Mining for Gold in Burgundy: Celebrating Pinot Noir Straight from Its Source

Class Transcript:

Admit all, welcome, welcome one and all. It is Burgundy day, uh, our very own, uh, sexy Rexy Burgundy, one of life's great joys, uh, certainly the alpha and the omega of, uh, fine wine. It is the wine you begin with, the wine you fall out of love with, and the wine you come back to. Um, and Burgundy, uh, place very much the birthplace not only a Pinot Noir, uh, but other than that, you know, uh, ever so rarefied but sanctified notion of French terroir. And seeing that we love wine as a vehicle of expression for place, uh, Burgundy, uh, is a region, uh, that we find ourselves continually to return to, albeit one that we have kind of yet to shine a light on.

For the sake of its red wines, and I want to emphasize that's not out of some um, you know, any um, you know, distaste uh for the wines, honestly part of that is uh my own, you know, feelings of inadequacy for the sake of wanting to do the region, uh, proper justice um as a wine educator and part of that equally um is you know wanting to find the right wines, um, you know, Burgundy has some of the um you know world's most exalted um and haunting wines, it equally has some of the world's most overpriced and disappointing wines, and uh, we want to land on the exalted side of the ledger, the over-delivering side of uh, the ledger, but we couldn't this being Our penultimate lesson, see uh, ourselves shuffling off without doing proper justice to the man, the man of the man of the man of the man of the myth, the legend that is red burgundy, um, you know wine, uh, as we know it, uh, was birthed in, uh, Transcaucasia, so, uh, the mountainous region, uh, between, uh, the Black Sea and, uh, the Caspian, uh, is where the great Vitis vinifera was first, uh, domesticated. It came of age, um, in ancient Rome, um, in, uh, ancient Greece, but I think it was truly perfected, uh, you know it truly came into its own, um, in Burgundy, um, through the ages of the, uh, you know generations of peasant farmers and, of course, the monks, who Get a lot of column inches when it comes to their heroic works, crafting wine, but you know how and why. Did what is you know, a relative back roads, you know Burgundy is not on, you know, a major uh navigable river.

Um, it traces the zone which is itself a tributary of um, the mighty Rhone, but not navigable. Um, it's not like Bordeaux, you know, doesn't beg English merchants to export it um, to the islands. Um, yet it has entered you know kind of uh popular modern imagination as the greatest wine in the world and um, it's quite essentially French. I like there's a note in the Wine Atlas they say: 'If Paris is the head of France, Champagne is the soul'. Then Burgundy is France's stomach, so historically we're doing a very pastoral region not only for wine but for meats, cheeses, uh, produce. It is a land of small, you know, kind of tenant farmers, feudal farmers originally, but um, as the region evolved and changed hands after the revolution, you know, you get these kinds of more enterprising uh, negotiants um, who um, through um, their sweat and blood established Burgundy as this land of relatively small growers, and uh, you know, there's maddening inconsistency that comes with that, but there is equally greatness.

The order of operations today is Uh, kind of covering the history of the people of the region, and we're going to do that by working our way through the three bottles um, that we sold, uh, then uh, we are going to consider the history of the land itself so take a broader you know, millions of years worth of you know rock formation um, you know from uh, the Jurassic era on forward um, and we're going to consider through the sake of a horizontal tasting um, uh, three wines from the same vintage um, and the same negociant which is to say the same wine merchant from different corners of the region and we're going to consider, for the sake of these individual uh, Vineyards, what do they each bring to the table?

Um, you know, for the sake of the specificity of terroir. Um, in this corner of the world, what is different from one to the next about them and then uh, we're going to consider, you know, wine as a moment in time for the sake of a vertical tasting. So, horizontal tasting um covers uh, different um vineyards in the same vintage. Uh, vertical tasting covers um, the same wine uh ideally from the same vintage um, through uh multiple years. And we're going to close out with one of the greatest uh, vintages uh, vineyards in uh Volney uh, which is said to be the prettiest of Burgundy's wines and that's from Uh, late premiere which is a primer crew but many people I think deserves grand crew status.

Um, without further ado, uh, giving you proper five minutes, let's dive into this equally maddening and sublime topic matter. Uh, for today's class we're going to kick it off as we always do, uh, with a bit of verse, uh, of course. Uh, French poet in the mix, this is none other than Baudelaire. This is a vin du solitaire, wildering glances of a harlot bear seen gliding toward us like the silver wake of undulant moonlight on the quivering lake when Phoebe bays her languished beauty, there the last gold coins the gambler's fingers hold, the wanton kiss. Of loved ones, Adeline, the weaving songs that leave the will supine like far-off cries of sorrow, unconsoled; all these oh, bottle deep, were never worth the pungent balsams in thy fertile girth stored for the pious poet's thirsty heart.

Thou poorest hope and youth and strength anew and pride this treasure of the bigger crew that lifts us like triumphant gods apart. Wine making us like gods, surely if there is any wine uh to do so; uh, it is this very burgundy uh which we'll be uh enjoying for the sake of uh today's lesson. Um, got a couple quotes to kick things off here; uh, the first is from an English author, uh, the English main not make Uh, you know these wines but, uh, they, uh, certainly enjoy a great deal of them, uh, and they are certainly some of the greatest celebrators and interpreters of, uh, Burgundy's terroir such as it is. This comes from Charles Edward Montague; he said, 'Burgundy is the winiest wine, the central essential and typical wine, the sole and greatest common measure of all the kindly wines of earth.' Uh, the second is from a more contemporary humorist wine writer J McInerney, um, and uh, he says about Burgundy: 'If it's red French, costs too much, and tastes like the water that's left in the base after the flowers have died and rotted; it's probably Burgundy.' Um, so you know getting at uh you know this this uh kind of broader notion uh that you know we are uh here capable of greatness uh but equally capable of great disappointment uh we have joining us as ever uh Ms. Zoe Nystrom. Zoe, say hi to the people. Hi everyone, it's so good to see you all. Zoe, do you have a road to Damascus uh burgundy experience or um a you know greatest disappointment in burgundy moment? Well, my cat is named Lalu after Lalu oh heard heard um and so I would say that that was absolutely phenomenal, I think it was the 1989 vintage.

Um, I fell in love with Burgundy. Um, I worked at a fancy quill bar and I was able to drink a lot of Or taste a lot of Burgundy there, which is how I got to learn so much so quickly when I was so young and I've always been so thankful for that experience. Um, that's a great cat name; I didn't know that about your cat Zoe. Where were you in particular? Was um, this Burgundy from? Was it one of uh, Laluz? Yeah, it was Laluz, and it was uh, obviously Romanée-Conti from Domaine Leroy L-E-R-O-Y. Oh wow, uh, that is that's a pretty remarkable one. Um, I did not have one. Yeah, yeah, I had a good fortune; I think it was a 2006 um, uh, Zombie Bond.

Uh, Zombie Bond is uh, named after um, one of the great monasteries of uh, Burgundy, and uh, it is certainly one of the great wines. of the region but it is you know less famous um than uh you know its neighbors uh la romanae uh latash richborg uh etc but um uh it's one of the great wine experiences was uh as a sommelier at comey um being able to taste uh romany san vivant was a 2006 which is not a hugely heralded vintage but it was one of those moments where um you know you could taste the difference between you know uh something was good and something that was truly ascendant something that was truly great something that was truly uh legendary um and uh it was just one of those kind of stopping in your track uh wine moments and i've had uh i you know hazard a guess That I definitely had more disappointing burgundy

than I've had revelatory one, but it's a bit of a drug, um, you know, you get that one hook in you know, it kind of uh never um releases uh its hold on you, um, all right, so uh, without further ado, uh, we're gonna kind of um uh just kind of get this out of the way with uh, which is to say that red burgundy is Pinot Noir, um, uh, they are essentially uh one in the same now Pinot Noir, the grape of course, uh, Burgundy, uh, the region I'm gonna pull up a little bit more of that in just a minute to see what the story is uh, but I'm gonna pull up the first of many maps because if ever wine approved Hugh Johnson's contention that wine is a map; uh, it is Burgundy.

So you see Burgundy here, uh, perched um on the eastern edge of France, uh, at right about the uh 48th parallel which puts it at the northern end of you know the ideal growing zone for Bitisporaum (which is to say that historically um they had great difficulty uh reliably ripening uh the wines) and until the world warmed. And it wasn't until the mid-19th century really that the region found a measure of consistency, and it wasn't really until the 80s that vintage after vintage was reliable. And that had a lot to do with global warming, but it equally had to do with better farming practices throughout the region. Historically, Gamay was vied with Pinot Noir for acreage in the region. And until recently, until the last century, Gamay was more widely planted than Pinot.

