sleepy village on the banks of the tranquil Serein River, lies almost halfway between Paris and Beaune. It is the northernmost major region in Burgundy, and—with the exception of Alsace—the northernmost world-class still wine-producing region in all of France. Three controlled appellations—Petit Chablis AOP, Chablis AOP, and Chablis Grand Cru AOP—govern the region’s white wines, produced solely from the Chardonnay grape. The 17 communes entitled to the Chablis AOP (including Chablis itself) craft one of the world’s most austere, mineral, and recognizable styles of Chardonnay, often without the veneer of new oak. Its viticultural origins lie in the monastic era, but only in recent decades has the region truly earned its unofficial designation as Burgundy’s porte d’or, or “golden gate.” As elsewhere in Burgundy, the late 1800s and early 1900s were fraught with difficulty.

In the distant past, Chablis wines were of high repute, eclipsing those of the village’s larger neighbor Auxerre, but the year 1855 marked the beginning of a dark century for the region. In that year a Marseille-Paris railway opened, providing a quick and efficient means of transporting cheap Midi wines to the French capital and beyond, while diminishing Chablis’ ability to compete. The future looked grim: the 1880s brought the twofold devastation of powdery mildew (1886) and phylloxera (1887), and World War I summoned every available vigneron—and their horses—to the front. The high-yielding Sacy unseated Chardonnay in the region’s diminishing vineyards. Chablis suffered heavy German bombardment during World War II, and despite battlefield victory the 1945 vintage fell victim to frost. In that year, only 481 total hectoliters of wine were produced. The post-war Chablis vineyard, reduced to 1-2% of its pre-phylloxera acreage, closed out 100 years of decline with a fitting image: in the frigid winter of 1956, the denizens of Chablis skied down the grand cru hillside, and the following vintage was completely wiped out by cold and frost.

In the second half of the 20th century, Chablis’ fortunes and cultivated areas slowly recovered. New techniques of frost prevention (detailed in The Vigneron’s Struggle, above) arrived to shield vigilant growers’ vines, and the first tractors appeared in Chablis by the early 1950s. Mechanization made vineyard work and vineyard expansion easier; mechanical harvesters appeared in the early 1980s to further lighten the load. (Today nearly 95% of Chablis’ vineyards are harvested by machine!) Premiers crus were added to the basic Chablis AOP regulations in 1967, and the AOP boundaries were controversially enlarged to include another 1000 hectares in 1978 (including several new premiers crus). In 1970, Chablis produced less than 20,000 hectoliters of wine; by 1982 the annual production reached 118,000 hl. In 2012, a modestly sized vintage, the three AOPs of Chablis recorded over 300,000 hl of wine from more than 5,000 ha of vines. As the appellation continued to reclaim lost acreage and production, the question arose: where should the boundaries of Chablis lie?

When Chablis AOC laws were established in 1938, the INAO restricted the viticultural zone to areas wherein soils overlay Kimmeridgian marl. “Kimmeridgian” refers to an age in the Upper Jurassic Epoch, occurring roughly 150-157 million years ago. Named for the village of Kimmeridge in Dorset, UK, the Kimmeridgian rock stratum consists of crumbly, chalky marl (clay and limestone) and contains abundant Exogyra virgula fossils—the imprints of tiny oyster shells. Outcrops are visible on the hillsides of the Serein River Valley. These hillsides, like those in Kimmeridge, Sancerre, and the Aube, ring the Paris Basin, which sagged under a shallow sea in the Jurassic Period. However, on the ridges and plateaus surrounding the Serein River Valley the Kimmeridgian marl is buried beneath Portlandian limestone, a harder cap rock with less clay content. Portlandian limestone in Chablis lacks the multitudes of fossilized seashells that characterize Kimmeridgian marl, and it is younger, formed 130 million years ago. Portlandian soils—those that overlay Portlandian limestone—are sandier and thinner than Kimmeridgian soils. Conventional wisdom has long held that the best examples of Chablis—including all grands and premiers crus—are grown on the more porous, mineral-rich Kimmeridgian soils. But despite best-laid plans and seemingly clear-cut divisions, it proved impossible to map out exactly where Kimmeridgian ended and Portlandian began. Geologists, vignerons, and government bureaucrats alike were unable to conclusively delimit the Kimmeridgian boundaries in the 1930s, and infighting persisted through decades of appellation expansion. The Petit Chablis AOP, established in 1944, found a home for Chardonnay wines produced on the plateaus of Portlandian limestone-derived soils—often higher, colder, and wind-exposed areas. A 1956 extension of the Chablis appellation primarily encompassed areas of Kimmeridgian soils; a 1978 expansion, which upgraded many Petit Chablis vineyards, did not.

Chablis’ best vineyards—the grands crus, numbering around 100 total hectares—are located on a two-kilometer stretch of hillsides just north of town, facing south and southwest in an arc alongside the Serein. A product of coincident Kimmeridgian soil and privileged aspect, the grand cru slopes are the region’s warmest, bathed in afternoon light and protected from cold north winds. Unlike the grands crus of the Côte d’Or, Chablis Grand Cru AOP is a single appellation, with seven official geographic designations: Blanchot, Les Clos, Valmur, Les Grenouilles, Vaudésir, Preuses, and Bougros. (An eighth climat, La Moutonne—a monopole of Domaine Long-Depaquit overlapping Vaudésir and Preuses—is permitted by the INAO for usage on labels but not listed as an official geographic designation.) The entire grand cru vineyard is subject to more restrictive viticultural requirements than the basic appellation. Minimum potential alcohol levels rise from 10% for Chablis AOP to 11% for Chablis Grand Cru AOP, and maximum base yields fall from 60 to 54 hl/ha. The grand cru climats are also the only vineyards routinely harvested by hand in the entire region—prices are commensurate with the added expense of labor, and much of the hillside is too steep for machines anyway. While not mandated by law, manual harvesting and other vineyard directives—lutte raisonnée practices, even lower maximum yields, and high-density plantings of at least 8,000 vines per hectare—represent a core element of the charter of the Union des Grands Crus de Chablis, a private organization whose membership controls roughly half of the Chablis Grand Cru AOP acreage. Chablis Grand Cru AOP wines bearing the seal of the organization have been subjected to a blind tasting to authenticate quality, and are not released to the public until January 1 of the second year after the harvest. Of course, like any great Burgundy the grands crus of Chablis should spend years—sometimes even a decade—in the cellar prior to consumption.

Chablis: The “Major”
Premiers Crus

Right Bank: Berdiot, Côte de Vaubarousse, Fourchaume, Les Fourneaux, Mont de Milieu, Montée de Tonnerre, Vaucoupin

Left Bank: Beauroy, Chaume de Talvat, Côte de Léchet, Côte de Jouan, Les Beauregards, Montmains, Vau de Vey, Vaillons, Vosgros, Vau Ligneau

The 785 ha of premier cru Chablis are a more complicated matter. After two sets of additions in 1978 and 1986, there are 40 named climats overall, grouped into 17 “major” premiers crus. Producers in obscure climats often have the option to label wines under the name of a more recognizable, neighboring “major” premier cru. A dozen or so of Chablis’ premiers crus are thus never seen on labels—why label your wine as Côte de Bréchain when Montée de Tonnerre has traction in the marketplace? The 40 premiers crus range in size from under a half-hectare (Côte de Cuisy) to over 100 (Vaillons and Fourchaume), and can be broadly placed into two unofficial geographical categories: the right and left banks of the Serein River. On the right bank, alongside the grands crus, are three large climats: Montée de Tonnerre, Mont de Milieu, and Fourchaume. The southwest-facing Montée de Tonnerre, a stone’s throw across the narrow Vallée de Bréchain from Blanchot, is widely considered the top premier cru in Chablis, and in the right hands (Raveneau, Patrick Piuze, Billaud-Simon) it surpasses many less ambitious estates’ grand cru output. On the left bank, the premier cru slopes usually face southeast, cradled in the hillsides of finger-like side valleys rather than alongside the Serein River itself. Vaillons and Montmains are the most important sites on the left bank. In very general terms, the left bank wines might appear a bit more restrained; the right bank wines show more opulent and exotic ripe fruit notes. The quintessential Chablis style is that espoused in the premier cru range: these are steely wines, with elevated acidity, leesy character, austere lemon and orchard fruit aromas, subtle oxidation, and medium weight. Frequently—and traditionally—vignerons allow full malolactic fermentation to soften Chablis’ acidic edges, but it occurs in tank or used barrels rather than new oak.

Looking southward from Valmur.

Visually, tasters should find a glint of green in the lemon-to-golden hues of classic Chablis (although one sometimes has to imagine it’s there in the first place). From the perspective of the sommelier, Chablis Grand Cru AOP is, well, “un-Chablisienne.” It is typically quite rich and broad for the region, often resembling a fine white wine of the Côte d’Or rather than classic Chablis. Most producers, even those who eschew new oak for the village or premier cru bottlings, will employ a small to significant percentage of new wood for aging grand cru wines.

Here and throughout Burgundy, one cannot rely on the classification hierarchy as a promise of quality—the reputation and style of an individual producer is far more important. In years past the domaines of François Raveneau and Vincent Dauvissat were unrivaled; today they are no longer unquestionably without peer in the top echelon of Chablis. Any list of noteworthy producers in the region should also include—but is not limited to—Christian Moreau, William Fèvre, Jean-Paul & Benoît Droin, Louis Michel, Jean Collet, Faiveley’s Billaud-Simon, Laurent Tribut, Gilbert Picq, and ascendant newcomer Patrick Piuze. When shopping, thoroughly research a producer’s oak preferences. Some, like Louis Michel, refuse to use barrels at all; others prefer to ferment in tank and age wines in used oak. A few still incorporate noticeable new wood into village and premier cru wines, but even once-staunch defenders of oak, like Fèvre and Droin, have moderated their approach.

