Clearly I’m having some trouble keeping up. We’re only one day shy of a full month since my last post and it’s been weeks since I drank these last two Burgundies. I hardly know what to say about them!

First up, Meursault, where white wine dominates. There are no Grand Cru wines here, but many Premier Cru and the quality is apparently pretty even across the region.

The wine I drank, from Louis Latour, was lemon-yellow and had aromas of fresh straw, lemon and a little cream. It had a medium body and was creamy up front, but had a bitter acid on the back palate with a long finish.

And finally, for my last Burgundy, I thought it appropriate that I try a Grand Cru. While I’m sure that it’s not the same as a DRC, it’s a Grand Cru Burgundy for only $55! This one is from Corton, and one of the top areas within it, Les Renardes.

This particular Corton-Renardes, from Domaine Marius Delarche, was ripe and fresh on the nose, with eucalyptus and a hint of raspberry. It was very smooth, as I expected a Grand Cru to be, with medium body. It was tangy and acidic, as undoubtedly it would improve with more bottle age, but the tannins were quite subtle. There wasn’t a lot of fruit, and it was a little green, but this was a 3-year-old Grand Cru Burgundy that we clearly drank too young. The sacrifices I make for the sake of Give Me Grapes!

Unfortunately, I drank these wines long enough ago that I don’t think I can fairly give them scores. However, these were, at least according to the labels, the best wines of the Burgundy bunch and why I saved them for last. They definitely were the best upon drinking them as well.

So, what comes next? First, I must think of ideas to make sure I don’t let one month lapses become the norm. But, I’m thinking it’s time to move to another classic wine region, outside France.

I’ve sat here for several minutes unsure of how to start or what to write about Volnay. There are no fun anecdotes, tidbits, or trivia. So here it is: Volnay, they make wine there.

Ok, here are a few tidbits, although I must warn you they are pretty unremarkable tidbits. Volnay is often some of the lightest red wine of the Côte, soft and very fragrant. There are no Grand Cru vineyards there, but several Premier Cru vineyards that are highly regarded.

The 2008 Vincent Girardin Les Lieilles Vignes Volnay that I drank was in fact very light in color. I noted that is was more like a dark pink wine (fuchsia almost) that was translucent. On the nose were sweet cherries, and a fresh smell- almost like mint. I could also smell the alcohol, although I had just opened the bottle and at 13% ABV it’s by no means a monster. It had a light body, light, but firm, tannins and was quite earthy with an aftertaste of stones. Myles did not like it, I thought it was fine but not great.

So, there you have it. A wine from Volnay.

The Score: ★★★

I’m really behind here (I drank this wine something like 10 days ago). It took me a while to locate my tasting notes! As I always do before writing a post, I got out my hulking copy of the World Atlas of Wine and read the entry for the Côte Châlonnaise.

This is not the Côte d’Or and that’s precisely why I threw in a wine from this region. I wanted to see if the Côte d’Or is really that much better. And I think I’m going to just simply quote the wonderful, dry, British wit of Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson:

“So close is the north of the Côte Châlonnaise to the southern tip of the Côte d’Or that it is surprising that most of its wines taste so perceptibly different, like slightly undernourished country cousins.”

I couldn’t possibly think of a better way to describe the 2007 Antonin Rodet Chateau de Mercey Mercurey Rouge as compared to the wines from the Côte d’Or I’ve drunk since-- please stay tuned, posts will appear shortly. (By the way, Mercurey is one of five major communes here in the central strip of this area, the most "celebrated" of the region. ) It was a reddish pink, and light, color. It smelled very fruity and fresh, but also of dried cherries. It had a light body and soft tannins, but the acid was bitter and the wine was a bit green overall. Too vegetal and earthy, absolutely no fruit. Though drinkable, I’ve had many pinots from various places around the world that are better than this one.

The Score: ★★

Though it is part of Burgundy, Chablis is 100 miles north of Beaune (the upper end of the Cote d’Or) and is closer to the Champagne region. It was once a vast winegrowing region, and the main supplier of wine for Paris via the region's vast system of rivers. Although, the advent of the train blew that out of the water (pun intended).

It is a very cool region, and Chardonnay is the only grape here. The vines are very susceptible to frost during budbreak, although modern frost prevention technologies have helped to improve chances the crop isn’t lost. The region has a limstone clay soil that supposedly produces flavors in the wine that cannot be reproduced anywhere- a true expression of terroir. Most winemakers in the region favor unoaked wines fermented in stainless steel.