That is no longer the case. And generations upon generations, centuries upon centuries of French authorities have been trying to get the peasants of France to eradicate Gamay and devote themselves to Pinot, but Pinot is a lot harder to work with than Gamay. Pinot is still only the seventh most widely grown grape in France because of that, after Gamay. But in the modern era, Pinot Noir equals Gamay, which begs the question, where did Pinot come from? The answer is hugely unsatisfying. We don't know. There are all sorts of legends. There are some who say it's identical to the vine à la broge that was mentioned in Roman annals. There's a little evidence for that. There's some who say it descended from wild vines. There's equally little evidence for that.

The simple truth is that its ancestors are lost to history. We do know that it has a parent-offspring relationship with another ancient vine of the continent. It's called Sauvignon, and it is the parent of Pinot Noir. It is the parent of scores of noble grapes throughout Europe, including, but not limited to, Chardonnay, Melun de Bourgogne, Algotay, Gamay itself, by many degrees of separation, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc. It has a genetic relationship with, by extension, Cabernet Sauvignon. So it's all very incestuous there. But Pinot is sufficiently old that we're not quite sure when it came into being. It was first mentioned in the 19th century. It was first mentioned as Morillon and Noirene in 1283. It was first called Pinot in 1375. It's thought that the name refers to pine cones.

Not a big leap there, even for a non-French speaker, because the grape clusters look like pine cones. At any rate, the French acknowledge its greatness, but they place kind of a burden of proof. They place an emphasis on the singular essence of Pinot; they place an emphasis on the singular expression of sight. So it's a great anecdote for you. There's a local friend in the business, the irrepressible Todd Ruby, who once upon a time used to hold court at the end of Two Amy's bar. And you don't have a five-minute conversation with Todd; it easily stretches to half an hour. A great bon vivant. And Todd tells a story of tasting with arguably the most famous winemaker in Burgundy, Aubert de Villene. Aubert is the other owner.

And he's the one who's the owner of this wine. Of Bizet's most famous property. It's actually now the sole owner, which is Romany Conti. And Todd was asking about, asked a question, as only the irrepressible Todd Ruby can, about Aubert's Pinot Noirs. And Aubert took great offense. Aubert said, 'I don't make Pinot Noir. I make La Tache. I make Riche Borg. I make Romany. I make Saint Vivant.' So he makes wines that use Pinot, but they use Pinot as a vessel. They use Pinot as a means of expression for the sake of sight. And that sight, those subtle differences between the places where Pinot happens to be grown, that is what we are trying to understand better today.

That is what the French talk about when they talk about terroir, which is this kind of embodiment of place, this collective memory over time of a single site. And nowhere has that been as minutely as in Burgundy. Pinot Noir is transferable. You can take literally the same genetic vine from Burgundy and plant it elsewhere. That doesn't make it Red Burgundy. Red Burgundy is singular. And it encapsulates all the ingredients that go into terroir. All the natural ingredients for the sake of climate and site and geology, exposition, and all the human ingredients for the sake of the culture of working the land centuries upon centuries of collective, collective wisdom for what the wines should taste like. The Burgundian story begins with the Celts.

The Romans were the first to make wine on a commercial level there, but the Celts knew of wine. The Celts were proud farmers called by one historian the undestroyable people of peasants. And Burgundy and kind of popular French imagination is still this land of small peasants, even though now all the small peasants are gone. All the peasants are driving Jaguars and BMWs and Mercedes. The Romans left a distinct imprint, though the Romans commercialized a bit of culture there. Dijon, which becomes the capital of the region under the the great Burgundian dukes, was established by the Romans. They developed the rope infrastructure and the roads; they laid the foundation for the kind of adoption of Christianity after the empire falls. So Clovis, King of the Franks, converted to Christianity in 496.

His wife had already converted. He said, 'Honey, we win this battle. I'm going to convert myself.' They won. The rest is history. The Franks were neighbors of the Burgundians. Burgundians, an ancient Germanic tribe, crossed into what is now France in the latter days of the Roman Empire's fall. But this, you know, initial conversion moment is really kind of the spark that lights the fuse that becomes Burgundy as we know it. The church quickly goes about establishing abbeys throughout the region, beginning in the sixth century, as early as the sixth century. So within a century of Clovis converting, there are already monasteries throughout the region. One of the most famous, founded in 630, is the Abbey de Bizet. The Clos de Beze is a vineyard that has since remained utterly unchanged.

So, as early as well over a thousand years ago, monks established the boundaries, understood the land to such an intimate degree that the vineyard boundaries have remained unchanged since then, which is utterly remarkable to me. Everyone's favorite, the Benedictines, they are the black monks. They established their most important monastery in 910, Cluny, west of Mekong. At its height, Cluny itself was an empire. So this is a large monastery. That itself has satellite monasteries. And as of, you know, the 12th century, there were 1,200 satellite monasteries, and they claimed over 10,000 Benedictine monks working the land, making amazing wine. Well, as you can imagine, that invited quite a bit of graft. The Benedictines, they got a little gaudy, as monks are wont to do.

You know, all sorts of great, you know, Renaissance-era paintings of monks, you know, enjoying their wine a little too much in the cellar. Well, the Cistercians. They had enough. They broke away from the Benedictines in 1098, and they established their own monasteries. And they said, you know, these black robes, they're a little, you know, maudlin. Let's kick it in white. So Cistercians, they are a breakaway sect from the Benedictines, founded in 1098. And they go hard, the Cistercians. Their motto is 'Under Cross and Plow.' You know, you are praying or farming, and you are earning your bread. And these are not, you know, the flossy Benedictine monks, you know, driving luxury SUVs. You know, we are driving donkeys and, you know, very intimately connected with the land.

The Cistercian most famous monastery, established in C2, just east of Nuit Saint-Georges. And the Cistercian's most famous holding is Clos Vigeot, which we will get to very shortly for the sake of one of our wines. Wine became an essential part of the lifestyle. It became essential a part of not only religious life. You know, Jesus was onto something for the sake of this whole wine is the blood of Christ thing. You know, as a new religion, you know, it's just a great, you know, way to bring on new followers. Hey, you join us. You're going to get free wine. You know, that is, you know, a pretty effective, you know, way to evangelize. And that's essentially what the monks did. They entertained guests. They made more wine than they could possibly drink themselves.

So that they became renowned for their hospitality. And so that people wanted to get them more vineyard acreage. And so they accumulated some of the greatest holdings throughout Burgundy throughout that time because of that. Burgundy broke out as a luxury good at the tail end of the 13th, the beginning of the tail end rather of the 14th, beginning of the 15th century with the Dukes of Burgundy. And again, these are descendants, heirs of this Germanic tribe who, beginning the 11th century, established a toehold in eastern France. And became more powerful in their own right than the kings of France. You know, at that time, during that, you know, century-plus era, you wanted to be a Duke of Burgundy. You wanted to be a Philip the Bold.

You didn't want to be, you know, a comparatively weak French king. The Burgundian Dukes were renowned for their hospitality, their lavishness, their luxury. Their feasts are still celebrated to this very day. In 1443, One of their most famous operatives, a chancellor of the sitting Duke, Nicholas Rolland, established the Hospice de Beaune, which we'll get to at a later point in time in Beaune, which has since become the center of the wine trade in the region. I will pull up a picture of Nicholas here because he's a handsome dude. And this is one of the most famous paintings of its era done by Jan van Eyck. The Burgundians actually held land from modern Burgundy, well into the Low Countries which had been part of their historic domain. That is Rolland on the left.

That is his wife, Jeanne Salinas de Salinas. And that is their son doing that, you know, fun little, you know, Christlike, you know, blessing for his father and mother as Renaissance era infants are wanted to. Anyway, he established the world's most luxurious hospital at the time. So, if you don't have, you know, God and a good husband, you know, you can't have a great husband. If you don't have a great husband as a crutch for the sake of accumulating vineyard acreage, then, you know, might as well create a fundraising vehicle for a hospital. So that's what the Hospice became. It still presides over the most famous auction in the wine world, held the third Sunday of every November, and one of the largest vineyard holders in the Côte d'Or, the Hospice, to this very day.

Although this building itself is not a hospital. They occupy a more modern building at the moment, but they still use the old Hospice to entertain. The Revolution brought with it all sorts of fundamental social change. The small peasant farmers who had been tied to the land, tied to a feudal lord, were freed from that obligation. Napoleon himself, not a first-born son, abolished primogeniture. And that means that you have vineyard holders. You have small holdings that are now split between multiple sons, as opposed to going only to the oldest, which is why, throughout Burgundy, there are tens of thousands of small holdings. I'm going to pull up an image here of the Clos de Bourgeot, which I referenced earlier, which is one of the most famous vineyard holdings.

The whole thing's a Grand Cru, but it has well over 100 individual owners. And this is a legacy of the Napoleonic inheritance. Historically, this all belonged to the Cistercians. But in the modern era, because Napoleon took all of the land for himself and, you know, parceled it out among many sons over the generations, this is what exists today. And this is why Burgundy is equally satisfying and seductive and maddening. It is the box of chocolates of the wine world. You truly, you never know quite what you're going to get. The region was first classified for the same reason. It was classified for the sake of its wines. Well, it was first classified well before the 19th century. But the first famous classifications happened in 1831 through the ages of Denis Moreleau, and then 1855, the most famous one, through the ages of Jules Lavelle.

Incidentally, the same year that the Châteaux of Bordeaux are certified. The certification takes a different form, though. Instead of certifying properties, we are classifying vineyards. So it is a true pyramid, and it is ascribed to the very land itself. You know, whereas in Bordeaux, if I, as Lafitte, buy new land, it becomes first growth. In Burgundy, the land itself is first growth. You know, the holdings are too small to begin with. But the land itself is classified, not the individual producer. Now, there are some vineyards to this day that are in the hands of single producers. Those are still called, well, they're called monopoles. This very day. Historically, clothes were wrapped around vineyards. Very often the clothes were monopoles. But those still exist. They're much rarer than they used to be.

Grand Cru accounts for a miniscule fraction of total production. Premier Cru designation thereafter. Village-level wines come from the individual villages and the regional wines thereafter. Now let's drink some wine without further ado. I certainly hope that you haven't waited this long. We're going to start with a broader look at the region. For the sake of the bottles that we covered over the course of our lesson. So, I'm going to pull up a map of the broader region. And we're showcasing the Côte d'Or, which is the Gold Slope. So côte in French means slope. And the region between Dijon and Sainte-Anne-et-Morange is the heart of the region. Now, the region itself, I'm going to zoom in. Nobody barfs on me. But it's divided into the Côte de Nuit to the north, named after Nuit Saint-Georges.

The nuit there is not night. It actually refers to the walnut trees that used to go in the village of Nuit. And the Côte de Beaune, centered around Beaune, which is the major commercial center of the Côte d'Or. Beaune thought to come from the name of a Celtic god, Béline. Just south, the Côte Chalonnes, centered on loosely the village of Chalon. Now, we have, as part of our tasting, I'm going to work our way from north Côte de Nuit to the south. We stole that of our Côte de Nuit. It was from two sites, Couvier-Côte-de-Dame-des-Vergis from Domaine de Guyon. And you can see it came from Eau Côte de Nuit. So you have Côte de Nuit, and then this magenta is Eau Côte de Nuit. Eau is high.

So you're higher up on the slope here, just west of Nuit Saint-Georges, for the sake of this wine. Historically, that would have made it more difficult to ripen the grapes reliably. These are wines that, you know, to quote a lot of famous wine buyers, have more stuffing. They tend to be more savory and lean. This is very much Pinot Noir country, the Côte de Nuit. There's a bit of white wine made here, but Pinot, star of the show. Moving down to the Côte de Beaune, a fabulous value from David Bourreau, a remarkable grower. And a 2015, which we will taste through for Thauley, for the sake of our first tasting. This is the first horizontal. This comes from Villages. So Villages are outside of the individual village zone.

This particular offering comes from multiple parcels from the southern end of the region, both in Chassagne, which is known more for its white wines, and in Saint-Denis, which is known more for its reds. This is more of a polyglot than the Cote de Nuit, less monolithic, both great whites and great reds. Although I'd say, you know, broadly speaking, known more for the great whites. Like the Montrachets and the Meursaults of the world. Then the Cote Chalonnais is a bit more heterodox. It is a great source of values in wine. A bit of both reds and whites. The one we're drinking from Mercure, which is the most famous village in the region. It used to be called the Cote de Mercure. Such was Mercure's sway over this sub-region of Burgundy.

It is not a single slope; it is a conglomeration of hills. Many of the same limestones that define the Côte define the Chalonnais. The slopes are much more irregular. And they are variously, you know, east-facing, south-facing, and west-facing, depending on the hill. Quality, much more variable. But there is greatness to be found here if you find the right site, the right grower. There are prime crews, but there are no grand crus in the Côte Chalonnais. I found the Mercure quite enjoyable. It is an 18. Much like the Domaine Guillaume, the Côte de Nuit. A riper vintage, a sign of vintages to come for the sake of a global warming input. And something that a lot of local growers say about global warming is that it elevates mere village-level wines into something more stately, more aristocratic.

And I think, you know, you'll find that with these particular offerings. So Mercure is a village wine defined by a single village, which is Mercure. The other two wines are more regionally based. But without further ado, we're going to dive into the nitty-gritty of this exercise because I've talked a lot. I want to hear from Zoe because she's tasted these wines. I want to hear from you all. Please chime in if you have any thoughts about these individual offerings. We are going to begin our horizontal with three wines. Our horizontal kind of encompasses three wines. From an incomparable Négociant. So Négociant, it should be said, is a merchant, an individual wine merchant. And Négociants do not necessarily own the vineyards themselves.

I think we have this very, you know, kind of precious notion of, you know, grape growers making all of our wines. That is kind of a grower-producer modality. But throughout Burgundy, historically, you know, small growers have done, you know, the nitty-gritty. They've, you know, worked the land. But more often than not, they sold their wines to larger merchant houses that then either raised them themselves and released them or blended them and released them. And this is one of Burgundy's greatest modern merchants, Négociants, Camille Giroud. And it is presided over by one, Davy Roy. Actually, until this very vintage. And he launched his own label. So this is Davy's last vintage, which is fitting because 2015, a legendary vintage. Robert Parker calls it 96T. The T stands for tannic.

But I think really coming into their own, softening beautifully. And, you know, the question we're going to seek to answer for the sake of these three wines is, you know, we have all this history of Burgundy as a noble source of fine wine. But why? Why Burgundy? Why this corner of the world and not others? What is so special about this place that vineyards mere feet, meters apart are, you know, create wines that are so hugely different? And a whole, you know, hugely distinguished from wines elsewhere throughout the region and throughout the world. So, Zoe, I want to start, talk quite a bit with the 2015 Bonne Premier crew across. Let's just taste this wine, talk about tasting notes, and then I'll talk about, you know, why it tastes the way it does for the sake of, you know, those underlying conditions.

I think the Bone is really pretty. It has this, like, really light strawberry, cranberry, a little red plum. But it has this peppery kick to it. I wouldn't say that it's pinecone. It reminds me more of a rosemary. And there's a little bit of floral. But it is much softer than I was expecting it to be. I thought it was because of its nose and how bright that was. I thought that the acid would be kind of searing or raging, one might say. But it was a little bit softer and more delicate. Yeah, I would certainly echo that. So I'm going to pull up a map of the Côte du Bon at large to situate you all. And again, we are centered on the village of Bone.

Which is very much the kind of commercial capital of the Côte d'Or. This is a map of the Côte du Bon. And you'll notice there's a distinct dividing line between the Côte du Nuit and the Côte du Bon. And that's because the limestone rock is so pure that it only exists for the sake of quarries, not for the sake of vines. You'll notice the red here; those are your Grand Crus. Orange, Premier Cru's. Yellow, village-level wines. And the darker green, your regional kind of level offerings. You see, Bourgogne here has no Grand Cru's to claim as its own. And historically, Bourgogne was not a great name. Now, you'll notice many hyphenates throughout Burgundy. Just zooming in. On this map alone, we have Alux-Courton. We have Chari de Bon. We have Auxilieresse.

We have Pugny-Montrachet and Chassan-Montrachet. What gives? Well, in this case, you have older villages that are attaching their names to their most famous vineyards. So, Alux is a village. Chari is a village. Pugny, Chassan, the villages. Courton, Le Bon, and Montrachet are the famous vineyards they're in. And beginning in the late 19th century, this is an early attempt at branding. You know, these villages saw that, you know, people wanted Courton. They wanted Le Bon. And so, they said, you know, we want to tie, you know, our wagons. We want to tie our wagons to our most famous product. So, that's why all the hyphenates. You'll notice Bon doesn't have a hyphenate of its own, just as it doesn't have Grand Cru's. But it has many vineyards to recommend it.

And I'm going to pull up a map of this very vineyard site. So, this is from the World Atlas of Wine. You see Bon here. And you see Acros. So, Acros itself comes from a word that essentially means stone. It's a stony hill. And that very underlining stone is really what accounts for the greatness of these wines. And you can see here that Acros occupies this, you know, privileged position along the mid-slope. So, it's kind of at the midpoint, Acros, between the top and the bottom of this particular hill. Now, you see what is evidently, through the sake of the topographical lines, a valley. And this is a tributary of the zone. This is what the French call a comb or side valley.