The Côte d’Or

The narrow strip of vineyards that comprises the Côte d’Or winegrowing region lies on the western edge of the low Saône River Plain, occupying the eastern slopes of a series of hills rising 400-500 meters in elevation—the côtes. Limestone, forged during the Jurassic period, is the building block of the Côte d’Or, and its topsoils typically contain some combination of limestone and clay. If the limestone content is higher it may be termed argillaceous limestone; if lower, the soil is known as marl or calcareous clay. As one travels eastward from the forested plateaus above the Côte d’Or down-slope toward the Saône, clay content rises appreciably. The limestone escarpments of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune rose upward thirty million years ago as the plain—a rift valley—collapsed, and over time, the Saône River Plain filled with nitrogen-rich, humid clay soils, the result of this geological upheaval and erosion from the côtes. The cooler, wetter soils of the plain are generally inhospitable to the vine; thus, the width of the Côte d’Or’s strand of vineyards is rarely more than two kilometers, running from the base of the slope to the forest edge at its summit, and vines rarely ascend higher than 400 meters in elevation. The slope can become quite steep, reaching a 35% grade near the vineyards’ upper limits, but the grands crus generally lie at a gentler grade of 10% or less. Such a mild incline has tremendously positive impact: soils are slightly deeper and more nutrient-rich than those found on the higher slopes, yet the vineyards remain well-drained—rather than the ultimate recipients of eroded material, like the flat lands nearer the Saône. The côtes are cut here and there by combes—a significant geological feature of the region. These are dry, transverse valleys, carved during the last ice age by melt-water and erosion, which today serve as conduits for both cool breezes and hailstorms. Thousands of years of erosion deposited deep alluvial fans of pebbles and stone at the mouths of the combes, diversifying soil makeup. The combes play a large role in the complexity of the Côte d’Or’s terroir.

Broadly speaking, the Côte de Nuits faces due east while the Côte de Beaune’s vineyards turn to face southeast. The Côte de Beaune has about twice as much land under vine as the Côte de Nuits: its strip of vineyards is wider and numerous appellations are located in side valleys rather than along the escarpment of the côte itself. Soils in the Côte de Beaune, with the exception of the environs of Montrachet, tend to contain greater amounts of marl and less limestone than those in the Côte de Nuits. Hillsides in the Côte de Beaune are generally less steep, although they can reach higher elevations overall, particularly at its southern end. Both regions produce more red wine than white; in fact, the Côte de Nuits produces hardly any village white wines at all, even if most of its appellations are entitled to do so. The Côte de Beaune, however, is more renowned for white wine quality: all but one of the grands crus authorized to produce white wine are located in the Côte de Beaune. On the other hand, many of the best red wine vineyards—and all but one red grand cru appellation—are located in the Côte de Nuits. Despite its more southerly location and slightly warmer mesoclimate, Côte de Beaune reds are generally lighter in style, more affordable, and less driven by new oak than those of the Côte de Nuits.

Côte d’Or Geology: A Closer Look

Ultimately it is Burgundy’s geology that has given rise to the landforms and soils so ideally suited to growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in this finicky northerly climate. In outline the geology is pretty simple—a gently tilted layer-cake of sedimentary strata— but in detail it is formidably intricate, in a variety of ways. And some wine folk deem this more than anything else to account for the fine variability from place to place that characterizes many Burgundy wines. As a result, wine talk in this part of the world has become replete with geological words, often treated with a certain reverence. Some of them—such as Rauracien, Premeaux and Comblanchien—are local names for rocks of particular geological ages, but most—such as Liassic, Bajocian, Bathonian, Callovian and Oxfordian—are labels solely for intervals of past geologic time.

A more detached view would regard these latter words as being of little practical relevance to viticulture (a vine is not influenced by which particular division of Earth’s remote history the vineyard bedrock happened to form in) and would give more emphasis to the actual properties of the rocks and the soils derived from them, as well as mesoclimates and microbiology (not to mention local cultural practices). Even so, the region’s bedrock geology undoubtedly is important in at least three ways.

First, consider its effect on landform and hence mesoclimate. The Earth’s internal stresses long ago fractured this region in a roughly north-south zone of interweaving breaks now known collectively as the Saône fault. Along it, the land to the west was uplifted, to give the Hautes Côtes and higher land stepping up westwards. To the east, the down-dropped plains are now occupied by the Saône River and its deposits, on which grow vines traditionally producing Bourgogne. It’s the narrow zone separating these two blocks, the roughly east-facing fault escarpment, which is the vinous honeypot, the Côte d’Or.

Within the Côte, weakened rocks in minor splay faults have induced erosion to give side-valleys, with variably facing slopes. Open warping of the strata has pushed up a sequence of more limestone-bearing strata in the Côte de Nuits, that differs somewhat to those flexed down in the Côte de Beaune; the actual sedimentary rocks everywhere differ in detail, reflecting differing local conditions of deposition on an ancient sea-floor. Also, the Saône fault zone is not exactly straight but makes a very open “S” map-trace which leads to the Côte de Beaune slopes having a slightly more southerly aspect. The bedrock strata are variously inclined westwards, but running along the north-south escarpment face they appear roughly horizontal, with differing toughness accounting for levels, dips, ledges and other localized changes in the slope gradients. All these geological factors lead to fine variations in vineyard mesoclimates, with all that entails for vine performance and the resulting wines.

Second, being calcareous (calcium carbonate-rich) and in places stony, the bedrock is generally well drained, yet here it also weathers to give soils endowed with water-storing clay minerals. Most of the hillside soil is a mix—properly called colluvium—of the immediately underlying bedrock and material slipped from higher up. This is the case even where the soil is thin—it’s only a foot or so in some Vosne-Romanée sites. Most of the grands crus of the Côte are sited on mid-slope colluvium rather than the (river-borne) alluvium of the lower slopes and plains. Good drainage (and sun exposure) is usual on these mid-slope sites, though the swelling clays of some marls can be problematic. But overall, the interplay between the clays and calcareous material is important, given the moist and unreliable climate of Burgundy, in providing a good balance between drainage and water retention, which helps take care of the temperamental water needs of Pinot Noir.

Third, the natural nutritional status of the soils, given careful vineyard management, is ideally suited to Burgundy conditions. The bedrock of the Côte famously involves limestone, prompting some to believe that this does something magical to wines, and especially to Chardonnay, though science has found no special ingredient it might provide. Modestly high pH soils favor beneficial microbiological activity but historically, alkaline soils created major problems of nutrient deficiency. The difficulties are overcome these days by utilizing specialized rootstocks, matched with suitable cultivar clones. This arrangement allows the Burgundy vines to take up, particularly from the montmorillonite clays, all the mineral nutrients they need, but in just sufficient quantities and no more, hence desirably limiting their vigor.

– Alex Maltman, PhD., University of Wales at Aberystwyth

Côte de Nuits Village Appellations

Marsannay AOP

Marsannay is the northernmost and newest of the Côte de Nuits appellations, despite a history of winegrowing dating back to the 600s, at least. Established in 1987, it encompasses approximately 230 ha of vines spread among three communes—from north to south, they are Chenôve, Marsannay-La-Côte, and Couchey—sitting among the outskirts of the city of Dijon. AOP wines may be red, white, or rosé; in fact, Marsannay is the only village appellation in all of Burgundy in which producers may choose to produce all three colors of wine. It is likewise the only village AOP in which rosé wines are produced—the style, introduced by the now-defunct Domaine Clair-Däu in the 1920s, was an early economic boon to vignerons, whose reds have historically been among the lightest in the Côte de Nuits. (Gamay was a prominent grape in the area from the mid-19th century until the 1960s.) Domaine Bruno Clair is Clair-Däu’s spiritual successor—Bruno Clair is the founder’s grandson and inherited half of the domaine upon its dissolution in 1985—and the top estate in Marsannay today.

Currently, there are no premiers crus in Marsannay, but producers frequently label top village sites with a lieu-dit.

Fixin AOP

Fixin, a commune between Couchey and Brochon, produces red and white appellation wines in both village and premier cru tiers. White wines make up less than 5% of the AOP’s production. The monopole Clos de la Perrière, a climat whose boundaries cross the Brochon border, is the top premier cru in the AOP, and the only current source of premier cru blanc wines. Domaine Joliet (Domaine de la Perrière), the monopole’s owner, is Fixin’s most ambitious grower today, and looks to return the prized holding to the exalted status it enjoyed in Jules Lavalle’s time, when it was ranked as one of the Côte d’Or’s tête de cuvées. The appellation’s red wines are more akin to Gevrey-Chambertin than classic Marsannay in style—burly, earthy, and often rather tannic in youth. To Fixin, Clive Coates applies the descriptor sauvage.

The village wines of Fixin and Brochon may also be released under the Côte de Nuits-Villages AOP.

Gevrey-Chambertin AOP

This appellation, which includes vineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin and in Brochon, its neighbor to the north, is one of the top sources for Pinot Noir in Burgundy. The village marks the beginning of the Côte de Nuits’ northern swath of grands crus, with nine individual Grand Cru AOPs located inside the commune. Gevrey-Chambertin has over 400 ha of vines—not including the grands crus—making it the Côte d’Or’s largest appellation, and the only one apart from Chorey-Lès-Beaune to claim significant vineyard land east of the D974. Only red wines are entitled to carry the name of Gevrey-Chambertin or its grands crus on a label.

The Route des Grands Crus, a country road running parallel to the D974, divides the grands crus of Gevrey-Chambertin into two sectors. West of the road, on shallower soils and a slightly higher grade, are—from north to south—Mazis-Chambertin and Ruchottes-Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Chambertin itself, and Latricières Chambertin. These vineyards share the same east-southeast aspect and general elevation (275 to 300 meters), and are characterized by thin, rocky marl soils, tinted red on the lower slope by iron oxide. Chambertin and Clos de Bèze, Burgundy’s oldest climat, are the top vineyards here; together they comprise almost 28 hectares of vines and represent two of Burgundy’s finest sources of Pinot Noir. Ruchottes, which lies above Mazis, is the steepest and highest in elevation (up to 320 meters), and its white, stony soil is thin and impoverished. East of the road, on an even gentler slope, are the remaining four: Chapelle-Chambertin, Griotte-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, and Mazoyères-Chambertin. With the exception of the tiny, 2.6-ha Griotte-Chambertin—which is saved by the sheer star quality of its producers—these are generally considered second-tier grands crus, and offer lighter wines than their more illustrious neighbors further upslope. Mazoyères, whose producers may—and often do—elect to release their wines under the more euphonic Charmes-Chambertin AOP instead, is the most erratic, and rightly so: Mazoyères and Charmes, when considered collectively, contain over 30 ha of vines! Mazoyères/Charmes and Clos de Vougeot, another appellation dogged by questions of size and variable quality, are the only Côte de Nuits grands crus that abut the D974.