Typically the wines have very high acid, on account of the very cool climate, and often have flavors of stones and minerals. When the wines are young they are often a little green in color, but many of the best wines have the potential to age for decades.

Unfortunately, Chablis, the name, has been highjacked by many cheap wine producers outside the region and used to label any old white wine. The region is fighting back and trying to protect their name from this awful swill. My advice: if the Chablis is coming to you in a 5 liter box, steer clear.


The 2007 Hervé AZO Chablis half bottle was both creamy and a bit oaky on the nose and the palate. It was very acidic and light with bitter green apple and wood. Not too bad, though certainly not the best.

The Score: ★★½

After writing and nearly posting this post I realized that I had, in fact, purchased two bottles of Chablis, the second being the 2009 Château de Maligny Chablis 1er Cru "Montee de Tonnerre" for $26.99 at K&L. I remembered that I had intended to drink them back to back to compare a more standard Chablis to a premier cru. So much for good intentions. This wine was creamy with hints of flowers and wood on the nose. It had a creamy acidity, but fairly light mouthfeel. It tasted of lemon rind, sweet grapefruit and wet stones. Definitely worth paying for the premier cru!

The Score: ★★★½

I really took Kevin Zraly’s advice to heart when I decided to purchase a Mâcon-Villages ( ) rather than a Pouilly-Fuissé to taste a wine from this region. Though not pricey by any means, he said the most Mâcon-Villages is pretty good and that Pouilly-Fuissé isn’t really worth the extra money. But its so fun to say!

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to taste both at the K&L Burgundy tasting. And neither could hold a candle to the wine from Puligny-Montrachet that I really loved anyway!

Mâcon is a region that produces almost entirely white wine. It’s warmer there than the Côte d’Or, but the wines are fairly solid. Or maybe I just think so because I’m finding myself so enamored with white Burgundy and its acidic un-oakiness! Near the southern tip of the region, just north of Beaujolais, is the Roche de Solutré.

Nice rock! It marks the end of the great growing region of Burgundy (or rather the end of the limestone plateau in which great Burgundy is grown). It is within sight of this landmark that Pouilly-Fuissé is grown.

I picked up a half bottle of Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages for my tasting. It was fairly clear and golden yellow. It smelled like oaky chardonnay. I thought uh-oh, should’ve sprung the few extra bucks for the Pouilly-Fuissé! But, on second smell, I could pick up the acid underneath. Sure enough, the wine had a biting acid, but was also creamy, with a fairly heavy body and lots of minerals (i.e. stones).

The Score: ★★★

This also seems an appropriate time to interject a quick lesson on negociants, given that Louis Jadot is very well known and often seen outside France (like in Target, for example). So, I mentioned in my previous post that Burgundy is not a land of glorious château, but mostly rural farmland. Until fairly recently, especially in Burgundy, most French wine was made by negociants. They were the ones who made, bottled and sold the wine, but did not grow the grapes.

As I’ve mentioned before, vineyards have been split into very small parcels (law of equal inheritance) and so it was often the case that growers didn’t have the quantity of grapes or the financial means necessary for the equipment to make wine. Negociants bought the grapes, or must, sometimes even juice, produced wine, often with a “house style”, and sold it.

They were dominant until about 25 years ago when more small growers began producing their own wines. And many negociants have since gotten into the grape-growing side of things too. How do you tell when looking at a French wine label if it was made by a negociant or not? The key word is “Domaine”. It functions very much like the word Estate on American wines. So, this Mâcon-Villages said simply “Louis Jadot”. This means they bought the grapes to make the wine. However, if it said “Domaine Louis Jadot” that would mean it was made from grapes grown on land Louis Jadot owns.

Next lesson- what does Maison on a label mean?

The day before I was planning to head to K&L to buy the rest of my Burgundy (having already visited Draeger’s the day before), I received my newsletter in the mail from K&L. Guess what they were holding the very next day? A Burgundy wine tasting! I cleared my schedule.

The tasting was hosted by their Burgundy buyer that goes to France and meets with the winemakers of many of the wines they sell. He was incredibly knowledgeable and pronounced all the French words with an American accent. Made them seem less out of reach for my non-French speaking self!

