Many decent table wines, both red and white, issue from the Mâconnais, but the Pouilly trinity (-Fuissé, -Vinzelles, -Loché) are the only Mâcon wines in a class apart. Made from the Pinot Chardonnay grape (the same responsible for the Côte de Beaune whites and for blanc de blancs champagne), they are the ideal “all-purpose” white wines; neither too dry nor too rich nor excessively alcoholic, they have a fresh and exciting fruit when young, and after two or three years in bottle they develop a suave elegance that lifts them easily into the “great wine” category.
A bit before arriving at the southernmost tip of the Côte d’Or, Mercurey and Rully both produce white wines, about which, although each has its distinct personality, the same general remarks may be made as about Pouilly-Fuissé. Mercurey reds are light-bodied and, after a couple of years in bottle, develop a very pretty bouquet. They will keep much longer, but are never better than when drunk two or three years old and at cellar temperature.
All the greatest wines of Burgundy are produced from a strip of land hardly more than thirty miles long, known as the Côte d’Or. It stretches from Santenay to Fixin (just south of Dijon) and is divided into two sections, the southern half of which is known as the Côte de Beaune and the northern as the Côte de Nuits. A mere recital of the names of the villages covering that stretch will excite the papillary glands of a wine lover.
The greatest whites come from the Côte de Beaune (although a few, none the less impeccable, made from the Pinot Blanc grape, are produced in the Côte de Nuits) and are made from the Pinot Chardonnay grape. Montrachet, it is said, finds its peer only in Château d’Yquem. The Puligny-Montrachets, Corton-Charlemagnes and certain Meursaults (-Perrières, -Genevrières, -Charmes, etc.) certainly run close competition and, perhaps by virtue of being slightly less “heady,” are easier to place in a menu. Another beautiful white, less well known, is the Clos des Mouches at Beaune. All of these wines superbly accompany richly sauced fish dishes and chicken in white wine or cream sauces, and they happily precede great red Burgundies.
The Côte d’Or reds are made from the Pinot Noir grape. Those from the Côte de Beaune, with the Volnays heading the list (Corton, which is near the borderline, has a distinctly “Nuits” personality), are lighter in body than the Côte de Nuits, suppler, and on the whole mature more rapidly. They are faultless and often suffer unfairly from the inevitable comparison with the Côte de Nuits.
On the Côte de Nuits side, great red wines are numerous. The wines of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are universally thought to be the finest of all, and, of course it is true that they are breathtaking, but with such glories as Musigny and Chambertin (in whose bouquet, many people claim to find traces of the barnyard—that is possible, but it comes about as close as anything I know to Heaven) in the running, it seems unfair to give a place apart to one tiny group of vineyards. Many beauties, besides those mentioned, come from Vosne, Chambolle and Gevrey (which most often add the names of their most distinguished growths to those of the villages). Nor are Echezeaux, Vougeot (these two are both very close in character to the Vosne-Romanées), Fixin, or Nuits-Saint-Georges to be snubbed. The latter have a character apart—perhaps less sophisticated, not so elegant, more “earthy,” a bit harder—it is difficult to touch with words the soul of a wine. As for La Romanée, famous in oenological literature, I have never tasted it, nor even ever seen a bottle of it. One of Gevrey-Chambertin’s best known winegrowers told me recently that he had seen it and tasted it for the first time only a few months earlier on a trip to England!
The Appellation Contrôlée system is particularly complicated for the wines of the Côte d’Or, for not only is each of a number of communities distinguished by the right to an A.O., but each community is broken up into a number of so-called climats, each named and many with A.O. rights, in which case the name of the community need not be mentioned on the label (La Tâche, for instance, is a Vosne-Romanée, Le Clos de Tart a Morey-Saint-Denis, etc.). Others with A.O. rights mention the community in conjunction with the climat and still others, with no A.O. rights beyond the name of the community, print in small letters beneath the Appellation Contrôlée the name of the climat. To complicate things even further, many climats, though they may represent tiny plots of land, are shared by a number of different proprietors, who, naturally, do not all vinify their wines in the same way or with the same care. Many are bought by négociants, sometimes before the vinification, sometimes after, and, of course, négociants, too, are more or less honest. Certain négociants’ practices, strictly forbidden but difficult to control, such as adding large quantities of sugar to the crushed grapes before fermentation to bring up the alcohol content or mixing heavier, more alcoholic wines from the Côtes-du-Rhône and Algeria with the Burgundy base, have done tremendous harm to Burgundy’s reputation. Many people are convinced that the best of the Burgundies are powerful, heavy, inky-colored wines that leave mangled systems in their wake, whereas, in fact, the best are light in color (a wonderful, transparent ruby, turning “tile-colored” with age), contain no more than 12½% alcohol, are delicate and rich with nuance on the palate, and, to quote the Bourgignons, “They leave the breath clean and the head clear.”
A label tells everything. Indifferent wines tend to lean on grandiose and meaningless phrases—Grand Vin d’Origine, for instance. The finer the wine, the more specific the information. One may know the vintage (wines that bear no year or the mention V.S.R.—Very Special Reserve1—are a mixture of several years designed to produce a rounder, smoother—and more anonymous—product), the specific vineyard (climat, cru, growth), whether the wine was made, cared for, and put into bottles by a private winegrower, or bought, cared for and bottled by a négociant (who may be an owner as well, and wine that is produced from his own property will be so indicated on the label—or he may have exclusive rights to buy the entire production of a specific vineyard, and this, too, will appear on the label).
1 Said by some to mean Vins Spécialement Recommandés.
This information will no doubt seem rather dreary to many readers, but, when buying Burgundy wine, unless one simply settles on a Romanée-Conti, it is absolutely essential to be able to read the label correctly. The name of the American importer will also appear on the bottle, and, for those whose knowledge of the source is limited, that, too, may be an indication of relative quality.
Clos de Bèze is the most prized section of the climat of Cham-bertin, itself the first growth of the community of Gevrey-Chambertin; other vineyards with special A.O. rights beside the community appellation, but not within the Chambertin climat, incorporate the name of Chambertin also, but their modifying names (Charmes-, Mazoyères-, etc.) precede that of Chambertin. The label indicates the name of the proprietor and that the wine was put into bottles on the property (Mise au Domaine).
Bonnes-Mares is a border climat, part of which is within the community boundaries of