So, across, you know, we are facing east here, but subtly southeast, which is a really privileged exposition, especially in the northern hemisphere. You get that south-facing slope. You get a better angle to the sun for the sake of optimal ripeness. Now, I am going to pull up a geologic map of France. Very exciting for you all. Wine is, after all, geology. So, you see various colors. Now, the yellow is the most recent. That is the Quaternary era. So, that is the era that we still occupy, the area that encompasses the last ice age, which is to say a lot of rock movement, but not much rock formation. Burgundy, the Côte d'Or, is defined by this blue area. The red area is ancient rock that is from the basement of time.

Those are your ancient granites that weather largely into sand, especially in kind of the cru zone of Beaujolais. But burgundy itself exists along a fault line. So, you see the Côte d'Or here in the center of this antique map. And you can see on the one side, you have this yellow, which is basically infill. These are alluvial floods, alluvial deposits from the last ice age. And then you have this darker blue and lighter blue, which correspond to Jurassic and, you know, slightly younger Cretaceous era lines. Now, what's so good, to paraphrase Elvis Costello, what's so good about limestone anyway? So, the Jurassic era, millions upon millions, hundreds of millions of years ago, the world looked like this, which is to say that most of Western Europe was under shallow seas.

And it was this privileged time of kind of rock formation for the sake of the life cycle of the kind of small, you know, reefs, the underwater organisms that were flourishing in these shallow waters. The French call it the noblest of geological time. Underwater gardens of sea lilies, crinoids that flourished in these shallow waters piled banks upon banks of shells on the shore. Mud bottoms, swallows, and lagoons were carpeted with oyster beds stretching for miles. And these ancient oyster beds became calcareous, which is to say rich in life. Calcium rock formations over those millions of years. And, you know, deposited meters upon meters of variously pure limestone rock. And all sorts of different types of limestone throughout Burgundy. You have on the left pure limestone, which is almost 100% calcium carbonate.

And then various levels of impurity. So, clayey, marley limestone. It's just less pure. Argulaceous limestone is just argulaceous - it's a word for clay. Essentially, marl is more impure limestone, and you get variously impure thereafter. And the French attach all sorts of names to these various limestones. And you see them crop up throughout the region. You have calcare coblanchion, which is very pure limestone. Oolite comes from these little kinds of ancient egg-like sea creatures. You can see the very eggs. Marne is various degrees of impurity. Calcare, less impure still. And the more impure limestone tends to be softer rock, which means that it weathers differently than the pure coblanchion. And that has all sorts of implications for our vineyards throughout the region. Now, this fault line that constitutes the côte d'Or is what geologists call a graven.

Graven is this slip bolt. Horst is the ridge. Graven is the underlying valley. And the côte d'Or is a graven or series of fault lines that stretch north and south in an almost unbroken line, east-facing. And it's that fault line from these various substrata of limestone that constitutes the greatness of, that account for the greatness of this region. And I'm going to kind of lastly, before we move into our next topic, pull up a subsection of the slope. So you have this upper slope. And throughout the southern kind of part of the Côte d'Or, it consists of softer limestone. And the slopes themselves are more gentle, less severe sloped. And then in the Côte de Nuit, we get into harder, more of that calcareous-limestone and steeper slopes, which is why it's Pinot Noir country as opposed to Chardonnay country.

But at that mid-slope, you get this perfect intermarriage of thin soils, but just enough topsoil to ensure fertile growing conditions, optimal ripening for the vine, optimal weight, optimal fruitiness for these offerings. But as you get closer to the valley floor, the wines kind of fatten out and they lose some of their intensity and structure and focus that you get higher up on that slope. So the French will talk about the kidney. The saddle of the slope, the heart of the slope. And that is where special things happen as far as they are concerned for the sake of these component vineyards. Now, so we're going to move on now to a different wine, this middle wine, which is from Nuit Saint-Georges, which is the village that gives its name to the very côte de Nuits that we mentioned, which is the northern subzone of the Côte d'Or.

How does this one, to your mind, differ from the bone that we started off with? I think it's much more serious. Instead of it having that bright fruit to it, I have more of like a mixed berry or like a frutta di bosco, like a like forest fruit and very like meadow-y in terms of its like vegetal-ness. And then there's a little bit of like a nut, like a hazelnutty, going on. Yeah, I think I think certainly much more herbaceous, much meatier, you know, a little less, you know, kind of opulence for the sake of that fruit, a little more structure. I get that fruit of the forest thing you talk about. I do get this like savory dried herbal leaf on this one and something, you know, distinctly woodsy about that wine.

So you can see Nuit Saint-Georges, which we mentioned earlier, which is capital of the region. Nuit is subdivided by the stream that you see here. And Nuit is really two villages and two vineyard zones. You have the zones north of that river and the zones south of that river. And we are enjoying a wine that is from north of the village. So you can see Avoido. It is one of the great Grands Crus of Nuit Saint-Georges. We have another village here that doesn't have any Grands Crus. Avoido comes about as close as you can without reaching that level. You can see it is bordering Bonne Romanée, which is arguably the most famous village in the entire Burgundy zone. The saying about Bonne is there are no common wines in Bonne.

And you can see once again, we are occupying that ideal situation on the mid slope. So great structure because of that, but you know, fullness of fruit. As we go up the slope, the wines tend to get more delicate and acid driven, but they have less generosity of fruit. As we go down the slope, they tend to spread out and get fuller. So the last wine that we tasted from Les Chaladons, which is kind of opposite Bonne Romanée, just under the famous Grands Crus of Saint-Bibon and adjacent to the Clos Bourgeot, that very center of the Cistercian arts that we talked about before. And people talk about Les Chaladons as kind of a poor man's Clos Bourgeot. Now Clos Bourgeot is so big as a Grands Crus, almost twice the size as the entire acreage of Grands Crus.

It's actually an average size, in the world is that most of the wines in Bonne Romanée that, you know, there are parts of the vineyard that are considered, kind of lesser than others. So up on the slope, closer to Eshazo, are more privileged sites. If you own them, further down closer to Chaladon, are considered, you know, less privileged, but historically, historically, the monks tended actually to blend wines from the top, middle, and bottom of the slope to create, you know, kind of more of a choral expression, as opposed to a soloist. I'm going to shut the **** up, Zoe, but what do you think of the Chalandon compared to the two wines that we tried before? People, you know, discuss, you know, Vaughan, and very often they'll reference, you know, the opulence of these wines, the velvety quality of these wines.

You know, I will say, you know, the fine folks from, you know, the Trade Association, they talk about this wine as the seductress of Camille Giroud's, you know, portfolio. What do you taste, you know, compared to our first couple offerings? I think it shares the similarity of the meatiness from the Nuit Saint-Georges. Instead of it being so, like, prosciutto-y or, like, gamey, it has more. More of, like, a roast beef or more of, like, a red meat type of a flavor to it. I think that the plushness of the fruit is very generous and reminds me a lot of the bone, but still remains, like, super serious. What do you think? I think so, too. I like the Vendée Bourgogne, which is the Trade Association, which does a lot of work online in promoting the region, says about bone that's often full-bodied and voluptuous.

The wine is the equivalent of a Reuben's Nude. So Reuben-esque, I think, could be a good description for this one. You notice it a little less focused, a little less taut, you know, less structured in terms of those, you know, kind of woozy tannins than the wine from further up the hill. And people talk about Nuit Saint-Georges au Bordeaux as having more of kind of a bone imprint than a Nuit Saint-Georges imprint. And, you know, my hope was to give you a taste of Clos Bourgeot, but at a lesser price. And equally, to give you a sense of. But the wines further down the slope, how they compare to the wines in the kidney of the slope in that saddle. What does the commentary say, though?

I've talked a lot about the region, trying to give people a grounding in centuries of history and, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of wine connoisseurship. What do those in the audience think about these wines want to say about Burgundy at large? We have a lot of really great questions. Can you start first by reiterating? The difference between the two banks of of bone? You mean of Nuit Saint-Georges? Or bone? Of bone. So bone itself, I'm just going to I'm having trouble with my my stop share here. So the the Cote de Beaune is if we pull it up here. You got a lot of words today. Oh, yeah. So so bone, like Nuit Saint-Georges, is itself subdivided by another another comb.

