It is easy to see why Marsannay gets "Edges" status. It is literally at the very edge of the Cote d'Or. For a long while, it's wines were all designated mere Bourgogne. That only changed in 1987, when Marsannay was awarded full AOC status. It still does not have any premier crus, and many people still associate it with Rose (interesting fact: Marsannay is the only village entitled to produce in red, white and rose!)
Read more
It's true that Mercurey does not produce any reds on the level of the Cote d'Or's greatest. Yet, compared to red wines from many other regions of the world -- including many others that produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay -- the quality is extremely high and the prices are unaccountably low. Let's get drinking!
Read more
Challenging vintages like 2013 give me pause to wonder whether the concept of a "perfect vintage" is itself flawed, and does it really behoove us to seek to drink and cellar only those seemingly “perfect” vintages anyway?
Read more
For a while I felt that drinking Santenay was like visiting your family of wild cousins and marveling that they are related to you. Was that really Pinot Noir....or was that a Cotes du Rhone I was drinking? It seemed that there was simply too much coarseness and clunkiness for the wines to be from the Cote d'Or. But wine-making has really improved in Santenay over the last decade or so, and more and more I've been finding bottles of wine that truly satisfy my cravings for great Burgundy. Pay just a little bit of attention, and you can find those bottles too.
Read more
Today we start exploring the Edges of Burgundy with Saint-Aubin. This is a series that focuses on villages of Burgundy that are less heralded despite producing world class and age-worthy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Read more
Is Burgundy going the way of Bordeaux? Prices certainly are going up every year. The top producers’ wines are now out of reach for the vast majority of us. In famous villages (Vosne Romanée, Chambolle Musigny), even relatively unknown producers don't come cheap.
Read more
Regnie and Chiroubles have a couple of things in common. They both border Morgon, but, unlike their famous neighbor, they are considered among the lightest and most forward-drinking of the 10 Crus.
Read more
We deal with two AOCs in one focus this time because, as the names suggest, these are two Crus that really ought to be discussed together. The most important distinction between the two Crus is in the names themselves: Brouilly is on the flatland; Cote de Brouilly is on the adjacent "Cote," or slope. If you know anything about wine, you can guess which produces the more interesting wine. While Brouilly produces fun, light, fruity juice for drinking young, often out of a jug at a simple bistro in Paris, while Cote de Brouilly makes serious wine. Both Brouilly and the Cote de Brouilly have similar soils — a mix of granite, clay, and limestone — so really we have a natural experiment that proves conclusively that the superior drainage and exposure offered by a cote results in better wine.
Read more
If Julienas sounds a bit like Julius Caesar, it’s because they were actually making wine here 2000 years ago and Julius did in fact give the AOC its name (as well the name of its principal village, also Julienas, and another village in the AOC, Jullie). When I learn stuff like that it gives me great hope that quality wine production will continue in the great vineyards of France despite climate change.
Read more
