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Burgundy Wine

In Burgundy, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes are ingredients of some of the world's most revered wines. But have winemakers elsewhere had more success in using them to create everyday wines?

Old World wine buffs are roughly split into two groups: those who love red Bordeaux and those who love red Burgundy.

Bordeaux, it is said, attracts the intellectuals, the lovers of order, logic and hierarchy. Red Burgundy, on the other hand, is supposed to attract the sensualists. When you first stumble upon a good one (no doubt having paid a huge amount of money for the pleasure of doing so) you will come to realise that tasting and smelling great red Burgundy is a life-changing experience.

THE THRILL OF THE CHASE

But taste a bad Burgundian Pinot Noir and you might be wondering what particular aspect of it is supposed to be sensual. There is no doubt that much of the grape's appeal lies in its inconsistency. For many wine lovers, finding good Burgundian Pinot Noir is like finding truffles - it combines gastronomy with the thrill of the chase. For winemakers it offers a similar challenge. This notoriously fickle grape variety is the petulant prima donna of the grape world and can create good and bad wines in equal measure.

In Burgundy the hallowed ground that is regarded as the spiritual home of Pinot Noir is the Côte d'Or. To hardened old-school wine buffs the vineyards of this tiny area are the only places where it is possible to make truly great Pinot Noir. Yet despite the grape's reputation a number of winemakers in other wine regions with a similarly cool, temperate climate, such as in New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, California and Germany, have had a great success in creating fabulous perfumed wines with this grape. There are some parallels with the success that New World winemakers have achieved with Shiraz: though they haven't succeeded in creating exact replicas of Rhône reds, they have used the grape to create a style of wine that is all their own. So, though the wines made from Pinot Noir in other regions might not have the extraordinary haunting character of great red Burgundy, many have a wonderful, highly distinctive freshness.

TASTE TEST 1

Good-quality red Burgundy + basic red Burgundy + good-quality New Zealand Pinot Noir + good-quality Pinot Noir from either California or Oregon

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

There is a high chance that the wines in this tasting will lead you to an emphatic conclusion: that in the right hands and the right conditions the Pinot Noir grape can be used to make great wines anywhere in the world. The Côte de Beaune is to Chardonnay what the Côte d'Or is to Pinot Noir. But to buy the wines at their best you need to dig deep into your pocket. However, Chardonnay is a more versatile grape than Pinot Noir and creates a much wider range of styles, from simple and refreshing to impressively complex.

TASTE TEST 2

Good-quality white Burgundy + good-quality Californian Chardonnay + midrange South African Chardonnay

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

How does breathtakingly expensive white Burgundy stand up to the competition? Even if it is better, is it worth the extra investment?

THE FIRST TASTE IS THE SWEETEST

You might spend years trying to find the perfect expression of Burgundian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. On your journey, there's every chance that you'll experience wines that have all the charm of rotten cabbage and others that taste like battery acid. But once you've tasted a great example, you will be prepared to embark on the same exhaustive process in order to find another. The question you'll have to ask yourself is whether it is worth the investment - for every twenty wines you taste, there is a chance that you might only taste one good example. One of the reasons that New World wines have been so successful in recent years is because they tend to be more consistent - only time will teach you which is the most sensible path to follow.

POOR MAN'S CHABLIS

Though inexpensive white Burgundy can be very disappointing, many would opt for the good-value whites to be found further south in the Maconnais. These offer the combination of the prestige of white Burgundy with crisp, racy flavours.


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