The Wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux

THE WINES OF

BURGUNDY

AND

BORDEAUX

John Heathcote

Published by

An Imprint of Melrose Press Limited

St Thomas Place, Ely

Cambridgeshire

CB7 4GG, UK

www.melrosebooks.co.uk

First published as a limited, private edition of 250 copies in 2013 First commercial edition 2016

Copyright © John Heathcote 2016

The Author asserts his moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

ISBN978-1-911280-36-1

epub978-1-911280-37-8

mobi978-1-911280-38-5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For Peter

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Robert Parker for his permission to quote from the 4th edition of his book Bordeaux and in particular his modern classification of the principal châteaux of Bordeaux and their quality ranking. The ongoing support and encouragement in developing this improved version of the book is also greatly appreciated.

I acknowledge the very important contribution of Gill Hooper who created an orderly, attractive, and well presented manuscript from my handwritten semi-legible first drafts, which were subsequently extensively changed and corrected.

I very much appreciate the support of the Burgundy syndicate (BIVB) and Noemie Horteur who granted permission to include their superb wine maps of the five Burgundy sub-regions.

Jean-Robert Pitte published a fascinating book – ‘Burgundy/Bordeaux – a Vintage Rivalry’ relating to the historical conflict between the two great wine regions. I would like to thank the author for permission to quote from his book.

The wine tasting caricatures by the distinguished artist Sue Macartney-Snape adds welcome humour to the book and in particular John Steed’s ‘southern end of the vineyard’.

The images of Burgundy are contributed by the photographer and designer Armelle Hudelot.

The images of Bordeaux and two of the Abbey of Cîteaux are from the Cephas Picture Library.

The images of the Confrérie des Chevalier du Tastevin are contributed by photographer Jean-Louis Bernuy.

The Bordeaux wine maps and the map of the whole Burgundy wine region were commissioned from Grand Pavois by the author who retains the rights.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

BURGUNDY, BORDEAUX AND THE OTHER WINE REGIONS OF FRANCE

BURGUNDY

THE BURGUNDY WINE REGION

THE WINE STRUCTURE OF BURGUNDY

THE SUB-REGIONS OF BURGUNDY AND THEIR PRINCIPAL COMMUNES

BEAUJOLAIS

MÂCONNAIS

CÔTE CHÂLONNAISE

THE CÔTE DE BEAUNE

THE CÔTE DE NUITS

CHABLIS

THE SELECTION OF BURGUNDY WINES

TERMINOLOGY

WINE SELECTION

GRAND CRU AOC

PREMIER CRU AOC

VILLAGES AOC

SUMMARY OF YIELDS

CONFRÉRIE DES CHEVALIERS DU TASTEVIN - TASTEVINAGE

CONCLUSION

BORDEAUX

THE BORDEAUX WINE REGION

THE LEFT BANK – MÉDOC AND GRAVES

MÉDOC

THE FOUR GREAT COMMUNES OF THE HAUT MÉDOC –

ST ESTÈPHE

PAUILLAC

ST JULIEN

MARGAUX

THE COMMUNES OF THE MARGAUX APPELLATION

GRAVES

PESSAC-LÉOGNAN

SAUTERNES AND BARSAC

THE RIGHT BANK – ST ÉMILION, POMEROL AND THE

SATELLITE APPELLATIONS

ST ÉMILION

POMEROL

THE SATELLITE APPELLATIONS OF BORDEAUX

THE SELECTION OF BORDEAUX WINES

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 - BURGUNDY

A – THE GRAND CRU AND PREMIER CRU VINEYARDS

OF BURGUNDY

B – THE GRAND CRU VINEYARDS OF THE CÔTE D’OR,

THEIR VINEYARD AREAS AND WINE PRODUCTION

C – THE PRINCIPAL WINE COMMUNES OF THE

CÔTE D’OR, THEIR PREMIER CRU AND VILLAGES VINEYARD

AREAS, RED AND WHITE WINE PRODUCTION AND THE

NUMERICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE GRAND CRU AND

PREMIER CRU VINEYARDS

D – THE CONFRÉRIE DES CHEVALIERS DU TASTEVIN

APPENDIX 2 – BORDEAUX

A – THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE CHÂTEAUX OF BORDEAUX