So if we pull up a map of Bourgogne and consider, you know, how that division people talk about how on one side the wines reflect the character of Pommard, whereas on the other, they are a little, you know, more filigreed and less delicate. So you have Pommard. So you have Pommard here, which is a great kind of segue into our vertical tasting when we get there. So Pommard and Vosne-Romanée are the two most famous red wines in the Côte de Nuits and Pommard is said to be in Burgundy. They love to speak in terms of gender when it comes to their wine. So Pommard is the masculine for us. It is, you know, hearty, more robust, more obviously full-fruited, whereas Vosne-Romanée, which is just off the map to the west here, just rather just to the south.

This map is oriented kind of south to your left, north to your right. Vosne-Romanée just to the south is the most feminine of Burgundy's. And we're going to taste a single vineyard that its producer calls the most Volnay of Volnays. So it's the prettiest of the pretty. And when I've heard about people, you know, discussing bone in terms of, you know, the character of the Premier Cruet to the south, the Premier Cruet to the north. It is for sake. Of wines that are more like Pomerol and then wines that are, you know, perhaps a little more delicate, a little less obviously fruit-forward, you know, out of balance. And I think, you know, for the sake of this particular vineyard that has that, you know, pure limestone imprint, I think, you know, that's that's equally apropos to my mind.

But bone is as a whole compared to the wines of the Côte de Nuit tends to be more precocious, tends to be alluring. It's a little more approachable and bone is not one of the famous names. You know, bone is, you know, a population center by Burgundian standards. And as such, it is just a great value. You know, the Premier Cruet of bone, which is is they turn out more reds than whites. They are, you know, some great values in Burgundy in a region, you know, where great values are harder and harder to come by, but still very much exist. Lovely. Could you speak to how Burgundy compares to Alsace in terms of size, and then also in terms of how the quality and both the typicity of different types of village vary so drastically in such a small region?

Yeah, I think I can't, I can't speak to size off the top of my head. Zoe, you're gonna have to work online and pull up some figures there for me, but the Côte d'Or is tiny, you know, you know, it is exceedingly slim from north to south, and accounts for a small fraction of, you know, the fine wines that come out of, you know, France at large, which is why Burgundy has become, you know, so much more expensive in in the modern era. So it is a relatively tiny region, especially insofar as the, the Cote d'Or. is concerned, you know, most of the wine that comes out of the region, you know, comes out of, you know, you know, the broader regional level, you know, designations of origin, so it is not village classified, it's certainly not Premier Coup classified or Grand Coup classified.

And, you know, there's more, I believe there's more Chardonnay grown in the region than Pinot Noir. So, you know, you are considering, you know, a relatively small sliver compared to you know, France at large and, you know, there's not a ton of room to grow, particularly in, you know, the most prestigious and the most famous corners of Burgundy, which accounts for some of the price. Sorry, Zoe, what was the second, the second half of the question? How there's so much varied quality as well as differences between the wines in such a small area. Yeah, I think I think that that is just about, you know, these subtle gradations of slope and geology. So you see this really narrow band. And so you have the broader region, Burgundy, which you see right up top here.

And then, you know, the smaller sliver at the northern end that accounts for its most famous names in its greatest vineyards. And it's relatively tiny. You know, you're dealing with, for the sake of, you know, the Grand Cru's Bon Romain, which are the most famous, most expensive wines in the world, 27 hectares. You know, that's a piss in the bucket. You know, there are a lot of, you know, modern producers that own, you know, 10 times as much vineyard acreage themselves and will call, you know, plots that are 10 times that size single vineyards. So, you know, that has everything to do with the fact that we're dealing with relatively narrow bands of a single unbroken hill. And I think you get a better sense of that, you know, just kind of studying.

There's a kind of a geological map. Here's something that does a better job of encapsulating that of this like single unbroken hillside and gives you a sense too of how these bands of different varying limestones stretch from the north into the south. So, Nantou is a less pure type of limestone that at its core constitutes the cap rock and accounts to some extent for why the slopes are more gentle and for why, you know, the wines are plusher. Whereas Coblantian is the cap rock for the sake of Gevry, for the sake of Nuit Saint-Georges, for the sake of Prémeaux and Coblantian, the village itself, which doesn't account for great wines, accounts for very good wines, but it gives its name to this very limestone when it is submerged.

And then you see the comb that accounts for the division between the Cote de Nuit and the Cote de Beaune. And, you know, this is it. You know, for the sake of, you know, the Gold Slope, this is, you know, the entirety. There is no more. And, you know, the subtle, you know, variations in degree of the slope, in the substrata for the sake of, you know, various kinds of ancient sea creatures that constitute the individual types of limestone in these vineyards and the physical properties thereof, and then the geological properties for the sake of individual forests. fault line. So, um, if you have harder rock, you can make that work for great wine. If you have it broken up, there are a lot of smaller sub faults, uh, underlying the vineyard, but if it's not broken up, then the roots really have nowhere to go.

Um, and, uh, and the wines are, um, you know, uh, comparatively, you know, shrill and severe. Um, and then, you know, concurrently, um, you know, you could have, uh, you know, softer rock, um, that's, you know, not on a slope, you know, that is giving kind of waterlogged lines, but, um, if it exists on a slope, um, that's, you know, sufficient enough for drainage, uh, then it makes, you know, um, some of the greatest wines in Burgundy. So, um, it's this, you know, subtle intermarriage of all of these, um, different variables for the sake of underlying rock geology, um, and topography for the sake of that slope, um, and exposure that account for the secret sauce, uh, that is, you know, uh, the reason that separates one vineyard from its neighbor, you know, meters away.

And I think what's special about Burgundy is that it's not just, you know, it's not just people have spent thousands upon thousands of years, uh, trying to understand these differences. Um, I'm sure that there are other Burgundys in the world. Um, you know, I'm sure that the other corners of the world that have, you know, physical properties, geological properties that, you know, are similar to Burgundys, but, um, they didn't have, you know, generations upon generations of growers, um, you know, with the impetus of the church, um, you know, and the unique, um, historical legacy of Rome into medieval France, you know, creating incentives for, you know, the, the to understand those differences. So it's just, you know, marriage of, you know, time and working the land and, you know, this unique situation that accounts for these differences and, uh, the way in which we are able to understand and interpret them.

And then to follow up, um, in some parts of Alsace, the, the width is, um, about or on average is about 10 kilometers by 70, as opposed to Burgundy, which, again, varies a lot, but is about four, um, by only 20. Yeah. So just a much thinner band. And then, um, uh, geologically Alsace is much more diverse. So you see granite outcroppings, you see volcanic outcroppings, you see limestone in, in, in the Basra, this is Northern Alsace. So, uh, it's a much more kind of polyglot, um, uh, compared to, um, there's a lot of the same bolting, um, uh, you know, and you have, you know, a lot of the same folding and fault lines, et cetera. But, um, you know, there's a lot of the same bolting, um, it's, it's much less consistent, uh, than, than Burgundy is.

Um, geologically Burgundy is pretty simple. Um, Alsace is not, um, uh, but, you know, uh, in spite of that simplicity, there are all of these shades of gray, um, that account for, um, you know, what distinguishes, um, bone from Nuit from bone, what distinguishes, you know, these individual vineyards, uh, from, from their neighbors. Um, I want to get into the Alsace, but there's also so many different types of grapes in Alsace for this reason. Yeah, no, very, you know, very, very much so. Um, and, absolutely. And because of that, you know, um, Burgundy makes this compelling laboratory for terroir because, you know, there's this one, uh, single variable that you're tweaking, which is Pinot Noir. And because of that, it's, it's a really satisfying place for wine nerds to look, you know, to try to understand how that imprint of what we call terroir, um, you know, ultimately exerts an influence on the wine.

Um, I'm going to pull up and; so this is, uh, uh, this is an image of the vineyards of Bourgogne. You're kind of looking up the slope at, uh, to your left, La Romanée and Eschiseau to your right. And, um, I have no doubt that at its foot are vineyards adjoining Chalendon, uh, which is the wine that we just tasted. So, you know, this is the Cote d'Or. Yeah, this is it, you know, um, uh, you know, and, and, and I, I think, um, uh, people who get there, um, are, you know, comparatively shocked. There is this, you know, Hugh Johnson talks about, you know, this, this moment of standing in the vineyards and wondering, you know, how this particular little patch of land produces this wine with this illustrious history and, you know, a stone's throw away, its neighbor, you know, is, is sold for, you know, 10 times less.

Um, and, and, you know, I think really that's the, that's the secret sauce. That is the core truth. That is the eternal mystery, um, for the sake of these wines that makes them so compelling. Um, so we're going to return now to, um, our, our vertical table. So this is a tasting of one vineyard, um, uh, through multiple, uh, vintages and, uh, those vintages, um, variously classified, um, 2017, 2018, and 2019. I'm going to talk about each of them. Then we're going to taste through them, uh, with you, Zoe. Uh, for the sake of the vineyard, um, uh, we are dealing with Joseph Wayo, um, uh, uh, and, uh, Joseph Wayo, um, was a proud fourth-generation grower, um, lived his life, um, as, you know, um, the storied romantic, you know, peasant growers of Burgundy did once upon a time, um, you know, grew up, passed away in the same house.

