The wines of Burgundy, reds as well as whites, are classified into five categories based upon the quality of their terroir (all the factors that contribute to the distinctiveness of a particular site; please refer to my earlier post on this subject). This hierarchy of vineyard sites has been established over literally hundreds of years. While wine romantics like to believe that this pecking order is based on a given site’s ability to produce wines of outstanding complexity and individuality, a more important original factor may have been far more prosaic: the ability of the site (owing to its soil, exposition, drainage, natural protection from heat and cold winds, and so on) to ripen its fruit on a regular basis. READ MORE »