The village of Gevrey-Chambertin lies at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux, a small valley separating two forest-capped hills. On the hillside south of the combe, Gevrey’s east-facing grand cru appellations are neatly aligned in a row, but many of the commune’s premiers crus are located on the hillside north of the combe. The two most important sites, Clos Saint-Jacques and Les Cazetiers, have a steeper and more southerly aspect than the grands crus. The omission of Clos Saint-Jacques from consideration for grand cru status in the 1930s is almost universally considered an egregious bureaucratic error; wines from one top producer, Armand Rousseau, typically fetch higher sums (and see more new wood) than several grands crus in the same portfolio. Another top climat, Aux Combottes, lies at Gevrey’s extreme southern end and is the only premier cru climat in Burgundy surrounded on all four sides by grands crus. It was likewise precluded from grand cru consideration—a result, its advocates suggest, stemming from the fact that none of the vineyard’s owners in the 1930s were actually from Gevrey-Chambertin.

The classic red wines of Gevrey-Chambertin are usually touted as models of solidity, power and structure for Pinot Noir, and may be tannic and austere in youth. They veer toward a darker cherry fruit profile. Deep color and concentration are often touted as hallmarks of the village’s wines, but this may have more to do with cold soaking and other extractive techniques popular in the village (particularly in the 1990s) rather than inherent terroir. At the top level, Gevrey’s wines are among the most age-worthy examples of Pinot Noir in the Côte d’Or, and the world. However, the village-level reds can be highly variable in quality due to the commune’s sheer size and the large number of vines planted east of the D974—where they grow on flat ground, with less limestone and water-logged, clay-heavy soils. Knowing and trusting the producer is paramount. Among the most reputable domaines based in Gevrey-Chambertin are Rousseau, Fourrier, Claude Dugat, Denis Bachelet, Denis Mortet, Joseph Roty, and Pierre Damoy.

Morey-Saint-Denis AOP

Morey-Saint-Denis is a smaller appellation than either Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. In comparison to its neighbors, Morey’s vineyards tend to be fairly homogenous in soils and exposures. While descriptions of the commune’s style often (too) comfortably resemble a composite sketch of Gevrey and Chambolle, its wines may actually have a more definable and singular imprint of terroir. Dujac’s Jeremy Seysses attributes to Morey-Saint-Denis reds a cherry/raspberry fruit character, and aromas of cinnamon spice, graphite and iron; “on the tannic front… it’s not the most elegant, there’s a certain rusticity, a certain warmth.” Gamy in comparison to Gevrey, the wine is more rustic and fuller in body than classic Chambolle. In his 1997 Côte d’Or: A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy, Clive Coates judged that “the average standard of quality of the domaines is lower than in the neighboring villages,” but today the reverse may be true, with Dujac, Ponsot, Perrot-Minot, Guy Castagnier, Hubert Lignier, and Clos de Tart leading the way. In fact, Morey’s wines now are on average among the highest-quality village wines in the Côte d’Or, and over 50% of the commune’s vineyards are classified as either premier or grand cru.
Within Morey-Saint-Denis are four grands crus—Clos de la Roche, Clos Saint-Denis, Clos de Tart, and Clos des Lambrays—and a sliver of a fifth, Bonnes Mares. Clos de la Roche, the vineyard “on the rocks,” produces the most substantial, structured wine in the village; Clos Saint-Denis is its more elegant, classier counterpart. Both AOPs have outgrown the boundaries of their original climats by absorbing sections of neighboring premiers crus, and neither is actually surrounded by walls as their names would indicate. Clos de Tart and Clos des Lambrays are. The former a monopole owned by the Mommessin family until it's sale to the Artemis Group in 2017, and the latter is nearly so—Domaine des Lambrays, now a brand of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, controls 8.7 of the vineyard’s 8.8 ha. The premiers crus in Morey are mostly arrayed in a band below the grands crus, with a couple outliers—such as Les Chaffots and Monts Luisants—arranged on the high slopes above Clos de la Roche and Clos St-Denis. The premiers crus are small, and the parcels within even smaller; therefore, it is customary to see blended bottlings labeled simply as Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, absent any geographical designation.

Red and white wines may be produced as Morey-Saint-Denis AOP, but white wines account for less than 10% of the village’s production. One anomaly in the village is the premier cru Monts Luisants: producers may legally bottle Aligoté as Monts Luisants blanc. Ponsot is currently the only estate to do so.

Chambolle-Musigny AOP

This charming, unspoilt village perches higher on the hillside than most of its neighbors, and is nestled within the Combe de Chamboeuf. Positioned along the base of the eroded combe, the vineyards of Chambolle-Musigny typically have a high active limestone component and lower percentages of clay, triggering mild chlorosis in the village’s vines—one cause, tasters suggest, for the silky, ethereal, light-colored style of red wines produced in the commune. In fact, Chambolle-Musigny is often regarded as Gevrey’s antipode: the wines are elegant and aromatic counterparts to the sturdy and savory wines produced further north.

Chambolle-Musigny has two grands crus: Musigny itself, and the lion’s share—90%—of Bonnes Mares. Town and combe separate the two. Bonnes Mares is adjacent to Morey-Saint-Denis’ Clos de Tart Grand Cru AOP, and like its neighbor was once the property of the Cistercian nuns of Tart. (Does its name derive from the bonnes mères, or good mothers, of the abbey?) Soil composition in Bonnes Mares shifts from denser red clays on the Morey side (and throughout its lower sections) to lighter marl soils, rich in limestone, as one approaches Chambolle. With more than 15 total hectares and almost three-dozen owners, Bonnes Mares resists easy generalizations, yet many sommeliers and critics agree that the vineyard’s wines are overall muscular and tannic, rather unlike the traditional Chambolle profile. Musigny, which comprises three distinct lieux-dits—Le Musigny, Les Petits Musigny, and a small section of the premier cru climat La Combe d’Orveaux—is situated south of the town, on the slopes above Clos de Vougeot. Characterized by Grand Cru author Remington Norman as “one of the greatest wines on earth,” the red wines of Musigny have elicited unending reams of poetic license, and they exemplify the Chambolle style: fragrant, floral, and silky—Musigny is the archetype of elegance for Pinot Noir. It is also the only grand cru in the Côte de Nuits in which white wine production is permitted. Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé owns three-quarters of the entire vineyard, including its sole parcel of Chardonnay, which will be released as Musigny blanc for the first time with the 2015 vintage since the early 90s.

Chambolle’s best premier cru, Les Amoureuses, is directly down-slope from Musigny, adjacent to the commune of Vougeot. Like Gevrey-Chambertin’s Clos Saint-Jacques, good bottlings of Les Amoureuses are often of grand cru quality. It resembles Musigny, with an impression of weightlessness, and can regularly outperform Bonnes Mares in the hands of a good grower. Other top climats—Les Fuées, Les Véroilles, and Les Cras—line the slope alongside Bonnes Mares. Noteworthy domaines in the village include De Vogüé, Georges Roumier, Ghislaine Barthod, and Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier.

Vougeot AOP

The castle of Clos de Vougeot.

The tiny village of Vougeot is easy to overlook, but its impressive landmark, the Renaissance-era Château de Clos de Vougeot, is hard to miss. Built by Cistercian monks as a symbol of their prestige and authority, the building fell into secular hands during the Revolution. The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a Burgundian wine brotherhood and promotional organization founded in 1934, acquired the historic château after World War II, and use it today as headquarters and backdrop for charity events and major tastings, like the biannual Grands Jours de Bourgogne. The castle stands amidst the vines of Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru AOP—the building itself is one of Burgundy’s most iconic landmarks, and the vineyard is the most famous walled climatin the Côte d’Or. At 50 hectares, it is also the largest grand cru in the Côte de Nuits, stretching from Musigny all the way down to the D974. It produces four times as much wine as Vougeot AOP. 82 owners, numerous variations in soil, and an almost flat grade—its lower sector nearest the road is riddled with depressions that collect standing water—do not inspire confidence in the buyer who must purchase Clos de Vougeot blindly, and one must assume that, absent its famed wall, the Clos de Vougeot would likely have been divided among grand cru, premier cru, and even village land. Of all the Côte d’Or’s grands crus, Clos de Vougeot is most likely to underwhelm, and is always a mixed bag. But good parcels, and good producers, win out.

While the Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru itself produces only red wines, Vougeot AOP village and premier cru wines may be red or white. Wines of both colors are infrequently encountered in the market.

Vosne-Romanée AOP

Many critics consider the reds of Vosne-Romanée as the epitome of Pinot Noir, as models of finesse and purity, with a capacity for long, graceful aging. The village has fewer grands crus than Gevrey-Chambertin—six rather than nine—but overall wine quality is arguably higher, and certainly more consistent. The unassuming village is home to some of Burgundy’s greatest domaines, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy, Comte Liger-Belair, Sylvain Cathiard, and Méo-Camuzet.

Four of Vosne’s six grands crus are monopoles: François Lamarche is the sole owner of La Grande Rue, Comte Liger-Belair owns La Romanée, and the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti possesses both La Tâche and Romanée-Conti. The 1.8-ha Romanée-Conti, source of the most expensive red wine on earth at release, was the last grand cru in Burgundy to be replanted after phylloxera, in 1946. Skeptics scoff at its price tag, but the vineyard boasts a near-perfect easterly exposure and a gradient of 10-15%, ensuring maximum daytime ripening. The 0.85-ha La Romanée, the smallest AOP in France, sits above Romanée-Conti at a higher grade of 17-20%. It shares the same brown marl surface soils as its neighbor down-slope, but it suffers from more erosion—one reason, given by Comte Liger-Belair, for the vines’ north-south row orientation, which limits its impact. (The other reason is a bit more practical: in the tiniest of grand crus, if rows were oriented up-slope in the traditional fashion, tractors would spend half their time just trying to turn around!) The two remaining grands crus, Richebourg and Romanée-Saint-Vivant, are larger vineyards divided among several owners. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has amassed the largest single parcels in both climats. While village and premier cru vineyards exist within the borders of Flagey-Echézeaux, the town itself does not have an appellation; instead, producers use the more illustrious name of its neighbor, Vosne-Romanée. However, the commune does contain two grands crus: Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux. The borders of Echézeaux Grand Cru AOP itself conveniently align with those of the commune, and it is an amalgamation: eleven separate lieux-dits cobbled together under one name, with great variation in soil and slope. In many areas, the vineyard appears almost flat. At 38 ha and over 80 individual parcels, Echézeaux suffers from the same criticisms as Clos de Vougeot: too many producers, too variable in quality, and no cohesive theme of terroir. The triangular-shaped Grands-Echézeaux, a smaller vineyard wedged between Echézeaux and the west wall of Clos du Vougeot, is universally considered a finer source, and priced accordingly. In both vineyards, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is again the largest landowner.

