The region in the east of France covers 32,000 km². The capital is Dijon, but the wine capital is Beaune. Burgundy is divided into the four départements of Côte d'Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire and Yonne. However, the Burgundy wine-growing region is not the same. The wooded Nièvre with its oak wood for the production of barrique barrels belongs to the Loire wine-growing region. The Département Rhône (not to be confused with the Rhône wine-growing region) in the south, the home of Beaujolais, is very independent. Administratively, it belongs to the Rhône-Alpes region, but is categorised as part of the Burgundy wine-growing region. The department of Yonne to the north, which includes the Chablis area, is also known as Basse-Bourgogne.

History

Burgundy is one of the oldest and most important wine-growing regions in France. Viticulture was influenced by the Greeks even before the Romans. They supplied wine and artefacts to the Celts (Gauls) who lived here. The famous crater of Vix (mixing jug for wine) in a Celtic princely tomb from the 6th century BC bears witness to the trade between the two peoples. The first evidence of viticulture dates back to 312 in a letter to Emperor Constantine (288-337). Bishop Gregory of Tours (538-594) wrote in his history of the Franks that a noble wine comparable to Falernian grew in the mountains west of Dijon.

According to legend, Emperor Charlemagne (742-814) owned a vineyard in the municipality of Aloxe-Corton, which still exists today. Burgundy consisted of two kingdoms from 879 and was an independent duchy from 947 to 1493. The great importance of the Catholic Church for French and European viticulture is inextricably linked to the Cistercians. This order was founded in the monastery of Cîteaux in 1098 by Robert de Molesme. In 1308, Avignon was founded as a place of exile for the popes. They feasted on "Beaune wine" and Pope Urban V (1310-1370) issued a bull in 1364 in which he forbade the abbot of Cîteaux to send even a drop of Beaune wine to Rome under threat of excommunication.

Under the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good (1396-1467), the famous Hospices de Beaune were founded in 1443, the income from which came from a vineyard and have been used for the care of the elderly and sick for 600 years, with annual auctions held since 1859. The duke is credited with personally selecting a variety of Pinot Noir and prescribing it as the obligatory grape variety for the region. He also issued laws that constituted a kind of appellation system in Burgundy at the time. At that time, wine from Beaune was among the most famous in the world. In 1728, the clergyman Claude Arnoux (1695-1770) published the book "La Situation de la Bourgogne", in which he described Burgundy wines and their preparation.

Viticulture in modern times

The history of Burgundy viticulture was chequered over the following centuries. In the 1930s, the aftermath of the First World War (1914-1918), temperance movements and failed harvests led to a major sales crisis, forcing many winegrowers to sell their vineyards. Two Burgundian patriots therefore founded the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin wine brotherhood in 1934 to preserve the tradition of Burgundy wine. It organises annual events such as Les Trois Glorieuses and Saint-Vincent Tournante.

Vineyards, soil & climate

Over 10,000 winegrowers cultivate around 40,000 hectares of vineyards. Most of them own only one or two hectares, which is why Burgundy is also known as the "land of small plot owners". Only around a third of them are exclusively involved in viticulture. The large wine estates here are not called "Château" as in Bordeaux, but mostly "Domaine". The different soils consist of granite and slate, marl and limestone as well as gravel and clay. The largely continental climate is characterised by cold winters and relatively short summers due to the northern location. There is often heavy rainfall in May, June and October.

Classification

The idea of terroir plays a major role in the centrally organised quality classification system for the appellations. Small neighbouring plots are often completely different. In the Côte de Nuits area, around 60 different soil types have been identified, which differ in terms of physical and chemical characteristics, slope, etc. and have led to a categorisation in quality classes. Every vineyard (Cru, Climat) in the Côte d'Or and Chablis (not in Beaujolais and Mâconnais) has been precisely recorded. The system, which applies to the entire region with over 100 appellations, is considered complicated, but is standardised compared to the Bordeaux classification. It is largely based on the Burgundy classification system created by Jules Lavalle (1820-1880) in 1861.

Sustainable cultivation

From the 1990s onwards, Burgundy began to rethink its approach to natural viticulture. Anne-Claude Leflaive, the owner of Domaine Leflaive, warned of the consequences of exploitative cultivation and predicted that there would be no more Burgundian vineyards and wines in the foreseeable future if the soils were not looked after. Her vineyard and the famous Domaine de la Romanée-Conti switched to biodynamic viticulture and were thus pioneers for the whole of France and many other countries for organic viticulture.

Grape varieties

Around 75% white wines and 25% red and rosé wines are produced. The big difference to Bordeaux and most other French regions is that the wines are mostly produced from single varietals. Due to the climatic conditions, early-ripening varieties are the most suitable. The four dominant varieties are Chardonnay and Aligoté for white wines, and Pinot Noir and Gamay (Beaujolais) for red wines.

Appellations

The largest areas (where other appellations are listed):

• Beaujolais - 22,000 hectares
• Bourgogne regional appellation with 18 additional appellations - 3,200 hectares
• Chablis (Blanchot, Bougros, Grenouilles, L. Clos, L. Preuses, Valmur, Vaudésir) - 4,500 ha
• Coteaux du Lyonnais - 375 ha
• Côte Chalonnaise with Bouzeron, Givry, Mercurey, Montagny, Rully - 4,500 ha
• Côte d'Or with Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits - 4,600 ha
• Irancy - 160 ha
• Mâconnais with Pouilly-Fuissé (P.-Loché, P.-Vinzelles), Saint-Véran, Viré-Clessé - 7,000 ha
• Saint-Bris - 130 ha

Burgundy wines

The Côte d'Or - aptly called the "Golden Slope" - is the showpiece of Burgundy with many famous wine-growing communities as independent appellations. The best red wines are grown in the northern part of the Côte de Nuits in Chambolle-Musigny, Gevrey-Chambertin and Vosne-Romanée with many highly classified climats/locations (Grands Crus and Premiers Crus). Top white wines come from the areas of Aloxe-Corton, Chablis, Meursault and Montrachet (Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet). Burgundian top wines are among the best and most expensive wines in the world.

Aloxe-Corton: From Louis Latour
Map: By DalGobboM¿!i? - Own work, GFDL, Link
edited by Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer
Grape varieties: Ursula Brühl, Doris Schneider, Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI)