Burgundy/Beaujolais Areas
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Burgundy/Beaujolais Areas
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Nowhere to stay, nowhere to eat, only white wine. Those are the three reasons to avoid going to any village usually, but then the chalky hills of Chablis are home to specialist growers who between them make some of the best Chardonnay anywhere. So then, vaut le detour indeed. That soil really is different if you have seen much Kimmeridgian clay. Almost glistening white, especially in the winter...
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Absolutely, definitively and without doubt the world`s finest wine region. An enormous outdoor temple to the perpetual worship of the world`s finest grape - Pinot Noir, this stretch of hallowed ground between Dijon and Beaune is populated by growers following traditions dating back to the arrival of Benedictine and Cistercian monks. Now recovering from some disastrous replanting decisions after...
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If the Cote de Nuits is the heavenliest red wine region, then the Cote de Beaune, which houses the finest Chardonnay on the planet as well as some very fine indeed examples of Pinot Noir must run it a close second on the wine front. And it has better restaurants. (CW 11/01/12)
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South of the Cote de Beaune, Chalonnaise is often dismissed by people who should know better as rustic. In fact there are many fine growers in places like Givry, Mercurey and Rully among others. The landscape here is different from the Cotes de Nuits and Beaune as other crops are grown and grazed between vineyards. (CW 11/01/12)
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Like Avis the Maconnais try harder. Bizarrely yields are often lower than in the more exalted northern Cotes and from good producers wines are many levels above the basic. Of course here as anywhere you must be picky about whose wines you buy. (CW 11/01/12)
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Land of Granite and therefore Burgundy`s home for Gamay, a much despised grape as far back as the fourteenth century, when Philip the Bold banned it from Burgundy proper. Here though, it can sing and has, in the best examples, pure fruit and real energy. (CW 11/01/12)
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This profile owes a lot to the ground-breaking work of Wink Lorch in her books Wines of the French Alps and Jura Wines. It may seem strange including the French alps in our Burgundy section but there are many parallels and connections, perhaps especially with Jura. Like Beaujolais, Jura provides opportunities for young winegrowers to establish themselves more cheaply - if at the cost of...