Um, his son-in-law, uh, pictured here, uh, Jean-Pierre Charleau, irrepressible, um, always a smile on his face. Um, and, uh, he inherited, uh, the domain, um, which is, um, uh, he now works, um, in, uh, cooperation, um, with, uh, a really, um, uh, fine, um, uh, younger, uh, winemaker, uh, show. Um, and, uh, we're tasting, you know, to my mind, one of his, his foremost products. So, um, uh, this is Volnais. Uh, Volnais is just south of Pomard. I'll pull up a map of the vineyard in just a second. Um, uh, I want to give you an image of the vines because it doesn't get much more romantic. So, um, uh, this is Premier, um, which is on that mid slope, which you talked about, uh, but it is along the border of Pomard and Volnais, but unlike, um, the Nuit Saint-Georges, um, which we, uh, tasted on the border of Beaune, um, this, uh, vineyard, the Premier in Volnais, um, couldn't be any less like Pomard.

Um, uh, in spite of being adjacent to Pomard, um, uh, uh, Jean-Pierre calls it his most Volnais, Volnais. Uh, it is, you know, his most feminine of, of wines. And, uh, it comes from, um, these, you know, ancient, um, almost centenarian vines. Uh, uh, this is one of the mother vines on the property. Um, this is vine propagation through what's called layering. Uh, so it's actually burying of canes to propagate additional plants. It's both trunk and extension, um, lovably old-fashioned. Um, the whole vineyard isn't propagated this way, but, um, it's, you know, wonderfully romantic, uh, to see vines, um, that, you know, look, uh, such as these do, and to imagine, you know, tasting three years, three, uh, three separate vintages of the fruits of this particular, uh, labor.

Um, uh, as for the vintages, 2017, uh, Robert Parker gives it a 92E, um, which is to say, um, uh, easy drinking, approachable, um, uh, cooler winter, um, frost in April, um, uh, uh, summer, um, uh, kind of redeemed, uh, the year, um, uh, lower crop because of the frost, um, but, um, a vintage of brightness, freshness, and classicism. Um, uh, 2018, much more of a global warming, uh, vineyard, average temperatures above normal from April onward, uh, very early harvest. Um, uh, Parker gives it a 94T. Um, uh, you know, the fear here is that you'll lose, um, you know, some of the bright acidity in these wines, um, but, um, there's almost an exotic substance, it's said, to the best Grand Cru, um, from, uh, the vintage.

And then, 2019, um, uh, really, uh, a bit of a blockbuster,, you saw, uh, Etienne, um, a current winemaker speak, too, some, some worries about frost, uh, reminiscent of 2016,, a cooler, um, April and May, um, kind of, uh, inconsistent flowering, um, which meant a smaller crop, um, but, um, really hot, dry summer, um, and, uh, uh, lower yields, which means the resultant fruit is much more concentrated. Robert Parker gives it a 96E. He doesn't give away those 96s, um, uh, but, a kind of a banner year. Um, Bonet, Bonet is talked about in the glass, uh, more insubstantial wine. Just looking at these wines in the glass, um, I think, to my mind, 27 is the most, 2017 is the most classic, um, Bonet.

It is the most Bonet Bonet. Um, it is Bonet such as it would have existed, um, in an earlier era. Uh, the Vignerons of Burgundy talk about, um, Burgundy before 20, 2003, and after 2003, 2003 was kind of, you know, this, you know, uh, epic, uh, vintage, uh, the warmest in 500 years, um, and, you know, succeeding vintages have, you know, been as warm, if not warmer. Um, uh, 2017, uh, to my mind is, is kind of a callback. Um, uh, whereas the, the next, uh, couple of wines are, are more consistent with what we have to expect, um, from succeeding decades, uh, in Burgundy, but, um, they're all stunning. Um, uh, I, I would, if you, if you haven't, um, you know, broken the seal yet, I recommend you taste from, uh, older to younger. Um, that's not the way that a lot of people taste, um, uh, uh, wines of the silk, but because they're not so old, um, and because, uh, the, the 17 is more delicate, I think it makes a, a, a proper order. Um, so, um, tasting through these, uh, what do you get for the sake of the 17, 18, and 19?

You know, still getting that mute button down, love it two years later, yeah. Between the 17 and the 18, I think that the 17 is much leaner um, but then also has that like peppery brightness um, yeah, that's jumping out of the glass, whereas I feel like the 18 is much more like muted and subdued in that way um, and then also just thinking about the plushness of the fruit, they are still like remarkably similar to me, but there is that's my main thought, I think there's i think there's a lot of continuity there, but I'm struck um by the difference honestly though. So um, our friends at Ben de Bourgogne um, the trade association, they call uh Beaune um, at its best um, uh reminiscent of the lipstick imprint of a kiss uh, which makes me think of like Oscar Wilde's tomb.

I really I like that um, uh, I think you know the the 17 um, evokes that, the 18 is much more rich uh, much sturdier uh, much cooler uh, for the sake of of fruit, you think the quality of the fruit is the same or different? I get a lot more kind of like a riper cherry, you know commercial cherry uh, quality out of the 18 um, I get some of the same perfume um, but um, you know, uh, it's it's um, a little more uh intense, a little more potpourri-ish as opposed to the 17 which feels More organic, I think feels more like, uh, you know, traipsing through um, you know, a bed of wildflowers, um, uh, you know, where there's something, you know, like a like a floral distillate um for the sake of the 18 and then uh the 19 seems kind of headier still um uh I think you know the the quality of acid on these wines is striking uh going to the younger offerings because you know they are a little brighter uh for the sake of that acid the the 17 has started to uh mellow uh a little bit uh really beautifully and the eight and then the 19th in my mind you know much more savory um there's a meatiness I don't always expect a bull name Um, and, and, uh, more like um, uh, you know, potpourri, more dried flowers, um, for the sake of that that um, aromatic intensity, there's continuity, um, I feel like you know, uh, there's topicity, uh, for the sake of the site, they all taste, um, you know, uh, of a ludy, of a place, um, there's a signature, there um, and then there's a um, there's a um, there's a um, there's a um, there's a that I can follow throughout these um, but you know, to my mind, you know, it is, it is a very different um, expression, uh, from one to the next. Have you had a chance to try all of those up? Yeah, so the 2019 is remarkably different and. Also, like based on like classic notes and an experience of wine because they're all none of are incredibly older than the others. Um, is that the 19 has all the tasting notes of what I would typically um apply to the oldest wine in a flight like this, because oh, interesting, interesting! Because of those like the dried leaves because of that like richness but that gaminess; it is much more savory, whereas still the 17 and 18 I do see the difference much more now, but in comparison to the 19, I feel like there's there's a division between yeah.

