Thought for Food

My friend Chris, a true oenophile who years ago gave me my first taste of the rare intrigue of Burgundy wine, told me, “There’s a saying when you start getting into wine: ‘All roads lead to Burgundy.’” (Perhaps “warned me” is a better term, for it is not a poor person’s passion … or better said, it makes a passionate person poor.)

I now know exactly what he means. Not only are the vintages of the region simply marvelous to drink, Burgundy is the best place to learn about wine because it’s all about the vineyards, the grapes, the weather, and — just a bit — the winemaker (they’re extremely modest about their part but I suspect they may have more than “a bit” to do with it).

There are only two types of grapes in Burgundy: pinot noir and chardonnay. There is no blending of wines as is customary in other parts of the wine-making world — in fact, it’s not allowed. Put another way, there is no disguising the quality of the product. The wines are all identified by the little village-regions where their grapes were grown, and for the most part, the most prized wines come from tiny parcels of land atop or mid-way up Burgundy’s hills. This is because the grapes that grow on slope have much longer roots, allowing them to soak up the legendary terroir — and their distance from the water table means they must fight much harder for water. “Fighting is good for the grape,” the 18th-generation winemaker Olivier Leflaive told us. As a reward for all that fighting, they get to bask in the sunshine for much longer hours than their down-slope cousins — another key component of their superiority. 

Wines in prized mini-regions are certified Premier Cru or Grand Cru — this is a guarantee of both the age of the grapevines and their quality (Grand is better than Premier). In Burgundy, Grand Cru wines are (for the most part) made from vines that date from before the Great French Wine Blight of the mid-19th century. Whenever I’ve seen that on labels I assumed it was a marketing ploy. I couldn’t be farther from the truth! It’s a credential, hard-earned and proudly born.

I found this all so fascinating because I could see the relatively minuscule topographical and geographical differences in the vines on a single hill — and taste the pronounced and sometimes startling differences in the wines they produce. 

If you’d like you can view all my Burgundy photos here.

PS: Please excuse any mistakes or vast generalizations. I’m learning!