The tasting was of 13 wines (!!), 7 white and 6 red. What was interesting about this tasting was that many of the wines were labeled “Bourgogne Blanc” and “Bourgogne Rouge”. That means the grapes could come from anywhere in Burgundy (much like a bottle of wine that says “California” could come from anywhere in the state). But, many of the vintages we tasted (2008 & 2009) were years that the economy was struggling. Our host said that many of the winemakers declassified their grapes so they could still sell their wine, but since he had relationships with them, he knew for a fact that many of the wines were actually from specific villages. Read: Wine Bargains.

At any rate, the most interesting thing I took away from the tasting was a further lesson on malolactic fermentation. It seems that most (if not all) red wines go through this, and some whites, especially Chardonnay, do too. This process takes the malic acid (like the tartness of a green apple) and changes it into lactic acid (like in milk). This is what gives Chardonnay its creaminess.

As California Chardonnay has become a bit over the top lately, some producers have specifically chosen not to put their wines through malolactic at all, or they stop it before it finishes, in order to preserve the natural acidity in the wine. These are the California chards I prefer.

All of the white burgundies I tried at the tasting had good acidity and all were noticeably better to me (in that I don’t like super creamy, or oaky, chardonnay) than most domestic examples. I was surprised when our host told us that all seven of the wines had been through a complete malolactic fermentation. Because it’s a fairly cool climate in Burgundy, the natural acidity of chardonnay grapes is quite high. Incomplete malolactic would be the winemaker’s nightmare!

Of course, my two favorite wines of the tasting were the most expensive. The 2008 Maison Jacques Bavard Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru “Champs Gains” was a five star wine. And at $54.99 would’ve been the most I’d ever paid for a white wine-- if I’d gotten it. I’m still thinking about it... The 2008 Maison Champy Chambolle-Musigny was my favorite red. A four star wine coming in at $46.99.

I also learned a bit more about reading French wine labels, and how to tell if the wine was made by a negociant or not- but this post is getting long. I’ll save that for a future lesson.

I was completely incorrect when I thought I was “punishing” myself with Bordeaux. Its hard, true, to remember all the appellations and especially all the various classifications systems. And there are more grape varieties allowed. But next up is Burgundy, and its complexities make Bordeaux seems like child’s play. I have a pretty good memory and a knack for memorization (at least in the short term), but there’s just simply no way I *need* to memorize everything about Burgundy. Not to mention learning how to pronounce everything!


So, I’m going to do the abbreviated version. Burgundy For Dummies, if you will. Luckily I’m far more excited about these wines. I think I’m really gonna like Burgundy.

So, first, the basics. Burgundy ( in French) makes both red and white wine and they one make one of each. Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir and White Burgundy is Chardonnay. (Ok, this isn’t entirely true. Beaujolais is part of Burgundy and they grow and make wine from the gamay grape. But, no one calls wine from Beaujolais Burgundy, they call it Beaujolais, so I doubt this will cause any confusion). Easy enough, right?

Burgundy is in Eastern Central France and made up of several sub-regions. Chablis is actually fairly removed from the rest of the region, closer to Paris, and makes only white wine. The Côte d’Or, the most famous area of Burgundy, which is actually divided into two regions, Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, and makes a mix of red and white wine, Côte Châlonnaise which makes red and white wine, Mâconnais which makes almost all white wine and Beaujolais, 99% red wine, and I will not be covering it in this upcoming series. I have my limits.

Next big difference between Bordeaux and Burgundy is that in Bordeaux wines were always from “Château French-Word” and it was the château themselves that were classified in all the various systems. Burgundy is far less glamorous, there are no sprawling mansions. This is farmland. In Burgundy it is all about terroir, so naturally it is the vineyards that are classified. And thanks to our friend Napoleon, who after the French Revolution called for a law of equal inheritance for children, there are a TON of vineyards. In general, it seems that quality is highest from vineyards at the top of the hill, and it goes down from there to the base.

There are two classifications for Burgundy, Grand Cru and Premier Cru (often written 1er cru on labels). All Grand Cru Burgundies must say “Grand Cru” on the label and there are only 32 of them, so when you see one you know it’s the real thing. There are 400+ Premier Cru vineyards, so we won’t be discussing those in detail.


