extract from Dominic’s France: the cool climate

 

August & September 2006

The Golden Slope

Dijon, capital of Burgundy

Home of mustard

If in doubt, just do everything

Dijon Hotels

Weather, climate and when to visit

The Côte d’Or, ancient centre of an independent province

Modern Burgundy

Terroir and the appellation system: scratching the surface

Wine & food

Driving, cycling or walking

The Golden Slope

At the heart of Burgundy is its Côte d’Or, or ‘Golden Slope’, so named for the beautiful complexion of its autumn vineyards. Like all things precious, the soils that form these slopes are in short supply; jealously sought by vignerons the world over. The Côte d’Or is separated into the Côte de Nuits to the north between Dijon and Beaune, and the Côte de Beaune, which begins just north of Beaune and continues south to Chagny. The best wines produced in this small corner of Burgundy are, in my view at least, the finest on the planet. 

As you head south from Dijon, the famous village names appear in dizzying succession: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, and these few before you even break sweat. At first, this can seem intimidating. Ten years ago this part of Burgundy was virtually impenetrable to the casual visitor, but winemakers on the Côte d’Or are becoming more used to welcoming visitors, as they recognise the fierce competition from the global wine market.

 Quality control in Burgundy is also undergoing something of a revolution. For many years, the fame of the Côte d’Or was matched only by the infamous variability in the quality of its wines. American wine critic Robert Parker famously advised against buying burgundy for less than a tenner a bottle, and although Parker now almost has a price on his head in Burgundy, there was much truth in what he said. 

The problem was rooted in something called the AOC Agrément, the system by which a wine obtains, or fails to obtain, its ‘appellation of origin’ status, as a quality wine. This was a real Burgundian backslapping affair: the vignerons got together once a year, tasted each other’s wines, and decided that they were all brilliant. Job done. 

But the best winemakers argued that up to 25% of wines receiving AOC recognition were of inferior quality and, in reaction to a slump in wine sales following the Millennium, the system is finally receiving a much-needed overhaul. Burgundy’s wines will soon be monitored throughout their production, from vine to bottle, and, incredibly, winemakers are being encouraged to go back to school to learn how to taste and spot faults in their own wines!

 I wanted to meet Burgundy’s iconoclasts, the winemakers who inspired these changes, and who lobbied the authorities for reform. These are vignerons who have always made world-beating wines; their cheaper cuvées crafted with the same loving care as their Premiers and Grands Crus. 

Early August was, however, a difficult time to set about such a task. This is the beginning of the period of veraison, when the small Pinot Noir grapes begin to change colour on the vines, and adopt their eventual purple tint. Veraison is the cue for vineyard work to stop. By now, ‘green harvesting’, or removing excess grape bunches, is less effective as a way of limiting the vines’ yields; and any spraying is done sheepishly, since chemicals are undesirable in the vineyards so close to harvest time. Many vignerons use the opportunity to take their holidays in Provence, from where it is difficult to show Burgundian vineyards to British cyclists. So began a complicated juggling game, as I pedalled to catch winemakers before they left; and then waited until they returned north to prepare for the harvest. 

 

Burgundy used to be hard to reach by plane, but by the time of publication, Ryanair will be offering flights from London to Dijon airport, where car rental is available. You can hire bikes from Dijon’s tourist office, but Bourgogne

Randonées in Beaune is a better bet. 7, avenue du Septembre (near the railway station)

Tel. 03 80 22 06 03 

Many Burgundy-loving Brits make the journey each year in their own cars, to stock up at their favourite cellars. From Calais, simply follow the A26 via Reims (see Champagne chapter). This merges onto the A5 south of Reims, and then the A31. Leave the A31 onto the D70 at the Dijon junction. The one-way trip is 350 miles.

 

The Eurostar is the best way to bring your own bike (for an extra £20), and cars can be hired from Paris Gare du Nord Eurostar terminal.

From Paris, the A6 to Dijon leads past Auxerre and the vineyards of Chablis, on a direct 3-hour drive to the Côte d’Or. From Paris Gare du Nord, follow Boulevard de Magenta east to place de la République. Leave the roundabout south towards the river, and cross over Pont d’Austerlitz. Follow the road south, over place d’Italie, until it joins the A6 to Auxerre and Dijon.