Among the premiers crus of Vosne-Romanée, Les Suchots, Les Beaux Monts, Les Petits Monts, Aux Malconsorts, and Cros Parantoux—the latter made famous by Henri Jayer—are top sites. With the exception of Michel Gros’ monopole Clos des Réas, every premier cru in Vosne-Romanée or Flagey-Echézeaux abuts a grand cru climat.

Looking southward toward La Grande Rue and La Tâche. Notice the extremely slight grade of the slope.

Nuits-Saint-Georges AOP

With over 5,000 inhabitants, Nuits-Saint-Georges is the largest commune in the Côte de Nuits, and the only real center of commerce and population between Dijon and Beaune. Nuits is a bit like Beaune in microcosm—a bustling, pedestrian-friendly town center, lively plazas paved with local Comblanchien limestone, surrounded by the industry of winemaking: négociants, tonnelleries, and agents of transport and sale. Nuits even has its own charitable hospital, the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges, endowed with vines just like its more famous counterpart in Beaune. The town never quite equaled Beaune in industrial stature, however; when the first train arrived in 1849 and Nuits was renamed Nuits-sous-Beaune, it was no doubt to the enduring discomfort of the Nuitons (who were likely pleased with the official adoption of “Saint-Georges” in 1892). The town’s original name, lent to the region at large, is unlikely to be a reference to nighttime; instead, most suggest its etymological origins lie either in a corruption of the Celtic un win, signifying a valley stream, or the Latin nutium—walnut trees.

Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux-Prissey, its neighbor to the south, produce both village and premier cru red and white wines under the Nuits-Saint-Georges AOP. Like other white-wine producing villages in the Côte de Nuits, white wines here are in the vast minority, comprising only 3-4% of the appellation’s total output. There are just over 300 ha currently in production, and only seven are devoted to white grapes—some of which is actually Pinot Blanc, likely Henri Gouges’ selection. But Nuits-Saint-Georges is a major producer of red wine, second only to Gevrey in the Côte de Nuits. The results are broadly divided into two camps of style: from vineyards north of town, the wines carry fruit and finesse akin to those produced in neighboring Vosne-Romanée, while wines harvested from vineyards south of Nuits itself are tannic, sturdier, and more rugged.

Nuits’ 41 premiers crus can be divided into three main groups: vineyards north of the commune of Nuits-Saint-Georges, vineyards south of the commune, and those within the borders of Premeaux-Prissey. The northern swath, extending southward from Vosne-Romanée Aux Malconsorts, begins with Aux Boudots—an exceptional site principally worked by Vosne-Romanée domaines—and ends abruptly with the border of Aux Argillas, a row of houses. South of Nuits is another band of mid-slope premiers crus, including Les Saint-Georges and its neighbors, Les Cailles and Les Vaucrains, lying on stony soils at the outlet of a small combe. Led by Les Saint-Georges, this trio accounts for many of the appellation’s best wines. The final belt of premiers crus continues uninterrupted southward from Les Saint-Georges into Premeaux-Prissey. Most of Premeaux’s premiers crus touch the D974, and many are monopoles. Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier’s monopole Clos de la Maréchale is the southernmost premier cru in the Côte de Nuits; its neighbor, Clos Arlot, may be the steepest, with a grade approaching 50% in its northwestern sector. Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair’s Clos des Grandes Vignes is the only premier cru in the entire Côte d’Or located east of the D974—the “wrong side” of the highway!

Domaine Henri Gouges is the flagship estate in the appellation, and the man’s modesty during grand cru deliberations in the 1930s is often cited as the reason why the village does not have any: he was too closely involved in the demarcation process, and felt it unfitting to nominate his own village’s vineyards. Joseph Faiveley, a successful négociant and one of Burgundy’s largest domaines, is headquartered here. Robert Chevillon, Jean-Jacques Confuron, Michèle & Patrice Rion, Regis Forey and Domaine l’Arlot round out the list of star domaines based in either Nuits or Premeaux. But the most important man in the Nuits-Saint-Georges wine business today is Jean-Claude Boisset, who has amassed a portfolio of Burgundy estates and négociants under his family’s umbrella of brands, and created Burgundy’s largest wine empire.

Côte de Beaune: The Hill of Corton

As one drives south from Corgoloin and the Côte de Nuits, the massive hill of Corton spreads across the landscape, marking the beginning of the Côte de Beaune. The hill’s summit is capped by a small forest, but its western, southern, and eastern flanks are awash in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grand cru vines—160 ha altogether, all entitled to the Corton Grand Cru AOP. As legend has it, in the late 700s the Frankish King Charlemagne observed snows melting first on this arc of southern slopes, and ordered vines to be planted there. As the king grew older his beard whitened, and his wife, distressed by newly visible wine stains on his beard, persuaded him to switch from red wine to white. Two additional, smaller grand cru appellations within Corton—Corton-Charlemagne AOP and Charlemagne AOP—thus bear the king’s name, and produce only white wines. (The latter is rarely if ever used.) The Corton appellation itself, like Musigny, allows both red and white wines but in practice almost all are red. In fact, Corton is the only red-wine producing grand cru in the Côte de Beaune, and the largest single grand cru appellation in all of Burgundy. Like other massive “single vineyard” appellations in the region it is of uncertain quality in the wrong hands. At its best, red Corton needs significant time in the bottle to uncoil, yet never quite hits the high notes of the head-of-class grands crus; at its worst, it is coarse and rustic. Tellingly, Corton rouge is usually the least expensive grand cru bottling in any négociant’s portfolio, and its reputation may have been better served had the authorities classed a sizable part of the hill as premier cru. Corton-Charlemagne AOP white wines are likewise good, but rarely the equal of top grands crus further south. It is generally an opulent and broad Chardonnay, yet without the depth and concentration of Montrachet.

Three communes—Ladoix-Serrigny, Aloxe-Corton, and Pernand-Vergelesses—encircle the southern half of the hill, and each contains some slice of the grand cru pie. Aloxe-Corton, as its name might indicate, is the biggest shareholder, with 75% of the entire appellation—120 hectares—falling inside its borders. Throughout Ladoix and Aloxe-Corton the eastern and southern mid-slope is covered with Pinot Noir, and divided into various climats. When considered individually some are highly acclaimed sites, certainly worthy of grand cru status. For example, the 10.75-ha Le Clos du Roi, a climat within Aloxe-Corton whose name suggests past royal ownership, has long been the pride of the appellation; its neighbors Les Bressandes and Les Renardes are also highly regarded. Uniquely among the grands crus of the Côte d’Or, Corton’s AOP regulations legally define these climats as geographic designations for red wines. 24 of 26 total climats may appear on a Corton rouge label. On the hill’s western mid-slope, where the soils turn white, the remaining two—Le Charlemagne in Aloxe-Corton and En Charlemagne in Pernand-Vergelesses—form the core of Corton-Charlemagne AOP. In all three communes, vineyards along the uppermost, steepest slopes are also entitled to this appellation, and are usually planted to Chardonnay. In total, 72 of Corton’s 160 ha fall within Corton-Charlemagne.

Côte de Beaune Village Appellations

Ladoix AOP

The commune of Ladoix-Serrigny, along with Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses, sits at the base of the Corton hill and has a hand in the grands crus of Corton and Corton-Charlemagne AOP. Ladoix only claims a small sector, dominated by the lieu-dit Le Rognet et Corton, where the hillside’s aspect faces due east. (Faiveley’s 2-hectare monopole, the Clos des Cortons Faiveley, is located within this climat. While not an official geographic designation in its own right, it is, like Long-Depaquit’s Chablis Grand Cru La Moutonne, officially tolerated.) The commune itself is small, with fewer than 100 ha of vines, and it produces both red and white village and premier cru wines. Five premiers crus located within the commune of Ladoix-Serrigny and adjacent to Corton AOP are labeled under the more saleable name of Aloxe-Corton instead: La Coutière, La Maréchaude, La Toppe au Vert, Les Moutottes, and Les Petites Lolières.

Unlike other double-barreled commune names in Burgundy, Serrigny does not indicate a vineyard. Ladoix and Serrigny are two neighboring hamlets that banded together to form the commune.

Pernand-Vergelesses AOP

As one rounds the Corton hill, a glazed-tile, geometric-patterned church steeple is the first thing in Pernand-Vergelesses to come into view. Surely one of the prettiest villages in Burgundy, the quaint, removed town perches on the lower slopes of the Frétille hill, and looks out over the east- to northeast-facing slopes of the Bois de Noël—which separates Pernand from Savigny-Lès-Beaune—and the western slopes of the grand cru En Charlemagne. The 17.5-ha En Charlemagne produces mostly Corton-Charlemagne blanc rather than Corton rouge, as the western exposure brings reduced sunlight and heat during the day. Corton-Charlemagne wines from the En Charlemagne climat likewise tend to be a bit more austere and acid-driven than those hailing from the more southerly slopes of Le Charlemagne, across the Aloxe-Corton border.

There are eight premiers crus in Pernand-Vergelesses, divided into two sectors. Those on the Bois de Noël hillside, including the village’s namesake climat, Ile des Vergelesses, produce mostly red wines, whereas those on the Frétille hill—Sous Frétille, Clos Berthet, and Village de Pernand—may by law only produce white wine. This cluster of south-facing premier cru climats opposite En Charlemagne was elevated from basic village status in time for the release of the 2000 vintage. In Pernand, red wines account for around 60% of production. While unpresumptuous, they often show a greater density of tannin and intensity of flavor than one might expect. The best Pernand white wines from the Frétille hill are even tighter, fresher, and flintier than those produced in neighboring Corton-Charlemagne. This is an unexpectedly good source of wines, and might receive more acclaim if the commune’s name was a bit easier to pronounce! Top domaines in the village include Rollin, Dubreuil-Fontaine, Pierre Marey, Rapet, and, of course, the estate of Bonneau du Martray—the only domaine in Burgundy that produces exclusively grand cru wines, from 11 hectares on the Corton hill.

Looking westward toward Pernand-Vergelesses from En Charlemagne.

Aloxe-Corton AOP

The vignerons of Aloxe-Corton unsuccessfully fought throughout the early 20th century to retain a monopoly on the name of Corton in the courts of law. Nonetheless, the village appends its name, and claims most of its vineyards, rendering familiarity (and higher prices) while its neighbors Ladoix and Pernand remain obscure. Acreage in the commune is almost evenly divided between grand cru and Aloxe-Corton AOP land. The village may produce red and white wines—scarce quantities, in the case of the latter—and contains 14 premiers crus arranged along the base of the Corton hill, including those five located across the Ladoix-Serrigny border. Among the more visible producers in Aloxe-Corton is the négociant house Louis Latour, the largest landowner in both Corton and Corton-Charlemagne.

