Category: Burgundy

Chambolle-Musigny is the essence of Burgundian grace. The wines of the town embody the elegant, silky side of Pinot Noir, a continent away from New World, warm climate versions. Though it’s a village of 320 inhabitants on less than 500 acres, this tiny town produces some of the most ethereal and sought-after red wine in the world.

Beside Chablis, the best secret in a white Burgundy lover’s cellar is his stash of St. Aubin. The village is easy to miss, wedged in a valley between Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. And though it rightly plays second fiddle to these two giants, it’s still a source for what wine writer Rajat Parr calls “some of the best-value Chardonnays in the…

Of the three great white Burgundy villages, Puligny-Montrachet most rewards patience. The other two -- Chassgane-Montrachet and Meursault -- produce wines with a richness that makes many of them drinkable early. But Puligny’s signature minerality makes longevity its strong suit.

Most coverage of the wines of Burgundy focuses on premier crus and grand crus, the region’s top two classification levels. But for the savvy Burgundy enthusiast, there’s no shortage of interesting wines at the village level. Often pulling from several plots inside a single town, these wines provide excellent opportunities to appreciate the character of a single village.

A properly aged bottle of wine is one of the great culinary pleasures. As the world moves at a frenetic pace and winemakers adapt to the demand for early-drinking wines, such bottles become increasingly rare. Patience and cellar space are in short supply.

Meursault is a village stuck in time. Its narrow crooked streets and pointed steeple perch on a hill above fields of weathered vineyards first planted by monks in 1098. The golden product of these fields has been known for centuries, and today it is as sought-after as any wine in the world. Remove the trucks parked along criss crossing vineyard…

Sommeliers often tell us of their search for a by-the-glass Chardonnay to please everyone. Chardonnay is both easy to like and ubiquitous, but the styles range widely from soft and buttery to crisp and mineral. “A glass of Chardonnay” can mean a dozen things to a dozen people.

Sparkling wine is one of the world’s great culinary innovations. Who deserves credit remains unsettled. Is it the monks of Limoux, who mark 1531 as the genesis? Or the Champenois, who in turning a “fault” into a feature certainly won the publicity war? Or perhaps the Brits, who invented glass bottles thick enough to contain the pressure, and who by…

Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest appellation of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. And because of its clay rich soils, its wines are of a similarly grand scale. Known for power and longevity, Gevrey-Chambertin often shows dark, intense fruit and a sturdy tannic structure.

“Minerality” is a hard word to define. It appears throughout the wine world, but nobody can quite say exactly what it is. Last year wine writer Lettie Teague called it “a helpful word to describe wines that aren’t fruity, spicy, or herbal.” That’s still a bit vague, but it’s a good start.

In Burgundy, Grand Cru is as good as it gets. Making up just the top 1.3% of wines produced, these are the finest wines Burgundy has to offer. Their correspondingly high prices mean that most wine drinkers enjoy them only occasionally, if at all.

Some of the best values in Burgundy are from towns just off the beaten path. Last week we wrote about St-Aubin, a hidden gem up the valley that stretches west between Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet. This week we’re focusing on another valley about 5 miles to the north, which features the town of Auxey-Duresses.

Americans don’t drink enough sparkling wine. By restricting its use to special occasions, we ignore its many other capabilities: a classy way to welcome guests, a gentle start to a meal, or a versatile pairing with an enormous range of foods. The French are more apt to treat sparkling wine as just that -- a wine that sparkles, to be…