Winophilia

Pardon my dose of history, but some brief background information is necessary to explain the jigsaw puzzle that is the typical Burgundy cru, or growth. Following the French Revolution, vineyards previously owned by the Church and the aristocracy were confiscated and auctioned off, mostly to wealthy speculators who in turn subdivided and resold them. The parceling of vineyards was accelerated by the French laws of inheritance established by the Napoleonic code, which ended primogeniture and required property to be equally divided among all heirs. 

The result is that today’s typical vineyard is carved up among multiple owners. Thus there’s really no single wine called Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots:  two dozen or more growers and négociants (i.e., merchants) offer a wine labeled Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots every year. And these many bottlings normally vary in quality from supernal to downright mediocre.  Knowing the grower (or the name of the estate) is job #1 for the wino seeking to get his or her money’s worth from this generally pricey category.

For starters, there’s the soil variable.  In a fairly sizable vineyard like Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots, which covers about 32 acres, there are significant differences in terms of soil content, depth of topsoil and slope.  Parts of this premier cru are adjacent to the grand crus Richebourg and Romanée-Saint-Vivant, but other sections are less favored.  Only the most dogged Burgundy lover could possibly know exactly where a given producer’s Suchots vines are located, and gathering that information would take some serious research.

The climate factor is also critical. The great wines of Burgundy are made from a single grape variety (pinot noir in the case of red Burgundy, chardonnay for white) grown in a closely defined site. They are not blends of varieties from multiple sites. This means that the grape grower does not have the luxury of being able to increase the proportion of a particular grape that fared better in a particular vintage (as they can in Bordeaux) or to favor a site that did relatively well.

Whereas grapes in warmer areas reach reasonable levels of ripeness almost every year, vintage variation is much more of a factor in Burgundy than it is in many other wine-growing regions. For starters, pinot noir buds early and is particularly vulnerable to spring frosts. Highly localized summer hailstorms can decimate a parcel of vines in a matter of minutes, but leave vines literally yards away virtually untouched. Cold weather in September can prevent proper ripening and result in tart, undernourished wines. Rain just before or during the harvest can swell the grapes with water or bring on rot, always a risk with the relatively thin-skinned, tight-clustered pinot noir grapes. 

While underripeness has historically been the more common problem in Burgundy, uncharacteristically hot and dry years, like 2003, can produce excessively alcoholic and tannic wines with inadequate acidity or a cooked-fruit character. Heat can be particularly damaging to Burgundy’s white wines, because they don’t have the tannic structure that could conceivably take the place of the acidity that was burned out of the grapes.

And then there’s the question of yields. Some vintages produce such copious crop loads that unless growers take active steps to hold down yields, they are doomed to produce dilute wine. Unfortunately, with the high prices Burgundy fetches in today’s marketplace, and with numerous major markets clamoring for limited quantities of the best wines, there is little financial incentive to limit production. This is yet another powerful reason to stick to producers with reputations for conscientious—and often quite labor-intensive—vineyard work.

A Burgundy’s label will tell you the wine’s vintage and appellation, but it won’t tell you whether the grapes were ripe enough or whether the grower overproduced or cut corners during vinification. While Burgundy snobs gravitate toward the most famous grand cru vineyards and undervalue lesser sites, more liberated pinot fans know that the producer’s name on the label is easily as important as the wine’s origin. I’d go a step farther than that: My own experience is that I’d rather buy a wine from a sterling producer in an average year than from a mediocre producer in a so-called great vintage.

If you venture into the minefield of Burgundy—and no wines on earth are sexier and more satisfying when they’re up to their potential—don’t make the journey without a guide.  Seek input from trusted merchants, your Burgundy-loving friends, or an independent guide like the International Wine Cellar, which reviews (with tasting notes and ratings), more than 2,000 of the best red and white Burgundies each year.