Come November, Uncorked will be tramping off to Burgundy to taste the 2025 vintage, which we'll then offer en primeur in the new year. This province of eastern France provides one of the world's great winemaking regions, and is also home to two of the world's greatest grape varieties: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Burgundy isn't always easy to get to grips with. Two (main) grape varieties, one white and one red, sounds simple enough. But look a little closer at the picture of villages, vineyards, and growers, and it starts to get more complicated.
Burgundy's most northern outpost is Chablis, home to chiselled, mineral whites. But the heart of Burgundy is the Côte d'Or, a 40-mile-long limestone escarpment facing east across the Saône plain. The northern half of the Côte d'Or is the Côte de Nuits, where it's mostly about red wines, and the southern half is the Côte de Beaune, where there are a lot more whites. South of the Côte d'Or, the Côte Chalonnaise is a patchwork of hills and valleys.
To help you get to grips with a complicated region that no wine lover should ignore, we've put together two six-bottle mixed cases, one red and one white. Each has money off and free delivery, and if you get both, you get an even bigger discount. /NT
WHITES
2024 Jean-Paul & Benoît Droin Chablis
Benoît Droin favours a riper style of Chablis, though here also gifted great energy by the cool 2024 vintage. La Revue du Vin de France, the definitive French wine guide, has listed Droin alongside Dauvissat and Raveneau as one of the top three Chablis producers.
2023 Felettig Bourgogne Aligoté Vieilles Vignes
Aligoté is Burgundy's 'other' white grape variety. Easy to ripen but not commanding much prestige, it is usually relegated to more marginal sites. But a growing group of producers are championing Aligoté, and when old vine Aligoté is cultivated in good sites - as in this lovely example from Gilbert Felettig - you get a great sense of what Aligoté is really capable of.
2023 Felettig Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune En Vallerot
The Hautes Côtes are the high sites in the hills above Burgundy's limestone escarpment. At the higher elevations here grapes are slower to ripen, but in a warm vintage like 2023 Hautes Côtes wines can be a real success. This mixes notes of orchard fruit with a buttery sense of new wood and real energetic drive.
2023 Marc Colin Bourgogne Chardonnay
Marc Colin is one of the Côte de Beaune's premier white wine producers. This Bourgogne Chardonnay has been made from fruit in three parcels, one in Puligny, one in Chassagne and one in St-Aubin. The buttery mid-palate is given lift by notes of lemon and apple skin, and a hint of wood leads to the generous, energetic finish.
2023 P & M Jacqueson Rully 1er Cru Margotés
Based in the village of Rully, Jacqueson are one of the best producers in Burgundy's southern Côte Chalonnaise. Their premier cru Margotés is delicious, finely-poised white Burgundy drinking at its best.
2023 Francois Lumpp Givry 1er Cru Petit Marole
François Lumpp made a career out of finding the best sites in Givry, and his daughter Anne-Cecile has now very successfully taken over the reins here. Petit Marole is a small east-southeast facing vineyard planted in the early '90s, producing generous wines which see 1 year in oak, 20% new.
REDS
2023 Berthaut-Gerbet Bourgogne Les Prielles
Amelie Berthaut is one of the stars of her generation, and her wines are helping to bring her home village of Fixin back to the Burgundy limelight. Her Bourgogne Les Prielles is made from destemmed fruit from a single vineyard in Fixin. It shows nicely defined cherry and cranberry fruit, bright acidity, soft tannins and lovely, expressive aromatics.
2023 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Bourgogne
Rully producer Vincent Dureuil-Janthial makes high energy whites and mellow, seductive reds. This delicious Bourgogne Rouge evokes raspberry and Earl Grey tea, with soft acidity and gentle tannins leading to a sapid finish.
2023 Francois Lumpp Givry Teppe des Chèneves
Teppe de Chenèves is the highest village-level plot in the Chalonnaise village of Givry. Medium-bodied and well-balanced, this has crunchy red fruits and an appealing shot of blood orange energy.
2022 Bernard Coillot Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes
Les Grasses Têtes means 'the big stones', and it's a difficult site to farm, but it leads to a serious, layered wine. Think dark cherries, earth and smoked tea.
2021 Cyprien Arlaud Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
Lithe and expressive, fresh, not dense, with red cherry notes and a savoury minerality to finish. An excellent example of the bright, light reds of the Hautes Côtes de Nuits.
2021 Rapet Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Fourneaux
Vincent Rapet took over at his historic family domaine in 1990, and since then he has been making unforced, entirely charming wines in both red and white. Aux Fourneaux is an excellent vineyard in Savigny - the upper section is classified 1er Cru - and this red wine combines a strawberry-and-cherry character with soft tannins and a tang of salty acidity. Very appealing, very moreish.