I think. I think the 19 has a little more of this like um, uh, vintage leather store or kind of savory. umami-ness um uh the 17 to me you know is the the purest of the bunch um and if you if you have multiple glasses at home i encourage you to um you know kind of uh fill three um it is a fun nerdy exercise and um you know i will say that um uh you know burgundy is just this uh land of hyper specifics um you know uh we are covering you know what zoe you know previously mentioned is this tiny corner um in in global terms of the world but you know there's this hyper specificity to the extent that i feel like i'm doing it a disservice by not doing a single class on volnay or doing a single class on the lines of bone um you know bone roman a could occupy An entire semester, um, nobody could afford it but it would be a fun class, um, you know so uh it is it is hugely fascinating that way and to my mind that's what's seductive about it, you know. It is this rabbit hole, um, that you continue to fall down. Now it's not a rabbit hole that everybody can afford to to fall down, um, which makes it occasionally insufferable, um, but um once it does sink your your teeth into it, you know it is easy to understand how, you know, you kind of um leave the rest of the world and and enter, you know, this kind of sub um Reddit form that is burgundy and that's the only world that you occupy, and and I I said, you know, in introducing This class for the sake of the lesson announcement, that you know there are wine lovers and they're Burgundy lovers, and they're different breeds. And you know they have a friendly language that they use. You need to believe some of this controls um, there's about 11, you ask for two five percent or so, and the um, there's about exactly what you need to want that your your craft should be observed um, and then um, uh, in addition, you get a sense of why that is the case. You know one called um Würkerich uh, and also my beach, and some of the other um, but there you know also um, just the um, getting at least through you know my rambling through. my expert uh take on the region you know you get a sense of them on the surface but um you know more deeply unlocking you know why this one and not that one and and and why you know this in a particular year this way uh all of those questions um you know are the kinds of questions that as you um you know spend more time with wine you know you want to be unlocking and burgundy is this remarkable laboratory um for that exploration uh so questions comments you talk a little bit about um the aging process of these wines um what the minimum aoc restrictions are but then also what type of oak and if there's of course cabevry or cement eggs involved uh so no cement egg no cabevry uh we're gonna uh traipse that path for the sake of um our 61st adventure together uh with chardonnay but um uh for the sake of this adventure um lovably unremarkable um so old uh oak most of it neutral uh for the sake of both uh voileau and camille uh gerud um in the 10 to 15 percent um realm new um uh both producers uh typically back off whole cluster so uh throughout burgundy um the roman countries of the world actually they uh throw a lot of stems whole stems whole bunches into the mix that's not to say that um they're encouraging carbonic maceration but they like the character of The stems in their wines, which is something that a lot of people like in Pino, uh these uh particular producers, uh fully distem almost without exception, um for the sake of their wines. So there's a real purity of expression and I think continuity um across the the two flights which I'm proud of, um and all the wines I think are showing really beautifully, which they should uh for almost sixty dollars a flight but um you know uh you know sometimes uh you know life's life's great joys uh you know costs a little more and and hopefully um you know this has been instructive and a chance to try wines that you can buy um at 750 milliliters. a time but um all the wines uh fermented um with uh native yeast um and you know that that's about as interesting as it as it gets um you're talking uh 12 to 18 months um age uh in barrel um for all of these um and you know um i think some of them uh i don't know about finding infiltration um uh i feel like that's something that um uh joseph has done in some but um you know uh i would consider these natural wines um you know um some natural wine devotees would not but to me uh they are very pure expressions of a place i'll kick you off i kicked you off the uh the soundboard so um this is a good segue of some wines from burgundy are only costing A hundred, two hundred dollars cheap, sir, but in comparison to some of the other wines that I've had in the past, um, I think, in comparison to those that are being sold for tens of thousands of dollars, what is the quality difference in these already ultra-luxe wines and how much of it is due to branding or historical revel?

I mean, honestly, even in Burgundy where the markets are limited, I think once you cross the and honestly, especially in Burgundy, you know once you cross that 200 threshold um, you're paying for scarcity um uh, you know. And I talked about our Ruby Mascots experience for the last lot of the week for resorting. which is obviously we 앞ces these i mean we need some review about where those fit and what i was always trying to say particular how wow that's how many different types of abuses are that we're like you're not orientating yourself around how green are the farmer mind um this is a yes it's true i don't think we can sell it to brad potter um the next thing i wanted to discuss was the어rbyзä damaging may or not risk in a point yeah absolutely yeah uh you know today we're looking off we're not looking at this our theme is a difference and you know just pricezil one may or may not be a technical policy the look exactly the same wine we Should look the great old bottles. And even, you know, the same two bottles from the same place, you know, held in the same cellar will age differently because, you know, by and large, they're sealed with cork and cork is variously transmissive of oxygen. So, you know, you're dealing with scarcity and, you know, that's a dangerous place to be for the sake of luxury goods because there's a diminishing rate of return at that end of the price curve.

I would set that bar higher for the sake of Burgundy than other wines. You know, I would say, you know, for an emerging region, don't spend more than a hundred, you know, for Burgundy, you know, $200 should get you a long way. None of the bottles that we've actually, honestly, so most of the bottles in the flight would probably retail for low 200s. And, you know, that's probably as much as I would honestly be comfortable spending in my own money, retail. I probably have spent more in a restaurant, but for retail. You know, for Burgundy, but it's a rich man's game. If you want value, invest in the lesser known corners, invest in, you know, Mercari, in the Cochelanet, invest in Oco de Bon, you know, there's still value to be had there.

And, you know, and then get your Pinot fix elsewhere, you know, find other places that, you know, are making Pinot Noir in a different way, you know, and they're not Burgundy, you know, they have their own signature. But, you know, maybe they scratch a little bit of the surface. So, you know, I would say, you know, the same niche. Or, you know, just find friends with deep pockets. So, I'm going to say the 2018 and 2019, it looks like there's a huge variety online, but it's between $445 and $720. Yeah, that sounds about right. And Burgundy is, prices are hugely variable, just according to vintage, because Burgundy has quite a bit of vintage variation, historically more than it does now.

Historically, you know, it's only like, you only got like, you know, two, three vintages a decade out of Burgundy that were, you know, truly great. In the modern era, you get quite a few more. But, you know, the word is out, I think, about, you know, the 19s in particular. And, you know, people, horrifyingly enough, buy these wines not to drink them. People buy them as an investment vehicle, which is just dystopian to me. But, you know, people with deep pockets, they don't buy them. And so, you know, there's a lot of people who are willing to pay for them. And, you know, they appreciate sufficiently. I've read a lot of case studies that indicate that, you know, you're much better served, you know, sinking your mind, wine or money into, you know, other investment vehicles, certainly not restaurants, but other investment vehicles.

But at any rate, yeah, I would say, you know, Burgundy is, has suffered from its own success to some extent. And, you know, within the last generation, you know, you go from, like, humble peasant farmers to, you know, vacationing in Saint-Tropez, driving luxury cars. And, like, it's this weird quirk of history. And this, you know, you know, I don't know. It just, you know, for those growers, especially the ones that survived the French Revolution, and, you know, Downey Mildew, Pottery Mildew, Phylloxera, you know, First World War, Second World War, good on them. You know, but, you know, most of the growers in France aren't, aren't, you know, benefiting from that same kind of surge in demand.

Can you talk a little bit about the Napoleonic Code and its after effects and what it actually looks like now in terms of its practices, or if that's long time gone, and it's just companies and buying up land? So it was, you know, you have to, I can't, again, you know, this is where, you know, you know, where we would benefit from a proper French historian. But, you know, you have to understand the church's reach as a landholder in France prior to the Revolution. And it was, you know, beyond extensive. It was, you know, built into the very fabric of, you know, the state's, you know, relation to its people, its subjects. And, you know, Napoleon, you know, kind of took over all that land wealth. And then distributed it.

And that made him very popular. You know, it was a way to curry favor. And then for all the second, third, fourth, et cetera, sons, you know, the Napoleonic Codes further, you know, curried favor. And the reason why Bordeaux is what it is, because there weren't extensive church holdings there. You know, from the 14th century onward, Bordeaux was a region that was, you know, part of this kind of merchant class. And so you had, like, large holdings outside of the church. Whereas Burgundy was defined, you know, the great holdings were defined by the church. And sold off as such through the church. And, you know, that's why Burgundy has, you know, tens of thousands of growers. And, you know, like, it's crazy. Like, two rows of vines, you know.

And again, that's why it's so maddeningly inconsistent. You know, I can't speak to modern French experience. I can't speak to modern French experience. And so when you look at the history of Burgundy, the first two years of the Napoleonic inheritance, land is so expensive now in Burgundy that, you know, it's outside of the realm of most, you know, farmers to acquire new holdings unless they already have a significant toehold in the game. And most young enterprising winemakers in France, they're not looking to Burgundy. You know, they're looking to the Loire. You know, they're looking to, if they're looking to Burgundy, maybe they look to, you know, Eau de Marais. Or, you know, Côte de Nuit, Eau Côte de Beaune. Or they look to the Macanais. Or they look to Beaujolais.

You know, because there's land there that's affordable if they want to work it. You know, so most people, most normal people have been priced out of the Côte d'Or at this point. As far as buying wine. As far as buying land, though. That's not to say that, you know, as a negotiator, you can't make, you know, purchase fruit and make wine. You can do that. But even the fruit itself is much more expensive by the rule of which firm. You've kind of spoken about the fact that Burgundy is the only country in the world, you know, that has the highest quality of Pinot Noir. And so, you know, we're talking about this next question in terms of France, but outside of France, where else are we finding such great quality Pinot Noir?

And then if you could just elaborate some of the differences between Oregon Pinot Noir and Willamette versus some of the like Sonoma Coast and other parts of like Cali Pinot or please talk about New York. Well, yeah, so like, like to my mind, Oregon's the most compelling example because it is more like Burgundy. In the sense of being a, a land of smaller holdings and more quality conscious producers. It's not to say that Sonoma Coast isn't that and parts of California aren't that, but you know, I think Willamette has done a really good job of like defining itself around that. You know, the Pinots there, you know, they they spend a lot of breath in Willamette saying that they're at the same latitude as you know, Dijon and they are, I will say the Pinots there are much riper, much more voluptuous.

