Bourgogne

De Wikignôle.

Modèle:Traduction

Fichier:Meursault,Burgundy.jpg
Chardonnay vineyards in the south of the Côte de Beaune surrounding the town of Meursault.

Burgundy (Bourgogne in French) is the name given to certain wines made in the Burgundy region of France.

Red Burgundy wines are usually made with the Pinot Noir grape, and white Burgundy wines are usually made with Chardonnay grapes, as dictated by the AOC.

Sommaire

Geography

The wine region starts just south of Dijon at Marsannay-la-Côte and runs southward to just short of the city of Lyon. The area of Chablis stands on its own to the northwest of Dijon, about as close to Paris as it is to the heart of Burgundy. The main wine regions in Burgundy proper (those that are entitled to the AOC Bourgogne designation) are the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune (collectively known as the Côte d'Or or "golden slope") and further south the Côte Chalonnaise. Also viticulturally part of Burgundy are Beaujolais, Chablis, and Mâcon. The Route des Grands Crus (which loosely translates as the "road of great vineyards") traverses the Burgundy wine region.

The area is made up tiny villages surrounded by flat and sloped vineyards. The sloped vineyards have the most exposure to sunshine and the greatest drainage. The best wines (grand cru) from this region are grown from the middle part of the slopes while the "premier cru" wines are produced from the flat territory in the villages. There is a lot of variation in this village, and the winemakers are very experienced, however, only 3 - 4 grape varieties are produced here.

Climate

Burgundy experiences a continental climate characterized by very cold winters and hot summers. The weather is very unpredictable with rains, hail, and frost all possible around harvest time. Because of this climate, there is a lot of variation between vintages from Burgundy.

Wine characteristics and classification

Fichier:Burgundy bottles.jpg
2 bottles of Red Burgundy from Gevrey-Chambertin, Côte de Nuits.

Burgundy is in some ways the most terroir-oriented region in France; immense attention is paid to the area of origin, and in which of the region's 400 types of soil a wine's grapes are grown. As opposed to Bordeaux, where classifications are producer-driven and awarded to individual chateaux, Burgundy classifications are geographically-focused. A specific vineyard or region will bear a given classification, regardless of the wine's producer. This focus is reflected on the wine's labels where appellations are most prominent and producer's names often appear at the bottom in much smaller text.

Burgundy classifications, in descending order of quality, are: grand crus, premier crus, commune or village, and finally generic Bourgogne.

  • The grand cru refers to the best wine produced at the best vineyard sites. Grand cru wines make up 2% of the production at 35 hectoliters/hectare. These wines need to be aged a minimum of 5-7 years, however, can be good when aged up to 15 years. Very few Chardonnays in the world can be aged as long as these wines. Grand cru wines will only list the vineyard on the wine label.
  • The premier cru wines are excellent, but are not considered to be as great as the grand cru wines. Premier cru wines make up 12% of production at 45 hectoliters/hectare. These wines need to be aged 3-5 years. Premier cru wines will list both the village and the vineyard on the wine label.
  • The village wines are generally characteristic of the village in which they are produced. Village wines make up 36% of production at 50 hectoliters/hectare. These wines can be consumed 2-4 years after the release date. Village wines will only show the village name on the wine label, however, the village name is tied to the best grand cru vineyard in the village.
  • AOC Bourgogne classification refers to wines that come from anywhere in the Burgundy region. This classification is where grapes other than Chardonnay and Pinot Noir begin to be introduced, allowing Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, two Pinot Noir mutations that were traditionally grown and now are in decline in the area. These wines make up the rest of production at 55 hectoliters/hectare. These wines can be consumed up to three years after the vintage date.

Other Burgundy AOCs that are not as often seen are Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (which can contain up to two thirds Gamay (the grape of Beaujolais) in addition to Pinot Noir), Bourgogne Aligoté (which is primarily made with the Aligoté grape), and Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire. The latter is the lowest AOC, and Grand refers to the size of the area eligible to produce it, not its quality. There are certain regions that are allowed to put other grapes in miscellaneous AOCs, but for the most part these rules hold. These regulations are even confusing to the majority of French adults, according to research (Franson).

Production

Burgundy vineyards make up some 60,000 acres of production. Generally, the small wine growers sell their grapes to larger producers called négociants who blend and bottle the wine. The roughly 115 negociants who produce the majority of the wine only control around 8% of the acreage. Individual growers have around 67% of the acreage, but produce only around 25% of the wine. Some small wineries produce only 100-200 cases/year while many producers make a few thousand cases/year. Grower/producer made wines can be identified by the terms Mis en bouteille au domaine, Mis au domaine, or Mis en bouteille a la propriete. The largest producer is Maison Louis Latour in Beaune with 350,000 cases/year. The negociants may use the term Mis en bouteille dans nos caves (bottled in our cellars), but are not entitled to use the estate bottled designation of the grower/producers.

Grape varieties

For the white grapes, Chardonnay (Bourgogne Blanc) is the most common. A secondary grape is Aligoté which is lower cost and higher in acidity. This is a very aggressive grape and is grown in small quanties. Chablis produces 100% white grapes.

For the red grapes, all production in Cote d'Or is focused on the Pinot Noir grape while the Gamay grape is grown in Beaujolais. In the Côte de Nuits region, 90% of the production is red grapes.

History

From about the year 900 up to the French Revolution, the vineyards of Burgundy were owned by the Church. After the revolution, the vineyards were broken up and sold to the workers who had tended them. The Napoleonic inheritance laws resulted in the continued subdivision of the most precious vineyard holdings, so that some growers hold only a row or two of vines. This led to the emergence of négociants who aggregate the produce of many growers to produce a single wine. It has also led to a profusion of increasingly small family-owned wineries, exemplified by the dozen plus "Gros" family domaines.

Expensive reputation

Burgundy is home to some of the most expensive wines in the world, including those of Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Domaine Leroy, Henri Jayer, Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Dugat-Py, Domaine Leflaive and Domaine Armand Rousseau. However, some top vintage grand cru Bordeaux wines and a few iconic wines from the New World are more expensive than some grand cru class Burgundy.

The British wine critic Jancis Robinson emphasizes that "price is an extremely unreliable guide" and that "What a wine sells for often has more to do with advertising hype and marketing decisions than the quality contained in the bottle". While grand crus often command steep prices, village level wines from top producers can be found at quite reasonable prices.

It has been pointed out that "There are no shortcuts to understanding the region of Burgundy.... If you want to become a Burgundy expert, be prepared to memorize 1,000 names, take a course in French pronunciation and expect to get lost in a maze of appellations (officially delineated wine zones). In addition, get ready to part with a good chunk of change—Burgundy wines are expensive. It is like buying designer wine, you pay for the name. And the smaller the appellation within burgundy, the rarer the wine and the higher the cost." [1]

Producers

Some well-known wine producers in Burgundy include:

Some well known négociants include: Louis Latour, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Jadot, Bouchard, and Patriarche et Fils.

See also

Sources

  • Franson, P. Labels Gone Wild. The Wine Enthusiast, March, 2006, pages 28-33.
  • Robinson, Jancis. Cheap at half the price? Wine, 2006 (February-March), 6(3), 30-31.

External links

Récupérée de « http://www.wikignole.be/wiki/Bourgogne »