Savigny-Lès-Beaune AOP

The village of Savigny-Lès-Beaune (Savigny near Beaune) is sheltered amidst the hillsides in the small valley of the Rhoin stream, which bisects the côte. Its vineyards, however, tumble from the south- and southeast-facing valley hillsides, where top premiers crus like Aux Serpentières and Les Vergelesses are located, out to the broad plain and up against the D974. Savigny-Lès-Beaune is one of the larger appellations in the Côte de Beaune—behind Meursault and Beaune itself—and over 300 of its nearly 350 ha of vineyards are planted with Pinot Noir. The reds tend to be light and pure; however, there is a set of northeast-facing premiers crus adjacent to Beaune on the Mont Battois hillside, wherein the wines often attain a more tannic, tougher bite. Chandon de Briailles and Simon Bize are the leading domaines in the village.

Chorey-Lès-Beaune AOP

An unremarkable village with unremarkable vineyards, Chorey-Lès-Beaune is located just north of Beaune itself, in the flat plains of the Saône River. The commune and most of its vines are situated to the east of the D974: there is no slope here, and consequently there are no premier cru vineyards. The commune produces red and white wines, but the latter comprises only one-tenth of its already small output (there are under 150 ha of vines). The reds are often light, soft, and a bit generic—tasting more like Bourgogne AOP than a village-level wine. However, they are among the cheapest village wines in a region quickly pricing itself out of competition, so there is value here. Domaine Tollot-Beaut, a pioneer in domaine-bottling, and Domaine Germain, current owner of the historic Château de Chorey, are the top producers—but their best parcels are located in other villages.

Beaune AOP and Côte de Beaune AOP

The city of Beaune is the commercial center of the Côte de Beaune, and the largest metropolitan area between Chalon-sur-Saône and Dijon. It is the viticultural capital of Burgundy. At its heart, still half-surrounded by medieval walls and old ramparts, are the museums of the Hôtel Dieu and the Hôtel des Ducs de Bourgogne, the Cluniac basilica of Notre-Dame, the offices of the BIVB, and the cellars of some of Burgundy’s largest négociants—Maisons Louis Jadot, Bouchard Père & Fils, Patriarche Père & Fils, Chanson, and Joseph Drouhin. Narrow cobblestone streets zigzag outward from the Place de Carnot at its center, yet Beaune’s periphery houses all the trappings of a modern city: soulless supermarkets, office parks, industrial warehouses, and the Côte d’Or’s only access to the Autoroute (the French interstate system) south of Dijon. Urban expansion has gobbled up much of the flatter land near the D974 officially graded as village-level Beaune AOP; thus, 85% of actual vineyards in production are classified as premier cru in Beaune.

Beaune has more hectares under vine than any other commune in the Côte de Beaune, and is second only to Gevrey-Chambertin in the Côte d’Or. Its size, coupled with its lack of grands crus and widespread land ownership by négociant firms, does not exactly inspire rabid fandom; the wines may seem perfunctory—solid but uninspired. The premiers crus are certainly variable in quality. There are 42 of them—only Chassagne-Montrachet has more—that fan out over the combe-riddled slopes of the Montagne de Beaune to the north and the Montagne Saint Desire to the south. Many are too small to be bottled as anything other than generic Beaune 1er Cru, and a few are too large: three of Beaune’s best premiers crus—Les Bressandes, Les Grèves, and Les Teurons—occupy the mid-slope of the Montagne de Beaune, where the hillside tilts inward to face due east, but they range in size from 17 ha (Bressandes) to over 30 ha (Les Grèves). As in all of the Côte d’Or’s larger climats, the potential quality of wine can vary greatly from parcel to parcel. Top bottlings are often from leading négociants; for example, Bouchard’s monopole “Vigne l’Enfant Jésus,” produced from a Les Grèves lieu-dit, is one of the firm’s signature red wines, priced on par with its grands crus. Joseph Drouhin’s Le Clos des Mouches blanc, from a 25-hectare premier cru bordering Pommard, is likewise one of the top white wines in the commune, year after year.

Beaune is actually home to a second village appellation of sorts: the Côte de Beaune AOP. Not to be confused with Côte de Beaune-Villages AOP, this small appellation covers a smattering of vineyards located above the northern sector of premiers crus, at an elevation of 300-370 meters. Aligned along the combes intersecting the Montagne de Beaune and the southern hillsides of the Mont Battois, the appellation’s vineyards produce light red and white wines, not dissimilar from those of the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. The ATVB, Burgundy’s clonal research facility, owns the largest parcel in the area, a 20-hectare experimental vineyard.

Pommard AOP

Pommard, one of only four appellations in the Côte de Beaune that may only produce red wines, offers a denser, gutsier, more tannic style of Pinot Noir than most communes in the region. The commune and appellation are bifurcated by the Dheune stream, which flows down through a combe into the town itself. In comparison to Volnay, water flow and erosion have deposited a greater percentage of iron-rich clay on Pommard’s lower slopes, resulting in fuller-bodied, weightier, sturdier wines. Consequently, Pommard may see more new oak than other red wines of the Côte de Beaune. Exemplary domaines based in the village include Comte Armand and Domaine de Courcel.

The village, famous in Lavalle’s era, suffered in reputation throughout the 20th century—finding routinely good value among the basic village wines has long been a walk through a minefield. A 1934 Fortune Magazine article (Can Wine Become an American Habit?) illuminated the problem on the eve of the AOC system’s debut: “The blenders may buy wine from the great vineyards—and from Algeria—and nobody knows how much of either goes into a bottle labeled Pommard.” The wine, perhaps as much due to ease of pronunciation as availability, was a common sight on US and UK shelves throughout the mid-century, but often lackluster. Even today, quality-minded winemakers in the region might privately scoff at the sheer quantity of Pommard wines, and suggest that a little Bourgogne AOP may have wound up in the wrong vat...

At the premier cru level, Pommard comes into its own. Les Grands Epenots, Les Petits Epenots, and Comte Armand’s 5.2-ha monopole Clos des Epeneaux—divided between the two, and chief among them—are excellent sources. Les Rugiens Bas is likely Pommard’s most exceptional vineyard, and produces its richest wines, archetypes of the appellation’s classic form. Unfortunately, many wines from the vineyard are labeled simply as Les Rugiens, and may include fruit from the neighboring Les Rugiens Hauts, an inferior and steeper site. Despite clear differences in quality between the two halves, in 2011 Pommard’s vignerons filed a petition with the INAO to elevate the entire Les Rugiens—Bas and Hauts—to grand cru, and are awaiting a final decision.

Volnay AOP

The small village of Volnay, like Pommard, only produces red wines, but the classic Volnay tasting note accentuates elegance rather than power. It is the Chambolle-Musigny to Pommard’s Gevrey-Chambertin. Shorn of Pommard’s tannin and body, Volnay instead offers aromatic sophistication and persistence on the palate. For many, Volnay is the quintessential Côte de Beaune Pinot Noir: light in color and frame, yet long and graceful. Historically, the wines understandably merited critical praise—they generally belonged to the man in charge! The Capetian Dukes of Burgundy (a line of lords preceding the Valois Dukes) built a château in Volnay in the 11th century, and maintained extensive land holdings around the village. Vestiges of the ducs’ castle and rule remain in premier cru names today—Clos des Ducs, Clos du Château des Ducs—but the King of France inherited their lands after the death of Valois Duke Charles the Bold in 1477. Thereafter and throughout the ancien régime, Volnay wines graced royal tables. An excellent crop of domaines in the village today carries the legacy forward, including domaine-bottling pioneer Marquis d’Angerville, Hubert de Montille, Michel Lafarge, Henri Boillot, and Domaine de la Pousse d’Or.

120 of Volnay’s 205 ha of vines are rated premier cru; unusually, most lie below the village itself, between Volnay and the D974. Volnay’s best sites—Les Caillerets, Champans, Clos des Chênes, and Taillepieds—are at the southern end of the commune, on the hillside toward Monthélie and Meursault. If the wine is red, producers may label four Meursault climats (the premiers crus Les Santenots du Milieu, Les Santenots Blancs, and Les Plures; and the village-level Les Santenots Dessous) as Volnay 1er Cru Santenots. Over one-third of Volnay’s premiers crus are monopoles, including a handful of walled, small clos sites immediately abutting houses on the edge of town.

Monthélie AOP

Northwest of the commune of Meursault is a break in the southeast-facing côte—the Auxey Valley, through which the Ruisseau des Cloux, a small stream, flows. The nearby village of Monthélie marks the valley’s northeastern end, where the slope of the côte bends inward upon itself, and the hillside vineyard exposures shift from east-southeast to due south. (The AOPs of Auxey-Duresses and Saint-Romain are further west, up the valley.) Complicating the geography of Monthélie, the Combe Danay spills into Monthélie from the north, meeting the mouth of the east-west valley of the Ruisseau des Cloux. Many of the appellation’s village vineyards line the east- or west-facing slopes of the combe, whereas its premier crus generally enjoy more southerly exposures. The neighboring premiers crus Les Champs Fuillots and Sur la Velle, which border Volnay’s Clos des Chênes, are considered top sites in the village. Reds and a small amount of white wines are produced.

Auxey-Duresses AOP

The Ruisseau des Cloux flows right through the village of Auxey-Duresses and its hamlets, Petit Auxey and Melian. Auxey-Duresses itself is situated in the narrow Auxey Valley, between the hills of Montmellian (on the Meursault side) and Bourdon. Lacking the protection of the côte, it is subject to cooler winds and more frequent hailstorms than much of the Côte de Beaune. Most vineyards, including all of Auxey’s nine premiers crus, are situated on the south-facing hillsides of the valley. Here, the best-performing premiers crus are Climat du Val—the only vineyard in the Côte d’Or that actually has the word climat in its name—and the 0.9-ha Clos du Val enclosed within it. There are two other sectors of vineyard land in the commune: a swath of north-facing village land opposite the premiers crus that is, in effect, a continuation of the Meursault slope as it turns inward into the valley, and a strip of vineyards fanning the hillsides of the hamlet Melian, southwest of Auxey-Duresses itself. Both red and white wines are produced, and white wines are more than an afterthought here, accounting for about one-third of production. The north-facing slopes nearest Meursault are home to most of the commune’s Chardonnay. Top domaines include Moulin aux Moines and Prunier-Damy, but the most famous producer in the village is Maison Leroy, the négociant arm of Domaine Leroy.

