Burgundy
Two grapes, a thousand answers.
Burgundy grows essentially two grapes, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and has spent a thousand years proving that the grape is the least interesting variable. The Côte d'Or is a narrow limestone escarpment where a single road separates village wine from Grand Cru, and the difference is measured in slope, drainage and aspect rather than anything the winemaker did. The monks mapped these parcels — climats — by taste, over centuries. Modern geology has largely agreed with them.
Grapes grown here 3
What the region makes
The most structured Pinot Noir in the world. Red cherry, undergrowth, iron; ages for decades.
Barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Hazelnut, oatmeal, citrus, with a mineral spine.
Unoaked Chardonnay on Kimmeridgian limestone, full of fossilised oyster shell. Steely, saline, taut.
Worth knowing
The climats of the Côte d'Or — 1,247 named parcels — were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
Napoleonic inheritance law split vineyards between heirs each generation. One Grand Cru, Clos de Vougeot, now has around 80 different owners across 50 hectares.
Try this region if you like Pinot Noir and want to understand why people get obsessive about dirt.
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