📍 Burgundy

Burgundy (Bourgogne) is a wine region in eastern France, the home of reds from Pinot Noir and whites from Chardonnay. Vineyards stretch in a narrow band from Chablis in the north to the Mâconnais in the south.

The main areas are Chablis and Grand Auxerrois, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais. Besides the two main grapes, Aligoté (a white, traditionally mixed with blackcurrant liqueur for the drink kir) and Gamay are grown. There is also sparkling crémant de Bourgogne.

Burgundy's particular feature is the climats: tiny plots on a slope, each with its own name and character. This system was added to the UNESCO list in 2015. Classification follows the place, not the château: wines are regional, village, premier cru and grand cru. Cistercian monks began sorting plots by quality as early as the Middle Ages.

The region also has a wine fellowship, the Chevaliers du Tastevin, named after the shallow silver tasting cup, the tastevin. Burgundy wines are named by place rather than by grape, so the label more often shows a village or plot than the words Pinot Noir. The name Burgundy on a label shows that the grapes grew in this very area, which makes it easy to look for similar wines.