1. THE MÉDOC CLASSIFICATION OF 1855

2. THE SAUTERNES – BARSAC CLASSIFICATION OF 1855

3. THE GRAVES CLASSIFICATION OF 1953

4. THE ST ÉMILION CLASSIFICATION OF 1955

5. THE CRU BOURGEOIS CLASSIFICATION OF THE MÉDOC OF 1978

6. ROBERT PARKER’S BORDEAUX CLASSIFICATION

B – SUPER SECONDS AND THE WINES NOW CONSIDERED EQUAL IN QUALITY TO FIRST GROWTHS

C – THE GRAPE VARIETIES AND TYPICAL WINE BLENDS OF BORDEAUX

D – THE PRINCIPAL CHÂTEAUX OF THE MAIN SUB-REGIONS AND COMMUNES OF BORDEAUX AND THEIR QUALITY RANKING BY ROBERT PARKER

APPENDIX 3 – GOVERNMENTAL QUALITY CONTROL FOLLOWING THE PHYLLOXERA DISASTER - THE APPELLATIONS (AOC’S) OF BURGUNDY AND BORDEAUX

A – QUALITY CONTROL THROUGH THE APPELLATION ORIGINE CONTRÔLÉE (AOC) REGULATIONS AND ITS TURBULENT INTRODUCTION FOLLOWING THE PHYLLOXERA DISASTER

B – THE AOC’S OF BURGUNDY AND THE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (AND AOC’S) OF BORDEAUX

APPENDIX 4 – WINE TASTING

APPENDIX 5 – VINTAGE CHARTS

APPENDIX 6 – MODERN WINEMAKING

DIAGRAMMATIC: THE BASIC WINEMAKING PROCESSES

APPENDIX 7 – A WINE MISCELLANEA

APPENDIX 8 – THE AOC OF PETIT CHABLIS

APPENDIX 9 – GLOSSARY OF WINE TERMS

INDEX

PREFACE

One of the most exceptional and important natural phenomenon in the world is that a certain fruit as it ripens develops yeast on its skin. When that fruit is crushed the yeast on the skin converts the sugar in the juice into alcohol – a process known as fermentation. The result is a delicious, fruity, alcoholic drink. That fruit is the grape and its juice, after its sugar has been converted into alcohol, is wine.

And so the natural production of wine goes back more than 6000 years to ancient Greece and Egypt and beyond. It was important in the Roman Empire and in those parts of that vast empire, where grapes could thrive, wine was produced. The pharaohs always included amphora of wine in their burial chambers to be enjoyed in the after life.

Modern annual wine consumption worldwide now stands at around 280 million hectolitres (28,000,000,000 litres) produced in more than 60 countries.

Wine is also produced from a vast range of different grapes and there are also enormous variations in quality and price.

It also follows that wines from around the world all have their dedicated followers whether French, Italian, Spanish, New World or other excellent wine producing countries or regions. However it is suggested that irrespective of personal choice a basic knowledge of the two great wine producing regions of France, Burgundy and Bordeaux, is important for a full understanding of the modern world of fine wine and its ancient origins.

To the vast number of consumers, worldwide, wine appeals in a number of different ways.

For most the serving of an appropriate wine with a meal greatly enhances the enjoyment of both the food and the occasion.

For the church wine is of great symbolic importance in its religious ceremonies and in the ancient monasteries it also brought a little pleasure to the spartan way of life. This led to the great abbeys of Cîteaux and Cluny developing the vineyards of Burgundy which still exist to the present day.

Fortunately, for a now declining number, wine represents social status. This is based on the perception that knowledge, particularly of fine and prestigious wine, has an important social kudos. This has created the ‘wine snob’ – limited knowledge, eloquently and boringly conveyed, to those prepared to listen and be suitably impressed.

The most attractive wine enthusiasts are those who, although highly knowledgeable and often genuine connoisseurs, have a rather irreverent and entertaining approach to wine. John Steed of the Avengers, typified this as after declaring that wine tasting ‘was not my subject’ he then went on to accurately identify the wine, the vintage, the vineyard and finally added ‘southern end of the vineyard.’! This is superbly portrayed by the distinguished caricaturist Sue Macartney-Snape in the chapter on wine tasting which also includes several other ‘wine tasters’.