So, since there are more than 110 appellations and 1,000 vineyard names one must know in order to be an expert, I turned to my buddy Kevin Zraly and his book for my following “Graphique de Bourgogne” (that would be Chart of Burgundy). Memorize this and you may pass for a somewhat intelligent life-form when it comes to the wines of Burgundy. (Pronunciations provided when available).

Côte d’Or:

Côte de Beaune (70% red wines 30% white wines) 8 Grand Cru Vineyards
Important Red Villages:
Aloxe-Corton
Beaune
Pommard
Volnay

Important White Villages:
Aloxe-Corton
Beaune
Meursault
Puligny-Montrachet
Chassagne-Montrachet
Best recent white vintages: 1996*, 2000*, 2002*, 2005*, 2006*, 2007, 2008

Côte de Nuits (95% red wine) 24 Grand Cru Vineyards
Important Red Villages:
Gevrey-Chambertin
Morey-St-Denis
Chambolle-Musigny
Vougeot
Flagey-Échézeaux
Vosne-Romanée
Nuits-St-Georges

Best recent red vintages for Côte d’Or: 1999*, 2002*, 2003*, 2005**, 2006

Côte Châlonnaise
Important Villages:
Mercurey
Givry
Rully

Chablis (white wine)
Best recent vintages: 2002*, 2004, 2005*, 2006*, 2007, 2008

Mâconnais (white wine)
Quality levels, basic to best:
Mâcon Blanc
Mâcon Supérieur
Mâcon-Villages
St-Véran
Pouilly-Vinzelles
Pouilly-Fuissé
Best recent vintages: 2004*, 2005*, 2006*, 2007, 2008

And here’s what I picked up for this little jaunt through the ‘Gold Coast’ (Côte d’Or translated, by the way). I realize these following wine names may be largely unintelligible, I promise to get more detailed in each wine’s post!

From K&L:

2008 Domaine Delarche Corton-Renardes Grand Cru $54.99
2007 Louis Latour Meursault 1er Cru "Goutte d'Or" $39.95
2009 Château de Maligny Chablis 1er Cru "Montee de Tonnerre" $26.99
2007 Antonin Rodet Chateau de Mercey Mercurey Rouge $18.99
2008 Domaine Louis Jadot Côte de Nuits-Villages "Le Vaucrain" $23.99

And, since they have such a good selection, though not better prices, I also picked up a few things at Draeger’s, an upscale grocery store in downtown San Mateo with an amazing wine department.

2008 Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages (half bottle) $8.99
2007 Hervé AZO Chablis (half bottle) $13.99
2006 Domaine Anne-Marie Gille Vosne-Romanée $37.99
2008 Vincent Girardin Les Vieilles Vignes Volnay $38.99 (wow click the link to see how much better prices are at K&L!

I decided to take a very brief detour off of Bordeaux to taste the 2010 Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is in Burgundy, but unlike the rest of red wine produced in Burgundy, Beaujolais is made from the grape, a grape that apparently doesn’t produce much of anything worth drinking anywhere else that it’s grown. I tried a Beaujolais a few months back (and didn’t enjoy it either), but this is .

What does that mean exactly? Well, as you might have guessed, its pretty new wine. Its the 2010 vintage, which considering that grapes are harvested in the fall and I’ve already had it... Technically speaking, it is wine that is 7-9 weeks old. Traditionally, it was then shipped nearby for people to drink in celebration of the harvest. Like American Thanksgiving, if you will. Of course, now its shipped worldwide; my Whole Foods had signs up in anticipation of its arrival for weeks ahead of time. Legally, the wine cannot be released until the third Wednesday of November. So, on November 18th it hit the shelves. Touted as an excellent accompaniment to Thanksgiving dinner*, I decided to pick up at bottle. I mean, it was only $7.99. (*We already had an excellent Thanksgiving wine chosen, so we drank it along with leftovers after the holiday.)

I’ll save the specifics on how gamay is grown and fermented (both unusual) for when I really taste Beaujolais. Given my impression from this wine and the ill-fated Trader Joe’s Beaujolais, I see that it is IMPERATIVE that I taste a Cru wine if I want to enjoy it.

The wine was a magenta purplish color and was intensely fruity on the nose. It smelled almost candy-like. It was very light-bodied and had a general fruitiness, but was also the slightest bit sour. We drank almost half of this bottle before pouring it down the drain. It wasn’t horrible, certainly drinkable, but why drink mediocre wine when you can drink great wine?

The Score ★½