John's Tongham Taster Guide to Burgundy Wines

Generic Appellations

Frankly most cheap Burgundy is worth avoiding. Much Appellation Bourgogne Controlée is awful even when approaching £9 a bottle. Bourgogne Ordinaire and Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire are even worse and usually not good at any price. They are also confusing to the normal buyer as they expect the whites to be Chardonnay and the reds to be Pinot Noir but often they are not.
Bourgogne Aligoté is made with the Aligoté grape and is the wine that is traditionally used to make Kir - but is otherwise relatively uninteresting.

The sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne can be very good and also excellent value but as usual with French wines there is huge variability.

Chablis & Auxerrois Area

Chablis is very well known and popular in the UK and generally represents good value for money. It is made with the Chardonnay grape but the limestone and clay soils give it a unique fresh, flinty, sometimes steely, sometimes appley flavour. Its wine is very different to the other famous whites of Burgundy. In fact Chablis is quite a long way from the rest of Burgundy and is closer to Champagne.

Chablis can vary from the sublime to the ridiculously poor. Petit Chablis tends to be slightly lower quality but can be good. Chablis Premier Cru is well worth trying and can be great value for money in the £12 to £20 range. The Grands Crus are more expensive and unless you have a cellar to age them in, something to avoid as they taste awful when young. Our tasting of many supermarket and wine shop Chablis indicated that ASDA is definitely the place to go for an excellent, reasonably priced Chablis. Go to Laithwaites, Majestic etc to try a Premier Cru as a treat.

In the same general area of Chablis is an unusual appellation in that it is a Sauvignon Blanc in a sea of Chardonnay - Saint Bris. Similar to a Sancerre it is worth trying and reasonable value.
There are also a few reds in the area including Irancy and Epineuil. These two I would recommend if you see them and like light Pinot Noir. I have a real attachment to Irancy as it was the first wine I ever drank with Jane! The best grower is Colinot.

Epineuil is particularly good as a Rosé but I have only ever seen it in France.

Côte Chalonnaise

Much further South than Chablis but North of Macon is the Côte Chalonnaise. For most connoisseurs this area is where we search out our value wines. Look out for the wines of Mercurey, Rully, Montagny and especially Givry.

The wines of Givry used not to be so good but the recent examples I have tasted have been excellent. One of the best ever wines I tasted was a 1996 Louis Latour Mercurey Blanc. It was a hot summer's day and I was sitting under a Cherry tree on a really hot summer's day having Sunday lunch with Jane in our garden in France - a great memory and not all Mercureys have proved as good but I keep trying to recapture that day!

Côte de Beaune

Many of my favourite wines come from this area. Give me a good bottle of Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru and I'll be your friend for life! This is a white Chardonnay that sets the standard for all others in my book.

When it comes to reds I love those of Aloxe-Corton. There is also good value in this area with some excellent reds at a good price from Monthélie, Savigny-les-Beaune and other appellations. There is also value to be had in the more generic Hautes Côtes de Beaune appellations. From Ladoix and Santenay come some pleasant rustic reds. I mustn't forget Pommard which is particularly popular with us Brits as it is one of the few Burgundy wine areas that we can pronounce properly.

Côte de Nuits

Together the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune form the Côte D'Or, which is one the most famous wine areas in the world. It is great driving up the wine road from Beaune to Dijon and seeing all the great wine names of the world pass in front of your eyes - Nuits St Georges, Gevrey Chambertin, Vosne Romanée, Morey Saint Denis, Vougeot, Chambolle Musigny etc etc. Enough to bring tears to your eyes!

Unfortunately, many of these wines are extremely expensive but they represent the Pinot Noirs that the rest of the World aspires to emulate. The one wine in the region that tends not to be expensive - Fixin - is cheap for a reason but can sometimes be OK and at a price much cheaper than the rest.

The whites from this region are relatively rare. Right near Dijon is the appellation of Marsannay and here is produced what I regard as possibly the best rosé wine in the world.

General

In Burgundy Grands Crus are the top wines and normally out of most ordinary folks' price range. They often need ageing to get the best out of them. Premiers Crus are the next level down and give a reasonable guarantee of quality and are often more affordable.

The commune appellations are very hit and miss. This all makes Burgundy such a frustrating area, but the wines can be sublime.

The best way to buy is to spend the afternoon in a wine cellar of a négociant in the area trying many different wines or to chase the recommendations of the wine critics before they are sold out.

A votre santé !