Top

Dijon, capital of Burgundy

Once the capital of the independent province of Burgundy, modern Dijon is an architecturally beautiful, vibrant and cosmopolitan university city. I have always loved Dijon, and it has benefited recently from thoughtful reconstruction work around its ducal palace, on place de la Libération. But there is little tangible evidence – beyond restaurants’ wine lists – that Dijon stands at the head of one of the world’s most famous wine regions.

Burgundy’s Valois dukes may have played a crucial role in the development of Burgundy’s wine trade, but you have to head south towards Chenôve to begin to see how. The Fête de la Vigne takes place in Dijon on the first weekend of September, but this is more a traditional French folk festival than a jamboree for wine lovers.

Top

Home of mustard

The link with wine appears in the city’s world-famous product, Dijon mustard. This was traditionally made using a mixture of mustard seed and the sour juice of green, unripe grapes (called the verjus), in the days before viticultural techniques, clonal selection and global warming allowed the fruit to ripen more or less fully every year. It wasn’t until the mid-eighteenth century that verjus was replaced by vinegar. 

Unlike, for example, wine from Gevrey-Chambertin, or cheese from Epoisses, Dijon mustard can legally be made anywhere in the world. The Dijonnais are unlikely ever to insist on a protected appellation, since the city’s producers depend almost entirely on Canadian mustard seed imports. On the other hand, if you buy moutarde de Bourgogne, it must come from Burgundy.

Top

If in doubt, just do everything

Museums, galleries and public attractions in Dijon are all free. The mustard museum will be closed by the time you read this; the logical thing would be its incorporation into the Musée de la vie Bourguignonne, the museum of Burgundian life, but I suspect that this is unlikely.

15-17, rue Sainte-Anne. Tel 03 80 44 12 69

However, if you only see one thing in Dijon, let it be the Musée des Beaux

Arts, housed in the Palais des Etats within Dijon’s grand old ducal palace. Place de la Libération. Tel. 03 80 74 52 09 

The main Dijon tourist office near the train station is not very good, although it is the only place in Dijon where you can hire bikes. They also have Segways, those NASA-designed motorised two-wheel contraptions that were alleged to be foolproof, until George W. Bush famously fell off one. I asked if I could take one into the vineyards, and was greeted with deadpan disdain: 

“You ‘ave to follow ze guide!” 

If you want more information on the city’s history and attractions, there is a good information bureau within the ducal palace, between rue des Forges and the Cour d’Honneur.

Top

Dijon Hotels

Dijon’s best hotel – and restaurant – is Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge****. You get the feeling that the €130+ bill for a room is more often paid by the company than by the individual.

Tel. 03 80 50 88 88

Just off place Darcy, Hôtel du Nord*** has good rooms for about €90 and a nice wine bar, but cyclists need to negotiate bike storage before booking a room. Tel. 03 80 50 80 50

The more I live in French hotels, the more convinced I am by large hotel chains. You could do a lot worse than the Campanile near the train station, particularly at weekends when the high-season tariff of €70 drops to nearer €55. Tel. 03 80 43 40 01

Top

Weather, climate and when to visit

The wider region that is viticultural Burgundy begins to the north around Auxerre, close to the vineyards of the eastern Loire. This is Chablis country. About a hundred miles to the southeast begins the Côte d’Or. Situated at a latitude of around 47 degrees north, the Côte d’Or’s continental climate gives cold, harsh winters and often hot summers. Rain is a constant worry, especially around harvest time when it can cause rot to take hold in the vineyards, or swell the grapes, diluting their flavours. 

Continuing south through the Côte Chalonnaise, another hundred miles leads through the Maconnais and into the Beaujolais, not far north of Lyon. The climate here is more Mediterranean, and the wines very different from those further north. 

The Côte d’Or had apparently suffered as much as the Loire Valley from the canicule, or blazing heat, of July 2006, but this ended abruptly as I arrived in Burgundy. The weather turned from scorchingly hot to breath condensingly cold within a week, and the rains came with depressing regularity throughout a chilly August. 

Winemakers are worriers. A few days’ relief brought by the long-awaited rain turned to anxiety when the clouds failed to clear. As the grapes ripen, they become increasingly vulnerable to various kinds of rot. And this close to the harvest, there is no question of jeopardising wine quality by spraying the vines with chemicals. Winemakers in the Côte de Nuits also had to contend with hail in early August, which caused considerable damage to many Grand Cru vineyards. 

Back in August 2004, rain was also a problem, but the harvest was helped by a dry September. This is the month that is traditionally said to either make or break a vintage. But the rain showed little mercy to the Côte d’Or in 2006, and the vintage was a difficult one. 