Saint-Romain AOP

Located to the northwest of Auxey-Duresses, the village’s vineyards are at a higher elevation (300-400 meters) and are essentially part of the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. In its cooler climate Chardonnay performs better than Pinot Noir, and white wines outnumber reds two-to-one in this small appellation of fewer than 100 ha. There are no premiers crus. The most exceptional domaine based in the village—Lalou Bize-Leroy’s personal Domaine d’Auvenay—does not actually produce Saint-Romain AOP wines.

Meursault AOP

At Pommard and Volnay, I observed them eating good white bread; at Meursault, rye. I asked the reason of the difference. They told me, that the white wines fail in quality much oftener than the red, and remain on hand. The farmer, therefore, cannot afford to feed his laborers so well. At Meursault, only white wines are made, because there is too much stone for the red.
-Thomas Jefferson (Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1, ed. T. J. Randolph)

From Ladoix through Monthélie, the Côte de Beaune vineyard is a sea of red grapes, with occasional rafts of Chardonnay; at Meursault, that trend abruptly reverses. Here, only a dozen of the village’s 400 ha of vineyards are allocated to Pinot Noir. Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet comprise a triumvirate of sorts—with the possible exception of Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru AOP, these three villages produce the most exemplary white wines in the entire Côte d’Or. Meursault itself produces a higher quantity of white wines than any other commune in the Côte d’Or. Classic Meursault white wine is rich—almost fat—on the palate, with a nutty, buttery, honeyed spectrum of flavors and a softer acidity than exhibited in Puligny-Montrachet. Meursault has a lower water table than either Puligny or Chassagne, resulting in greater underground cellar space—a fact many sources credit for Meursault's classically oxidative and wood-framed style. However, a number of top producers today prefer a more reductive, steelier approach. There is such a profusion of growers in Meursault—the village has been ignored by négociant buyers in the past, and vignerons turned to domaine-bottling early on—that the range of available styles is really quite broad. Respected estates to look for include Coche-Dury, Guy Roulot, Comtes Lafon, Patrick Javillier, Jacques Prieur, and Pierre Morey, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

There are no grands crus in Meursault, but the best premier cru plots can produce stellar white wines in the right hands. Over two-dozen producers have a hand in the village’s most important climat, Perrières. (Its name, meaning stone, signifies the site of an old quarry.) The vineyard encompasses Albert Grivault’s monopole Clos des Perrières—for which the domaine has been seeking grand cru status—and adjoins two other outstanding premiers crus in Meursault, Les Charmes and Les Genevrières. All sit below 300 meters in elevation on the hillside south of town, alongside Porusot and Les Gouttes d’Or. There is an additional set of four premiers crus on the slope above Perrières entitled to Meursault 1er Cru AOP if white, and Blagny 1er Cru AOP if red. Similarly, on the Volnay border there is a small cluster of premiers crus; three of them—Les Santenots du Milieu, Les Santenots Blancs, and Les Plures—are labeled Volnay 1er Cru AOP if red and Meursault 1er Cru AOP if white. Unlike Beaune or Saint-Aubin, the premier cru selection in Meursault actually seems meaningful, or at least restrictive, as premiers crus account for only 25% of the land under vine in the commune. Thus, there has long been interest in Meursault’s village lieux-dits, dubbed the deuxièmes crus by the press. As in Marsannay, many producers in Meursault will bottle these as single vineyard village selections, labeled by lieu-dit. Comtes Lafon’s monopole Clos de la Barre is an important lieu-dit site—it’s the domaine’s backyard—as are Le Tesson and several vineyards on the slope above Les Genevrières and Porusot, including Les Tillets, Les Narvaux, and Chaumes de Narvaux. Chaumes—meaning scrubland—is among Meursault’s newest vineyards, cleared and planted in the late 1990s.

Blagny AOP

Blagny is a hamlet within the Puligny-Montrachet commune, poised on the higher slopes north of town. Its vineyards are technically divided between Puligny and Meursault, and white grapes are labeled under those better-regarded, better-known appellations. Red wines, on the other hand, are released under the rare Blagny AOP. It is a tiny, diminishing appellation; in 2012, only 3.4 hectares of vines were declared under the appellation. There are seven premiers crus, four in Meursault and three in Puligny.

Puligny-Montrachet AOP

Clive Coates is unequivocal: “Puligny-Montrachet is the greatest white wine commune on earth.” No doubt aided by the allure of Montrachet itself, the village’s reputation is secure: the wines of Puligny are tightly wound and tense, yet long-lived—less round than Meursault, but more precise, as though chiseled from stone. Puligny is the closest thing to a pure white wine village one will find in the Côte d’Or: in 2012, from 211 hectares and 11,608 total hectoliters of wine, only 35 hl of red wine were declared. And with good reason: Puligny-Montrachet lays claim to four of eight hectares in the most coveted Chardonnay vineyard on earth, Montrachet Grand Cru AOP itself. Puligny shares it and Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru AOP with its southern neighbor Chassagne-Montrachet. Two other grands crus—Chevalier-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet—Puligny claims in whole. All bask in the reflected radiance of Montrachet; many a restaurant guest, desiring one, will happily settle for the other, often unawares—such is the gravitational power of the word “Montrachet.”

Standing amongst the vines of Batard-Montrachet, looking westward at Montrachet with Chevalier-Montrachet at the top of the hill.

A cabotte in Chevalier-Montrachet.

The southeast-facing, 8-ha Montrachet Grand Cru AOP is currently divided amongst 16 owners, and dates back to the 13th century at least. (Cistercian records from 1250 list a donation of vines on “Mount Rachas.”) White grapes were planted on the hillside by the 1450s, and writers from the early 17th century forward have heaped on the praise. It, like most of the Côte d’Or’s greatest grands crus, sits on the mid-slope (250-270 meters) with a grade of 6-10%, protected from cold winds and hailstorms by the forested summit of Mont Rachet above it. On the slope below Montrachet lie Bâtard-Montrachet and the smaller Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet; the two vineyards share deeper soils and a slighter incline, producing fatter and more exotic styles of Chardonnay. Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru AOP sits above Montrachet. On thinner soils and a steeper slope, the grand cru produces edgy, reserved, and more elegant styles. Montrachet itself—if one can acquire it—is a perfect combination: ripe, pure, concentrated, and framed equally by weight and acidity.

Puligny-Montrachet’s 17 premiers crus sweep northward from the grands crus along the same slope. The most impressive are those adjoining the grands crus themselves: Le Cailleret, Les Demoiselles, and Les Pucelles. Le Cailleret and Les Pucelles, the northward extensions of Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet, could both merit grand cru status—save for a slight twist of orientation in the former and a moisture-collecting depression in the latter. Two small parcels of Le Cailleret were actually added to Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru AOP in 1939 and 1974, and the rest remains exceptional premier cru land. Les Demoiselles, a climat encased within Le Cailleret, is adjacent to Chevalier-Montrachet and Montrachet itself. Louis Jadot and Louis Latour both bottle a Chevalier-Montrachet "Les Demoiselles": their parcels in this sector of Le Cailleret constituted the 1939 additions to the grand cru. At the other end of the commune, Champ Canet and Les Combettes are fine sources, adjacent to Meursault's top vineyards Perrières and Les Charmes. The most common premiers crus on Puligny labels, however, are Les Folatières and Champ Gain—the village’s largest climats.

Top domaines based in Puligny-Montrachet include Domaine Leflaive, Jacques Carillon, Etienne Sauzet, and Paul Pernot. Leflaive makes standout representations of all four of the Puligny grands crus and commands the largest shares in both Bâtard-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, but the négociant firms may have the upper hand in the others. The Marquis de Laguiche owns the largest parcel of Montrachet—2 hectares, or 25% of the total vineyard, all on the Puligny side. Joseph Drouhin produces and markets the wine. In Chevalier-Montrachet, Bouchard Père & Fils is the largest landowner, with 2.5 of 7.3 total hectares. They produce two wines from the parcel: a “basic” Chevalier-Montrachet and “Cuvée la Cabotte,” from a lieu-dit once included in Montrachet itself.

Chassagne-Montrachet AOP

Despite claiming half of Montrachet Grand Cru AOP—the Chassagne side is known as Le Montrachet—nearly half of Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru AOP, and the entirety of Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet AOP, much of Chassagne-Montrachet is actually better suited to Pinot Noir than Chardonnay. Red clay soils characterize many of the village vineyards and the lower slopes of the premiers crus. Historically, red grapes were planted throughout, as evidenced by Lavalle’s selection of modern premiers crus Morgeot, Clos Pitois, and Clos Saint-Jean as tête de cuvée—for red wines! This trend reversed course after World War II, and today two-thirds of the village’s 300 ha of vines are planted with Chardonnay. The basic village white wines, often planted in soils more suitable for reds, can be a mixed bag. In the premiers crus, however, limestone-derived soils become thinner and stonier and the white wines excel. In style, the whites are broader and more thickly textured than Puligny—generally a result of heavier new oak usage—but more difficult to distinguish in broad strokes from Meursault. The reds are generally lighter in body and they can be tannic.

At 1.6 ha Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet is the only grand cru Chassagne claims in its entirety, and the smallest white wine-producing grand cru in Burgundy. On the other hand, the village’s premiers crus are abundant, encompassing 150 hectares divided into 55 official premiers crus! Many are never seen on labels, and smaller climats are often sold under the names of larger, more recognizable vineyards. For instance, fifteen premiers crus are located within Morgeot, covering over 50 ha—one-third of the commune’s entire premier cru zone. Chassagne’s Cailleret includes an additional four premiers crus within it, and Les Vergers has a couple of subdivisions as well. Lavalle’s 19th-century selections—Morgeot and Clos Saint-Jean—retain great potential for red grapes, but the best premier cru for white wines in the village is Blanchot Dessus, adjacent to Montrachet.

If the premiers crus of Chassagne-Montrachet are confusing, the domaines are equally so. More than anywhere else in Burgundy, one sees the provincialism and tangled family trees of the region in the domaine names of Chassagne. The number of different estates with the same surnames—Morey, Colin, Colin-Morey, Gagnard, etc.—is maddening! In any case, top honors nowadays are generally accorded to Ramonet and Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey.