A fascinating aspect of this subject is the historical and current conflict and hostility between these two great French wine regions. This is the principal subject of a superb book by a distinguished French academic, Jean-Robert Pitte, from the University of Paris Sorbonne – ‘Bordeaux/Burgundy – A Vintage Rivalry’.

INTRODUCTION

Up to the middle of the 20th century, and for almost two decades beyond, the world-renowned wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux were enjoyed almost exclusively by great patrician families and famous institutions. The wine for those of us not so privileged was sometimes good but often little better than ‘plonk’.

From the 1970’s onwards the production of excellent and affordable wine started to gain momentum as global demand followed a rapid increase in worldwide affluence. This was a time when a significant part of the adult population of the developed world became enthusiastic wine drinkers.

The excellent ‘modern’ wines which became available were a result of improved quality in the ‘Old World’ vineyards of Europe, but more importantly the ‘New World’ wines and particularly those of Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, which, produced through a scientific approach to winemaking in ‘high tech’ wineries, started to have a major impact on the world of wine and still continue to do so.

In the last fifty years mankind has experienced many dramatic changes which have fundamentally reshaped the way in which we live our lives. The most obvious is the way in which computers have become totally indispensable in just about every field of human activity.

A more important and for many a more enjoyable major development has been the availability of a whole range of excellent wines at affordable prices.

Wine also has an important place in history. It is almost certainly the world’s oldest alcoholic drink. This is because wine, which is now produced in a highly sophisticated manner, can also be produced through a simple natural process as the yeast present on the skin of the grape converts the sugar in the juice of the crushed grape into alcohol. In modern winemaking, laboratory cultured yeast is often used to control and sustain this fermentation process. And so the ancient people crushed their grapes, waited for a while, and then drained off the now alcoholic fluid which gave them a delicious fruity drink which also created a rather pleasant feeling of well-being which it still does to the present day.

And so early man produced wine and the earliest recorded winemaking is around 5000BC. The Greeks certainly produced wine and the Etruscans, who originated from the Greek sphere of influence of Asia Minor, brought it to Italy and after their subjugation by the Romans it was spread throughout their great empire and many European vineyards can trace their origins back to Roman times.

In ancient Egypt the Pharaohs were buried with their amphora of wine to be enjoyed in the afterlife.

Wine also became symbolically important in many ancient religious rites and became of major significance to Christianity following the Last Supper where it represented the blood of Christ and has continued to do so in the celebration of the Eucharist and Holy Communion. Wine also continues to be of importance in a number of Jewish religious ceremonies.

Of course the world of fine wine is vast and a degree of specialisation is inevitable and so we have those whose preference is New World, France, Spanish, Italian and beyond. However, the true heritage of fine wine is that of France and in particular the two great wine regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Here winemaking goes back to Roman times and beyond and ‘modern winemaking’ can be traced back to the 12th century and possibly before. At this time the king and queen of England, Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine, were both French, and Bordeaux came under the control of the English Crown and its vineyards produced ‘claret’ for the English market. In Burgundy the Benedictines and Cistercians founded the great abbeys of Cluny and Cîteaux and cultivated vineyards whose wine was used for their religious ceremonies and also to make their spartan way of life rather more agreeable.

It was however not until the 19th century that wine production became an organised and established commercial activity and was traded extensively across national frontiers. The first major move to classify and rank wine produced by established vineyards was in France in 1855 where the wine producers of Barsac/Sauternes and the Médoc sub-regions of Bordeaux were classified. The wines which have greatly improved since their original classification are now referred to as ‘super seconds’. Also the great wines excluded in 1855 which are now considered equal in quality to first growths have been agreed and listed as such by the wine trade. Details are given in Appendix 2.

It was also France which, following the disaster of the 1860’s, when the phylloxera louse infected the French vineyards and virtually wiped them out, recognised the importance of governmental regulation to ensure the quality and identity of its wines. It founded, in 1935, the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO)** which issued Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées (AOC) whose regulations for wine production are enforced by the INAO fraud squad. Every major wine region throughout the world has now followed in the implementation of governmental wine quality control regulations.