The best time to visit the Côte d’Or is in the spring and early summer. From mid-August, winemakers take their holidays, and when they return, there is the frantic job of bottling the previous year’s wines to make room in the winery for the new vintage. The small-scale nature of most growers’ operations means they will have little time to spare during the harvest in September, so October is the ideal time to buy wine. Driving wine home is also most advisable during this cool month.

Top

The Côte d’Or, ancient centre of an independent province

Burgundy reminds me in some ways of my home in southwest England. The region is within easy reach of the country’s capital, and its villages mix the civilising, sometimes deadening, effects of money with a unique parochial authenticity. The winemakers here are very definitely farmers, and even the best renowned amongst them rarely live in ostentatious splendour. 

“Je suis fier d’être Bourguignon” (I am proud to be Burgundian) is a staple sing-along at every Burgundian folk event, and this pride is easily understood in the context of Burgundy’s powerful independent history. 

Viticulture was practised in Burgundy from Roman times, and the Côte d’Or’s vineyards can be traced to the 4th century AD. It became a Frankish kingdom in 534, and as early as 587, King Gontran of Burgundy donated vines to Dijon’s St-Bénigne Abbey. The region’s powerful religious houses began isolating the plots of land, or climats, best suited to viticulture, forming the basis of today’s complex appellation contrôlée system on the Côte d’Or. 

Emperor Charles II created the duchy of Burgundy in 877, but the region’s golden age really began in 1364, when John II of France handed the fief to his son Philippe the Bold, first of Burgundy’s Valois dukes. Philippe and his dynastic successors gained vast territories, as far afield as Luxembourg and Alsace, and by the beginning of the 15th century, the duchy played a dominant role in French politics. Burgundy’s agriculture, trade and industry were then the most important anywhere in Europe, and Dijon was one of its biggest cultural centres.

As the power of the abbeys grew alongside that of Burgundy’s rulers, wine became a luxury product and a strong symbol of prosperity. The holdings of the abbeys had grown unchecked as their riches had increased, and by the 18th century, they owned nearly all of the Côte d’Or’s best vineyards. With little financial pressure to sell their wines, the abbeys were able to produce smaller quantities of a better product, which they offered as gifts to visiting princes and popes. 

At the dawn of the Renaissance, the dukes of Burgundy presided over the finest winemaking region in Christendom. Wines were served at their famous banquets, and became the forerunners of today’s diplomatic, or ‘corporate’, gift. But the decadent luxury in which Burgundy’s dukes lived, and the enormous land acquisitions of its religious houses, meant that when the French Revolution came in 1789, it was well supported by Burgundy’s ordinary folk.

Top

Modern Burgundy

The Revolution defined the viticultural landscape of modern Burgundy. Royal and ecclesiastical estates were broken up and the land was redistributed. A year after the Revolution, in 1790, Napoléon established his law of inheritance, whereby all children inherited equal portions of their parents’ land. The next 200 years saw the repeated division of estates’ holdings, resulting in today’s patchwork of tiny vineyard parcels, particularly on the Côte d’Or. 

As individual land holdings shrank, it became increasingly difficult for growers to make a living producing and selling such tiny quantities of wine. Marriages between winemaking families stalled the process, creating today’s double-barrelled surnames: the Coche-Bizouards, Rossignol-Févriers, and a thousand others. But the important development came in the early 18th century, when merchants began buying and blending wines from many small growers, and marketing them under their own labels. By the end of the 19th century, merchant families like the Patriarchs and the Bouchards of Beaune controlled most of Burgundy’s winemaking, and this would remain so until the late 20th century.

The 1980s saw the reputations of certain larger négociant houses tarnished by the overproduction of lesser quality wines. Small ‘boutique’ wineries became increasingly fashionable, and the growers of Burgundy saw their chance to tip the balance of power. 

The average vineyard holding in Burgundy is increasing, but it is still only around 6 hectares. Such small-scale viticulture in a notoriously unpredictable climate presents the region’s growers with one of the winemaking world’s biggest challenges. Those who have risen to it have bottled some of the finest wines ever made, and the most famous among them can effectively name the prices their wines fetch. 

Burgundy’s ‘other’ estates have suffered from the slump in the region’s wine sales since the Millennium. This was a much-needed kick up the behind for those who had profited from their association with Burgundy’s finest domaines, and it injected a new urgency into the fight for wine quality.