Saint-Aubin AOP

The commune of Saint-Aubin and its hamlet, Gamay, are tucked away in a cool valley amidst the hills behind Chassagne-Montrachet. This has historically been a red wine-producing region—and there is speculation as to whether or not the hamlet Gamay gave the grape its name—but in modern times the village’s white wines are its hallmark, and comprise about 75% of its production. As prices rose in Chassagne and Puligny, buyers and vignerons turned to the once-neglected Saint-Aubin, which can easily resemble the former in style—and, in the hands of top producers, is now priced accordingly. 75% of the village’s land is classified as premier cru—too much, undoubtedly—but some of them can produce excellent wine: En Remilly, for example, is within shouting distance of Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru AOP, but faces south rather than east. The vineyard’s middle section has the same elevation as its loftier neighbor, and shares the same exact soil profile. Overall, the best premiers crus are those located southeast of Gamay, including En Remilly, Les Murgers des Dents de Chien, and La Chatenière. Marc Colin, Hubert Lamy, and Henri Prudhon are all excellent estates with cellars in the village.

Workers burning canes after pruning in March at Clos du Moulin aux Moines, Saint-Aubin.

Santenay AOP

As the Côte d’Or nears its southernmost end, the slope shifts, and the hillsides face nearly due south. Santenay and its hamlet, Saint-Jean, lie just east of Mont de Sène, the highest point in the Côte de Beaune. Château de Santenay, the former home of Valois Duke Philip the Bold, is the village’s most impressive landmark, yet modern tourists more likely flock to the town’s floodlit casino. For wine quality, it is less well known than its northern neighbors, but Santenay is an important supplier—only Beaune, Savigny-Lès-Beaune and Meursault produce more wine in the Côte de Beaune. Santenay borders Chassagne-Montrachet, yet white wines make up less than 20% of its total production. In his 1855 classification, Lavalle recognized Clos de Tavannes and Noyer-Bart (both lieux-dits within the modern premier cru Les Gravières, and the former a premier cru in its own right) among the tête de cuvée #2 class in the Côte d’Or—the same category in which he ranked many second-division grands crus. Clos de Tavannes, abutting Chassagne, is inarguably the top climat in Santenay today. In general, the best vineyards are those on the Chassagne side of the village. On the Maranges end the wines are typically bold but rustic, whereas vineyards nearer Chassagne-Montrachet tend to provide greater elegance, classier fruit, and genuine age-worthiness. Roger Belland and Lucien Mazard are key domaines here, but there is no superstar domaine based in the village—perhaps as critical a factor in Santenay’s bedraggled reputation as anything.

As with Chassagne-Montrachet AOP, there is a small area of Santenay AOP village vineyards that is located within the commune of Remigny—the only vines in the appellation that do not fall within the Côte d’Or département.

Maranges AOP

Wines from three communes (Dezize-lès-Maranges, Cheilly-lès-Maranges, and Sampigny-lès-Maranges) produce red and white village and premier cru wines under the Maranges appellation. The entire AOP falls within the Saône-et-Loire département, yet Maranges is still considered the southernmost outpost of the Côte d’Or winegrowing region. Here, on the southern slopes of the Mont de Sène, Maranges’ seven premiers crus are clustered, facing due south or southwest rather than southeast. La Fussière, the largest premier cru climat, ranges from 240 to nearly 400 meters in elevation—it is the highest-elevation premier cru ground in the Côte de Beaune. The commune’s reds, exemplified by local domaines Edmund Monnot and Fernand Chevrot are similar to Santenay rouge in style, and are some of the last good values in the Côte d’Or. White wines are rare, comprising only 5-10% of the AOP’s total production.

Immediately to the south of the three Maranges communes is the Côtes du Couchois, a tiny region granted sub-regional status in 2000 as a Bourgogne AOP geographic designation for red wines produced from Pinot Noir. It is technically within neither the Côte d’Or nor the Côte Chalonnaise.

The Côte Chalonnaise

The Côte Chalonnaise, a 25-kilometer-long corridor extending southward from Santenay, spans the hillsides along the western edge of the Saône River Valley. Soils here resemble those in the Côte de Beaune—weathered limestone and clay—but the area is no longer protected from prevailing winds by the dominating escarpment of the Côte d’Or. The terrain is hilly, but less rugged, and there are plenty of conduits for cool westerly winds; thus, despite being further south than the Côte de Beaune, ripening may be delayed. Unlike the Côte d’Or, there is no contiguous march of vineyards in the Côte Chalonnaise; vines are broken up amidst various hillsides and communes, and the area’s culture and economy is less dependent overall on the vine.

In 1990, Côte Chalonnaise officially became a geographic designation of the Bourgogne AOP. The delimited area of Bourgogne-Côte Chalonnaise includes 44 communes and covers red, white, and rosé wines. Additionally, the following village appellations have been established: Mercurey (1936), Montagny (1936), Rully (1939), Givry (1946), and Bouzeron (1998). All except Bouzeron have a premier cru classification as well.

Bouzeron AOP

An anomaly in Burgundy, Bouzeron AOP is the only village appellation that produces white wines from the Aligoté grape. Domaine A & P Villaine, established by Aubert de Villaine (of DRC fame), is the village’s most famous estate, and works to create greater respect for the grape by cultivating superior selections of the grape—the golden Aligoté d’Oré instead of the green Aligoté Vert.

Rully AOP

Shared by the communes of Rully and Chagny, this appellation produces both white and red wines in a 70% to 30% ratio. Most Rully whites are fresh, fruity and easy to drink; the reds are likewise light and low in tannin. Modest amounts of new oak are employed only by the most ambitious estates. Rully is the 19th-century birthplace of sparkling wines in Burgundy, and the commune is the center of Crémant de Bourgogne AOP production today.

Mercurey AOP

Mercurey and neighboring commune Saint-Martin-sous-Montaigu produce red and white wines under this appellation. Mercurey AOP has almost 650 ha under vine—nearly double the acreage of Rully, the second-largest appellation in the region—and it has long been considered the viticultural heart of the Côte Chalonnaise. Mercurey’s original five premiers crus—Clos Marcilly, Clos Voyens, Le Clos du Roy, Les Fourneaux, and Les Montaigus—date to 1943; it has 32 in total today following additions in 1956 and 1988. As 85% of its vines are Pinot Noir, Mercurey is really a red wine village, producing the firmest and most muscular reds in the Côte Chalonnaise, with greater levels of tannin and new oak than either Givry or Rully can support. Nuits-Saint-Georges’ Domaine Faiveley owns over 30 hectares in the village, including the monopole premier cru Clos des Myglands. Acclaimed domaines based in Mercurey include Château de Chamirey, Bruno Lorenzon, and Michel Juillot.

Givry AOP

Like Mercurey, Givry produces a lot of red wines and a little white. The red wines are often sleeker and more charming but a little less tannic and weighty than those of Mercurey. Following a series of upgrades in 2011 Givry has 38 premiers crus, accounting for 100 of its 280 total hectares. Domaine Joblot is widely considered the village’s top estate.

Montagny AOP

Montagny AOP wines are the product of four communes: Buxy, Jully-lès-Buxy, Montagny-lès-Buxy, and Saint-Vallerin. Only white wines produced from Chardonnay are authorized. From the appellation’s birth in 1936 until 1989, Montagny wines qualified for premier cru status simply by achieving a minimum 11.5% alcohol content regardless of the vineyard source. That has been rectified, but even today two-thirds of the appellation is classified as premier cru—there are 49 of them! The largest producer in Montagny—and the entire Côte Chalonnaise—is the Cave de Buxy, the local cooperative.

Mâconnais

The Mâconnais region is a major producer of white wines in Burgundy, second in volume only to Chablis. This is Chardonnay country—a village named Chardonnay, 25 km north of the city of Mâcon, may have given the grape its name—and the few red grapevines here are more likely Gamay than Pinot Noir. Mâcon AOP itself produces white, rosé, and red wines—including varietally labeled Gamay—and the appellation is available to producers throughout the entire Mâconnais region. 85% of the Mâcon AOP production, however, carries the geographic designation Mâcon-Villages or—more precisely—the name of a single commune appended to the appellation, such as Lugny, Milly-Lamartine, or Pierreclos—27 communes may currently appear as geographic designations appended to Mâcon. Many of the single communes may produce all three colors of wine, depending on the individual site, but only white wines may be labeled as Mâcon-Villages. While cafés and bistros have long been unassuming bastions for Mâcon whites, the region’s wines, particularly those labeled with a geographic designation, can overachieve—particularly as Côte d’Or vignerons look southward in the search for affordable land. Most Mâcon Chardonnay is fermented and raised in stainless steel, sans shades of oak. In comparison to Chablis it tends to be fruitier and more open, but lacks Chablis’ sharp mineral edge and high acidity.

In addition to the regional appellation, the Mâconnais has five village AOPs: Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Loché, Pouilly-Vinzelles, Saint-Véran, and Viré-Clessé. All five produce only Chardonnay. Pouilly-Fuissé includes the wines of four communes—Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly, Vergisson, and Chaintré—with vineyards rising up the slopes below the Rocks of Solutré and Vergisson, two large limestone escarpments that define the landscape of the southern Mâconnais. The appellation was one of the first white French wines to become a staple on sophistiqué mid-century American tables, and it is the most highly regarded area for winegrowing in the Mâconnais. As of the 2020 vintage, Pouilly-Fuissé added a premier cru designation. The Premier cru sites cover roughly 24% of the AOP. Saint-Véran, a noncontiguous appellation split by Pouilly-Fuissé, rivals its neighbor in size and production if not reputation. Viré-Clessé, joining the wines of two communes under one AOP banner, is the region’s youngest appellation, dating only to 1999. Viré-Clessé allows for a unique style of late-harvest Chardonnay known as Blanc Levrouté. The INAO recently published a list of official climats for all five of the Mâconnais village AOPs. As of 2025, Pouilly-Vinzelles and Pouilly-Loche are awaiting final approval on Premier Cru designation.

The Rock of Solutré.

Beaujolais

2009, 2010, 2011—even 2012 and 2013—were all very good vintages. People took a second look at Beaujolais, and
understood that we can make very good wines. At the same time, new winegrowers are arriving—young people,
from Burgundy, from Champagne. There is a new dynamic here.
-Jean-Paul Brun, Terres Dorées

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!

For years, the overall image of Beaujolais has been limited by the popularity of red Beaujolais nouveau wines. Once a huge commercial success, nouveau is released to less and less fanfare on the 3rd Thursday of November, just a few weeks after the harvest. Beaujolais nouveau was first allowed by law in 1951; it surged from the bistro tables of Lyon to worldwide popularity in the 1970s and ‘80s, and made a household name out of Georges Duboeuf, the region's largest producer. As a grape, Gamay easily lends itself to the fruity, fresh style of nouveau: the wines are pleasant, if never complex. Softness, intense aromatics, and instant approachability are key attributes, developed through carbonic or semi-carbonic maceration, cool fermentation temperatures, and extremely short skin macerations of 4-5 days or less.