After many centuries the fine wines of France remain internationally pre-eminent and the truly great wines continue to be the most prestigious in the world. And so irrespective of any personal wine preferences it would seem to be rather desirable to have at least a basic knowledge of both the history and modern status of France’s two great wine regions, Burgundy and Bordeaux, as the cornerstone of any expertise in and knowledge of the world of fine wine.

Fine wine is one of the most widely written about subjects in the world. The last fifty years, in particular, has produced wine critics and writers of exceptional ability and knowledge which has resulted in the publication of a plethora of great books on the subject of fine wine. Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent, Clive Coates, Serena Sutcliffe, Jancis Robinson, Robert Parker and others have virtually become revered household names. These publications are however rather daunting tomes full of detailed and erudite information. For instance the 4th edition of Robert Parker’s book, on the Bordeaux wine region only, runs to over 1200 pages, and the sixth edition of his Wine Buyers Guide has over 1500 pages. Clive Coates book, not on all Burgundy, but the Côte D’Or only has almost 1000 pages. So the subject is indeed vast and detailed and these books are particularly indispensable if, for instance, precise information is required about a particular wine produced in a specific year. Let’s say you intend to buy a case of 1996 Lynch Bages then you will find that Robert Parker rates its 91+ which means that it is ‘outstanding’. Furthermore you will find from his tasting notes that it has, among other attributes, ‘cassis fruit aromas intermixed with cedar, fruit cake and liquorice scents’ etc. If you wish to contact or visit the vineyard then the telephone number and address are also given. The price you will get from your wine merchant, but make sure you are seated before you make the call.

Robert Parker was of course the first of the international wine critics and writers to introduce a numerical rating system for fine wine quality. After the initial controversy, following its inception, numerical quality rating has been accepted and adopted worldwide and other eminent critics and writers have introduced their own variations of the original system.

The problem with wine is that many of the more important aspects are complex and rather daunting and are intermingled, in the text of many books, with those parts which are interesting, entertaining, and readable. An attempt has been made here to consign important but rather detailed areas of wine ‘theology’ to the appendices. They therefore become optional reading but are important for reference and the acquiring of a more in-depth knowledge of the subject. An example of this is the structure and application of the legally binding quality control regulations for the production of French wine and how these evolved. This process goes to the very heart of winemaking, as if the wine trade, which is a major commercial activity, is to flourish then the end users, the consumers, must have confidence in what they are buying and that means effective quality control at source which the French government has sought to impose. Its quality control system based on AOC’s is rather complex and not a particularly entertaining and exciting subject and not surprisingly many modern wine writers tend not to dwell on it. However without at least a basic understanding of the subject one is lost in a world of wine mystique.

In writing of these two great wine regions it would have been ideal to create a structure or ‘template’ which could apply to both. The differences however are so great that this proved to be impossible and it is necessary to describe the individual characteristics of the two regions as they are.

** now Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualite but remains as the acronym INAO

BURGUNDY, BORDEAUX AND THE OTHER WINE REGIONS OF FRANCE

France is indisputably internationally pre-eminent in the production of fine wine. It is in fact a country that is ‘truly blessed’ in many ways. A magnificent Atlantic seaboard and a beautiful Mediterranean coastline, majestic Alps and great rivers. Its food and culinary achievements have impressed and influenced the world. It has a fascinating and turbulent history and has produced great scientists, artists and literary figures. Nevertheless throughout the developed world ‘France’ will primarily be synonymous with fine wines and the greatest of these are from the wine regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux.

The seven principal wine regions of France are:-

The other wine regions of France, which produce excellent wines but are rather less well known internationally, are:-

The wine regions of France all have their individual history and unique characteristics. They are all different in many ways but none more so than Burgundy and Bordeaux which are the most internationally famous and acclaimed wine regions of the world. They are both, of course, French and located about 500km apart but that’s where the similarity ends. It is indeed interesting to summarise their main differences.

At the outset it is important to emphasise that the differences between the two famous regions did not happen by chance but mainly through their historical conflict and hostility which exists to the present day.

A distinguished academic of the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Jean-Robert Pitte, published a book – Bordeaux/Burgundy: A Vintage Rivalry – which was also translated and published by the University