Top

Terroir and the appellation system: scratching the surface

The terroir of the Côte d’Or was first studied in the middle ages, by those zealous monks who quite literally tasted the soil in their quest to understand its properties. Scientific investigations into the Côte began in the 17th century, and continued through the Enlightenment. Even today, this part of Burgundy attracts more geologists, meteorologists and viticulturists than any other wine region. 

The Côte d’Or is sited along a complex geological fault line; its calcium-rich clay-limestone soils form a forty-mile ridge, a graveyard of prehistoric marine life. The slopes face mainly east, towards the morning sun, and south, particularly in the more southerly Côte de Beaune. The best vineyards are planted on the lower slopes, at an altitude of around 250 metres. Here the soil is more nourishing than it is in the hills, but less fertile than in the plains, where more ordinary wines are grown. The slopes protect the vines from the westerly winds and the worst of the rain, and the vineyards are high enough to avoid frost pockets.

But this is where simple explanations break down. The minute variations in soil and aspect have been endlessly scrutinised, together with differences in climate both between and within individual vineyards, as scientists struggle to explain how one vineyard can create wondrous nectars, whilst its neighbour makes only ordinary wines. I have highlighted specific examples throughout this chapter, but mine are the simple explanations. At the limits of human understanding, magic and religion reappear, and soil chewing starts to look like a not-so-silly way to understand the Côte d’Or’s terroir. 

In contrast to the ‘how’ and the ‘why’, the ‘which’ at least has been thoroughly explained. The Côte d’Or’s vineyards are the world’s most rigorously delimited, with a well-established hierarchy from the most ordinary to the best reputed. The appellation contrôlée system in the Côte d’Or is the most complex in France, but its basics can be easily understood as a ‘pyramid of quality’.

At the top of the pyramid are 30 Grands Crus. These are the finest single vineyards, whose names stand alone on bottle labels. Just to confuse, however, many of the best Grand Cru vineyards’ names have been suffixed to those of nearby villages, whose vignerons seized the opportunity to gain glory by association. Thus the village of Gevrey became Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle became Chambolle-Musigny, and so on. It is rare to find a Côte d’Or village that was not swept up by this trend.

Next come the Premiers Crus, of which there are 561. The quality of these vineyards varies considerably, but Premier Crus such as Les Perrières in Meursault or Les Amoureuses in Chambolle-Musigny, make wines that can, at their best, rival the Grands Crus. The names of Premier Cru vineyards must appear alongside the name of their commune on bottles.

The third classification is that of commune, or ‘village’, wines. These are the Gevrey-Chambertins, Meursaults, Puligny-Montrachets etc. that do not come from vineyards with a superior classification. The name of a single lieu-dit vineyard may be added, in smaller type.

Lastly, at the bottom of the pyramid, is generic ‘Bourgogne’. This is generally made from grapes grown in the fertile plains, but I have tasted wines at this level, from good producers, that knock spots off badly made (and over-priced) Premier Crus! Indeed, the best producers will de-classify village appellation, or even Cru, wines to generic ‘Bourgogne’ in difficult vintages, to protect their reputations. These are some of the Côte d’Or’s best value wines; they can be drunk soon after bottling, and are increasingly labelled with the names of the region’s principal two grape varieties: the white Chardonnay and the red Pinot Noir. 

The Chardonnay grape is grown the world over, but its home is in Burgundy, where it produces white wines with a unique combination of weight and mineral complexity. It is also the main ingredient in Burgundy’s sparkling Crémants de Bourgogne. Burgundy is at the northernmost limit for the production of fine red wine. The dark-skinned Pinot Noir grape is, like Chardonnay, native to Burgundy. It is notoriously capricious: over-ripe grapes make jammy wines, and insufficient ripeness gives unpleasant stalky flavours. But in the best sites on the Côte d’Or, the Pinot Noir makes wines with bewitching perfumes and indescribably delicious flavours. 

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the only grapes that are widely used for the production of quality wines on the Côte d’Or. The Côte de Nuits to the north is planted almost exclusively with Pinot vines; the Côte de Beaune grows both grapes, but is perhaps more famous for its whites from villages such as Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet.

The white Aligoté grape is grown in small quantities by many vignerons, and can make good value, fresh light wines. A white relative of the Pinot Noir is the white Pinot Beurot. This is the same grape as Alsace’s Pinot Gris, making similarly ‘fat’ wines, but in Burgundy it is always dry, and its authorisation for quality wine production is very limited. Pinot Noir’s country cousin, the red Gamay grape of the Beaujolais, was once grown extensively on the Côte d’Or, but today it is extremely rare. 