The region of Beaujolais overlaps the southern Mâconnais, but most of its territory lies further south in the Rhône département, not far from Lyon, a culinary mecca and France’s third-largest city. Beaujolais is primarily a red winegrowing region, and it sets the classic standard for Gamay wines. One can find a bit of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, but Beaujolais’ vineyards are essentially a monoculture—over 95% of the cultivated area is planted to Gamay, while over 50% of the world’s Gamay acreage is located in the region. There are 11 AOPs specific to Beaujolais, including the basic Beaujolais AOP—for which red, white, and rosé wines are authorized—and the ten northern cru AOPs. Most Beaujolais AOP (and Coteaux Bourguignons AOP) wines are grown and produced in the flatter reaches of southern Beaujolais, where the granite ebbs and the soils begin to look more like the limestone-clay of the Mâconnais. Good Chardonnay can be produced here, sold as Bourgogne or Beaujolais blanc, but the Gamay of southern Beaujolais is an entry-level red wine. Over half of the red wine production of the south is nouveau.

Additional label mentions for basic Beaujolais AOP wines include a geographic designation—Beaujolais-Villages—and a stylistic one, supérieur. Beaujolais-Villages, a once-separate appellation created in 1950, was subsumed under the larger Beaujolais AOP in 2011. It covers a little less than half of the acreage of Beaujolais AOP, encompassing all ten northern cru appellations and surrounding communes—38 in total. The red, white, and rosé Beaujolais-Villages wines are subject to slightly higher potential alcohol levels, and slightly lower maximum yields. If the fruit is sourced from a single commune, the wine may carry that commune’s name in place of “Villages” on the label. On the other hand, the stylistic designation supérieur may be allocated to any red Beaujolais wine that meets a standard of minimum potential alcohol beyond that required for the basic appellation: 10.5% rather than 10%. That may have been an uphill climb in the 1930s, but the designation really has no relevance to superiority today, perceived or otherwise.

The Crus of Beaujolais

The crus of Beaujolais are categorized into three styles... each style is a little bit different. There are the three crus that are the fruitiest: Brouilly, Régnié, Chiroubles. There are the crus that are still fruity, but with a little more structure, maybe elegance: Saint-Amour, Fleurie, and Chénas. Then there are crus that are a little more structured: Côte de Brouilly, Morgon, Juilénas, and Moulin-à-Vent.
-Alain Coudert, Clos de la Roilette

The ten northern crus of Beaujolais produce only red wines, and comprise one-quarter to one-third of Beaujolais production, depending on the year. Most of the wines here are still planted at high densities, gobelet-trained, and hand-harvested. In the crus, there are a number of officially recognized lieux-dits and these do appear on labels. Famous examples include Côte du Py in Morgon, Les Capitans in Juliénas, and La Madone in Fleurie.

The commune of Fleurie.

Saint-Amour AOP

Saint-Amour, the most northerly of the Beaujolais crus, is adjacent to Saint-Véran AOP, and it is the only cru located entirely within the Saône-et-Loire département. Saint-Amour, like Fleurie and Chiroubles, usually provides a lighter and less concentrated expression of cru Beaujolais.

Juliénas AOP

Is this, as many claim, the most ancient winegrowing region in Beaujolais, with its roots in the Roman era? Four communes, including Juliénas and Jullié—presumably honoring Julius Caesar—produce appellation wines along the south-facing, higher granitic hillsides of Mont Bessay in the west, and lower-elevation vineyards further east, wherein soils are deeper with more alluvial sand and clay. With its range of elevation (230-430 meters) and varied soils, Juliénas can be unpredictable, yet generally exhibits greater depth and fuller body than Saint-Amour. It also has nearly twice as much vine acreage (approx. 600 ha) and output as its northern neighbor. One-third of that production is in the hands of its cooperative, La Cave des Producteurs de Juliénas, but more exciting offerings issue from Juliénas-based domaines like Pascal Granger and Domaine du Clos du Fief.

Chénas AOP

The name of Chénas, the smallest of the ten crus, recalls chêne, or “oak,” but the appellation’s vines have gradually replaced ancient forests and now occupy one densely planted square mile—approximately 240 hectares. The style here is similar to its southern neighbor, Moulin-à-Vent: fuller in body, more tannic, and better with a few years of bottle age. In fact, producers in the commune of Chénas itself can choose to bottle their wines as either Chénas AOP or Moulin-à-Vent AOP.

Moulin-à-Vent AOP

Moulin-à-Vent AOP, named for a historic windmill rather than a commune of production, is the longest-lived, most full-bodied, and most tannic Beaujolais cru. Of all the wines of Beaujolais, these are the most frequently confused with those of the Côte d’Or or the Côte Chalonnaise when tasted blind. Unlike most Beaujolais, the wines of Moulin-à-Vent may see a noticeable amount of new oak, warranted by the greater power and concentration of the cru. The vines are planted in soft, pink granitic soil (gore) on gently contoured, east-facing slopes in Chénas and Romanèche-Thorins. Most literature suggests that the robustness of Moulin-à-Vent wines stems from a heightened presence of manganese—a necessary element for plant growth but toxic to vines in high concentrations—which serves to stunt growth and naturally limit yields. Some of the better-known producers of Beaujolais are based in the appellation, including the négociant Georges Duboeuf, Louis Jadot’s Château des Jacques, and Potel-Aviron.

Fleurie AOP

Like Moulin-à-Vent, the soil here is comprised of pink granite, but this cru occupies the steeper slopes of the Mont la Madone, and reaches from 220 meters to nearly 450 meters in elevation. Along the Moulin-à-Vent border, in the lieux-dits of Poncié and la Roilette, Fleurie can mirror its neighbor’s style, but most wines in the appellation are quite the opposite: light, elegant, and fragrant. The wine is indeed floral, even if the commune owes its evocative name to a Roman legionnaire rather than vinous prescience. Top producers include Coudert’s Clos de la Roilette, Domaine de la Chapelle des Bois, and Domaine Chignard. La Cave des Producteurs des Grands Vins de Fleurie, the oldest cooperative in Beaujolais, produces about one-third of the appellation’s wines.

Chiroubles AOP

Chiroubles is the highest-elevation cru in Beaujolais (250-450 meters) and the coolest—Chiroubles’ harvest may lag a week behind its neighbors. Its soil composition mirrors that of Fleurie, and its wines are likewise light, soft, and exuberant. Given its refreshing, wispy character, Chiroubles is best drunk in its extreme youth. If Moulin-à-Vent is the fullest and most robust of all the cru wines, Chiroubles is the lightest.

Morgon AOP

With over 1,100 hectares under vine, Morgon is the second-largest cru in Beaujolais. The appellation, named after the hamlet of Morgon at its center, sprawls over the Côte du Py and surrounding hillsides. On the côte itself, wherein many of the appellation’s signature wines are produced, roche pourrie—“rotten rock,” an unusual mixture of iron-rich schist and basalt streaked with manganese—is predominant. Morgon’s other vineyards are planted on various granitic, alluvial, and clay soils. While not as long-lived as Moulin-à-Vent, the wines of Morgon are nonetheless a full-bodied expression of Gamay, and regularly reach some of the highest potential alcohol levels in the appellation. Prominent domaines based in the appellation include Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Thevénet, and Guy Bréton—Kermit Lynch’s “gang of four,” who, guided by the philosophies of the late Beaujolais chemist and winemaker Jules Chauvet, were pioneers of natural winemaking in the region, and among the first to remind the world that Beaujolais had something to offer beyond nouveau.

Régnié AOP

Régnié gained appellation status as recently as 1988, joining the wines of two communes—Régnié-Durette and Latignié—under one banner. With 400 ha under vine, Régnié is a small cru situated on pink granite hillsides. Vineyards lie at an average elevation of 350 meters, and wide-ranging southeasterly aspects make for an early-ripening appellation. Régnié wines tend to be aromatic and lively, and are at the middle of the pack in potential quality and body—not as light as Saint-Amour or Fleurie, but lacking the depth and concentration of Morgon or Moulin-à-Vent.

Brouilly AOP

Encompassing over 1,300 hectares of vines and six communes, Brouilly is the largest Beaujolais cru, and alone accounts for over 20% of the total Beaujolais cru production. Brouilly’s vineyards carpet the broad lower flanks of the Mont Brouilly, an extinct volcano that rises to 484 meters and presides over the landscape of the southern crus. The name itself derives from brûlé—“burnt.”

Côte de Brouilly AOP

Côte de Brouilly occupies the higher and steeper hillsides of Mont Brouilly, and with just over 300 ha under vine it is a much smaller cru than its neighbor, Brouilly AOP. On the higher slopes (300-400 meters), there is less granite near the surface and more schist and grey-blue diorite rock, which colors vineyard soils in the appellation. The wines, exemplified by Château Thivin, tend to have more definition than those produced at lower elevations.

Bibliography

Biss, Austin. A Guide to the Wines of Chablis. Guildford, UK: Global Markets Media Ltd., 2009

Coates, Clive. The Wines of Burgundy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008.

Garcia, Jean-Pierre. The 'Climats' of Burgundy. Trans. Maxine Colas. Grenoble, FR: Éditions Glénat, 2013.

Morris, Jasper. Inside Burgundy. London, UK: Berry Bros. & Rudd Press, 2010.

Norman, Remington. Grand Cru. London, UK: Kyle Cathie Limited, 2010.

Norman, Remington and Charles Taylor. The Great Domaines of Burgundy. 3rd ed. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2010.

Pitiot, Sylvain and Jean-Charles Servant. The Wines of Burgundy. 12th ed. Trans. Delia Dent. Collection Pierre Poupon, 2012.

Rigaux, Jacky. Burgundy Grands Crus. Trans. Catherine du Toit. Terre en Vues, 2009.

Wilson, James. Terroir. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.

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Burgundy

Contents

Lay of the Land

Climate

The Grapes of Burgundy

The Modern AOP System in Burgundy

Vin de Pays (IGP) in Burgundy

The History of Burgundy

Domaines and the Négociant

Post-Phylloxera Vineyard Architecture

The Vigneron’s Struggle

Replanting and Vine Selection

Modern Winemaking Practices

Chablis

The Côte d’Or

The Côte Chalonnaise

Mâconnais

Beaujolais