Jeroboams Education is a new series on our blog providing you with the lowdown on the most iconic wine producing regions of the world. Led by our super buying team, Peter Mitchell MW and Maggie MacPherson will introduce you to the key facts and a little history of all the regions you recognise but perhaps don’t know too well. To help really further your education, why not drink along? Browse our Red Burgundy selection.

Introduction

Whilst many very good and some genuinely great Pinot Noirs are made elsewhere in the world, none have yet scaled the heights of the finest Burgundy. At its best it is a wine that has layers of complexity and nuance, a haunting, almost ethereal bouquet, hedonistic dark summer berry fruit flavours, the sweet earthiness of beetroot and textural silky tannins. A wine that is at once rich and light on its feet, powerful and yet elegant and refreshing and a superb accompaniment to food. The production of the heart of Burgundy, the Côte d’Or, is quite small (especially in comparison to Bordeaux for example) and this, combined with the uniqueness of the wines, has meant prices are now out of reach for the majority of consumers. As all vineyards and vintners are not made equal, these excessive prices also make this a region with more ability to underwhelm than almost any other – it is perfectly possible to spend ten times the price of an average bottle in the UK and get something very ordinary in the bottle.  Whilst red Burgundy is never cheap, there are more affordable wines – often from the surrounds of the Côte, that offer as good value as Pinot Noir from anywhere in the world.

History

Wine has almost certainly been made here since the 1st century AD or earlier and signs of commercial viticulture remain from the 3rd century and the wines were highly regarded by the 6th century. The first vineyard gifts to monasteries were around this time and by the medieval times, the monks were responsible for producing most of the excellent wine. By the 13th century, the monks of Cluny owned all of the vineyard land around Gevrey, as well as the great vineyards of Vosne (including Romanée Conti, Richebourg and La Tâche), whilst not long afterwards the abbey of Citaux owned the Clos de Vougeot and large tracts of Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. With a highly skilled workforce and the time to learn and study, the monks discovered the importance of terroir and began the process of defining the crus we know today. When the Papal court moved to Avignon in the 14th century, the wines became regarded as the best in the world and demand soared and under the dukes of Burgundy wine was the region’s most important export.

Pinot Noir has probably been here much longer, but is first mentioned in the 1370s, with Gamay also present (and regarded lowly) at the same time. The fall of the dukedom and rise of the power of France saw the vineyards slowly taken from the church and sold to powerful local merchants and the first négocients were founded in the 1720s. The revolution saw the lands confiscated from the church and the nobility and sold in small pieces to multiple owners. The Napoleonic rules of succession meant these were further subdivided with each generation, leading to the fragmented nature of ownership that exists today. The ravages of Phlloxera devastated the region and when the vineyards were replanted, only the best sites saw new vines. 

An informal classification already existed, but it was not until the 1930s that the appellation system was introduced. Virtually all Burgundy was matured and sold by the négocient houses until the 1930s when the first co-operatives started to be formed and the likes of Gouges, d’Angerville and especially Rousseau began to bottle their own wine. By the 1960s, 15% of the wine was domaine bottled and that has risen to around half today. The 1980s saw more prosperity come to the region and a new generation took over at often moribund estates. With greater technical expertise and a more outward view, better and better wines were made and prices began their inexorable rise to where they are today. In 1996, a bottle of Echézeaux from Domaine de la Romanée Conti would cost you £50 retail, now a five year old example of the same wine is £2000.

Whilst the region has thus far largely remained in the ownership of the families who have been here for generations (in stark contrast to Bordeaux) the value of the land and French inheritance taxes possess an existential threat to this.

The Red Burgundy Appelations

The Crus in the Côte de Nuits