And no French wine region would be complete without its own fearsome grape spirit! Marc de Bourgogne is the Burgundian digestif, distilled from grape skins after their final pressing.

Top

Wine & food

Burgundy spent most of its history as an independent province within France, but its culinary traditions have emerged as the very quintessence of provincial French cooking. Think of your favourite French dish, and the chances are that it comes from Burgundy. Coq au Vin, Boeuf Bourguignon and, of course, Escargots à la Bourguignonne, are all specialities of the Burgundian table. This is the region of long lunches, where rustic overlaps with refined in the hands of some of France’s best chefs. 

Burgundy has its powerful dukes to thank for the richness and variety of its cuisine. The dukes’ overindulgence found expression in the extravagant banquets and gastronomic festivities that are still a big part of the Burgundian calendar.

Burgundy is also extremely rich in natural ingredients. The area of Bresse in the region’s south is prized for the quality of its poultry, whilst the Charolais, to the west, is where some of the world’s finest beef cattle are reared. The River Loire’s tributaries to the west of Dijon provide fresh river fish; the large Burgundian gros gris snails live wild in vineyards and lush grazing pastures across the region. As elsewhere in France, a variety of game beasts are hunted in Burgundy’s forests, and these are served as staples of autumn restaurant menus. 

The red and white wines of Burgundy are important ingredients in its cooking. The most famous example is the hearty Boeuf Bourguignon, a beef stew cooked slowly in red wine, to which onions, bacon and mushrooms are added. Similar ingredients are used with chicken in Burgundy’s other signature dish, Coq au Vin. The sauce was traditionally thickened with the blood of the cockerel itself. White wine and cream are also used to make sauces for lighter meats, such as chicken, duck and feathered game. 

Fresh vegetables abound in Burgundy. Parsley and garlic are used with butter to cook Burgundy’s fat, succulent escargots. These two ingredients also appear in savoury jelly pressed with ham, to make jambon persillé. Some of France’s most varied charcuterie, such as saucisson and pâté, are specialities in a region where pig farming is widespread. 

Blackcurrant bushes thrive in the wild scrubland that surrounds the vineyards in the cool upper slopes, or Hautes-Côtes, above the Côte d’Or. These are used to make Burgundy’s famous liqueur Crème de Cassis, but they also feature in a range of delicious desserts, with other locally grown soft fruits. 

Burgundy produces some of France’s richest, creamiest cheeses, which are excellent partners for the region’s fuller bodied wines of both colours. The most famous is the Epoisses. Since 1991, Epoisses has, like Burgundy’s quality wines, benefited from its own appellationcontrolled status, and can therefore only be produced in certain parts of the Côte d’Or, and at the fringes of some bordering départements. Epoisses is a pungent, full-flavoured cheese, the rind of which is washed in the local grape spirit, Marc de Bourgogne.

Top

Driving, cycling or walking

Cycle tourism is less developed on the Côte d’Or than it is, for example, in the Loire Valley, but the area is nonetheless perfectly suited to it. Don’t be fooled by the word ‘Côte’: the best roads run parallel to the hillside vineyards, and rarely force you to climb too far into them – unless you want to. The one exception is the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Pernand-Vergelesses, but even here the distances are relatively short, and the hills very approachable. The short foray into the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune is a little more challenging. 

The Côte d’Or is probably the best region to attempt a mix of all three methods of getting around. Each section of my itinerary is an easy, self-contained cycle trip, and each includes suggested extra walks or cycle routes following from the main day’s itinerary. This is a particularly popular area for hill walkers, and every tourist office is well stocked with maps outlining the area’s footpaths.

This is also the region in which the argument is strongest for bringing your own car. Wine tourism is in its infancy in much of Burgundy, particularly in the more prestigious villages of the Côte d’Or. Many of the vignerons own small, scattered parcels of land and employ surprisingly few pairs of hands to work them. Their time is therefore short and tourists are more likely to be welcomed as potential, immediate, customers. 

Bringing your own transport is an excellent opportunity to buy those less expensive, but well made, burgundies that are inexplicably hard to find in the UK. Burgundy is the most seductive of wines, so when tasting the more expensive bottles, it is wise to have worked out your budget in advance. Also remember that the pricier wines may need five to ten years ageing to show their true, extraordinary, potential.

Top