You know, they have a deep bond to the land, because they're always open and punctual. So it's studied cherry, peroxy Horror. So it's like one of those, you know, Tahirossoft, the women on the 2000 that were thinking about it. They're still very exciting about breeding when they're growing up and then they finally have all these districts and little over sisters. And so, yeah, it's like a faze in kind of like Indian country and low risk. Willamette, the most exciting wines I've had recently haven't been Pinot's. I think, you know, Pinot's become a marketing fad and has, you know, kind of suffered from its own success. You know, thanks a lot, Paul Giamatti. But, you know, I think it's true of both, you know, California and the Willamette, the wines are more precociously full-fruited than Burgundy.

You have a longer growing season in Burgundy, but less, the extremes in terms of temperatures until, you know, relatively recently aren't quite as marked. And so you get, you know, kind of slower, more consistent ripening, as opposed to, you know, heat spikes and, you know, you know, more kind of like rapid development of fruit in California and in the world. You know, so there are people that have tried to, you know, reverse engineer Burgundy by adding limestone to the soil and stuff like that. But, you know, the all, there's no way to encapsulate, you know, all the variables that go into making Burgundy geologically and in terms of its climate and exposition, like what it is, you know, there's no way to reverse engineer that, or at least currently.

There isn't outside of some matrix-like, you know, environment. There's no way to reverse engineer it. But Pinot's cool though. Like, like Central Otago is a really cool zone. You know, those Pinots are huge. They're massive. Like you're closer to the sun there. You have this, like, it's like, Willamette on steroids. They're even more insanely full-fruited and like tight and live wire and electric. And they're not Burgundy, but they're really cool wines. You know, so I think the Burgundians are onto something, you know, for the sake of privileging sight over grape. And, you know, I think there's something, you know, about the Pinot project in the new world, which is a problematic term, but, you know, there's this manifest destiny, this idea that we can take the same grape. And make our own Burgundy.

It just like doesn't work that way. You know, we can make our own great wine that happens to be from the same grape, but it's going to be different. And, you know, I, I find the producers that do the best are the ones that are leaning into those differences. They're the ones that are leaning into, you know, the ways in which their wines are more Willamette or more Sonoma Coast or more Central Otago than they are Pinot Noir that are making the greatest wines. So. Can you talk a little bit about Finger Lakes, Pinot? It's hard. Uh, Pinot's a bitch. Um, uh, there are a lot of growers that just don't like to work with it. Um, Fred, who is named winemaker of the universe, Fred Murwath at Herman Beamer, um, uh, doesn't like to make Pinot as a varietal wine.

Uh, he prefers it in sparkling wine because it's so difficult to work with. Um, uh, it's fickle. Um, it's too wet in the Finger Lakes for Pinot to, um, uh, reliably flower, set its fruit, ripen without rot. Um, but in the case of Pinot, it's quite perfect. If you, uh, like to, you know, love a lot of seasonal vintages, it approaches great cool climate Pinot status, which is to say cool climate Pinot is very different than, um, than Burgundy, um, and, and just hugely, uh, you know, um, markedly different than, than, um, you know, uh, Willamette or, or, or California Pinot. It leans into that dirty, you know, kind of earthy, savory, herbal bitter leaf. Um, uh, Alsace is a great place to look forward. Um, Germany, um, is a great place to look forward to.

It's probably more, it's more of a local, uh, place to look under the guise of Schmappergunder, but Finger Lakes Pinot, I think, you know, at its best, is more like those wines, and it lives at, you know, 12% alcohol, and it's an earthy wine, and it tastes bitter, but otherworldly, and transcendental, and it ages really beautifully, but not burgundy, to my mind, but if I was a grower there, would I want to make it? Um, maybe if I had a lot of money, and I was brought in for punishment, but I'd probably make catwalk. Um, could you, um, give us a few helpful hints about some sleeper village in Burgundy? Oh, yeah, that's one of my favorite questions, absolutely, uh, Montélie, um, first performance, so I should pull up, this is a fun place to pull up, , pull up a couple maps here, so, um, the remarkable thing about Burgundy is that, in spite of the fact that it's, like, tiny, tiny, tiny, there's still great values to be had, so you see, um, Marcenet, um, historically famous for its rosés, um, makes really killer wines, um, uh, uh, and is a global warming winner, um, actually, historically, even, like, Cheneau, um, made great wines, even closer to Dijon to make great wines, but, um, um, you know, less so in the modern era, um, uh, and it should be said that, like, um, Vineyard holdings in France historically were much broader than they are in the, in the, in the modern day, um, uh.

Neither here nor there, um, Fisson, fucking love Fisson, Fisson has some great, like, single flows, um, they're great, um, uh, Canada, like, Eau Côte, Eau Côte de Nuit, I find fun, um, Côte de Nuit is a little harder, um, for the sake of, you know, identifying great values just because it's a lot of big names, um, uh, Chambault-Mucigny is just, like, one of my favorite villages in the world, um, and I think there is good village-level Chambault out there, um, uh, you know, Chambault is a seductress, it's, it's, it's a, it's a great wine, and then, uh, there are, there are more values to be had, I think, in the, in the Côte d'Ivoire, um, so, um, Ladois makes great wines, nobody knows it, um, uh, Savigny de Beaune makes great wines, um, uh, uh, we talked about Beaune, buy it up, it's great, it's, it's, it's really exceptional, um, Auxiliaires, Saint-Romain, uh, Global Warming Winners make superlative wines, um, uh, I, I find, Montélie, uh, we talked about, uh, before, and then Saint-Ainé, Saint-Ainé is great, love me some Saint-Ainé, um, those are some really fabulous, so, um, you know, if you work your way up the side combs, uh, For the sake of Savigny, um, and Montélie, and Auxiliaires, uh, Saint-Romain, um, Saint-Aubon is another one you're going to find values, and then I think this is a great place where it's really good to find an importer that you trust, um, one of my favorite locally for values is Wine Traditions, if you find Wine Traditions on the back of the bottle, just buy it, you know, don't buy it, um, you know, historically, some of the great, greater ones in Burgundy, you know, Kermit's a great one, um, uh, you know, um, uh, Becky Wasserman, God Rest Her Soul, um, is, is, is another one, um, you know, their, their Vintage,  59, Roy Cloud, who gave us these Volnais is another one, um, but, you know, um, those are, those are, you know, great, uh, labels to, to, names to look for, and those are just fine on the back of the label here, so that is, um, uh, Roy's imprint, uh, named after his birth year, um, which happened to be a great vintage in, in Burgundy, um, uh, on, uh, so, you know, look, look for that, uh, but, you know, those are, those are great names, and then, um, and look for the Cochalonne, um, look for Mercury, um, Givry, Ruy, um, you know, those are, those are great, and then if you're after white Burgundy, um, some of my favorite wines in the world are Macanais, white Burgundy from Macanais, you find a $20 bottle that is just, like, earth-shatteringly, um, uh, good, uh, it's very hard to find, uh, red Burgundy that's earth-shatteringly good, you have to pay, like, $30, um, and, you know, uh, grease the right palms, and, uh, you know, and all, but, uh, yeah, there's, there, that's the, that's the miracle of Burgundy, in spite of, you know, all these B&Ws, um, there's still values to be had, in spite of this narrow band of, of wine, um, that is highly sought after, you know, there's, you know, Relatively affordable grape wine to be had. That's beautiful; it always makes me feel like it is a pricey and very unattainable market to even get into.

It's I think I think it's intimidating and I actually I was talking to Audrey so Audrey um uh is hugely talented wine buyer sommelier that runs the Rousseau at Tail of Goat and uh she was saying that over her break you know she got really into Bordeaux and just kind of wanted to master Bordeaux took on Bordeaux and felt like you know she kind of wrapped her hand around it and then took on Burgundy and like gave up because it was too intimidating and Burgundy's Burgundy's like that you know that's why people just you know they become Burghounds they just you know devote their lives to the single you know corner of the wine world you know that that's why because it becomes its own private language you know but I think you can I think you can still be a bit of a dilettante I think you can you know I think you can dabble in Burgundy you know without crossing over to the Burg-Boureaux dark side um you know so it's it's it's there for you, you just, you just you know like all great things You just have to work at it. Perfect, um, one last question, just about, um, both the horizontal and the vertical, could you talk a little bit about the ABV between them? I, like, looked at some spectros, and pretty much everything is, like, 13.5, so I wonder if that's what, what the back of the bottle say? They all say so, that's like always um so these all say 13 um for the sake of the vertical um for the sake of the horizontal  I'm gonna oh wow uh for the sake of the horizontal they are different so for the sake of the horizontal the bone says 12.5 the Nuit Saint-Georges is 13 and the um Bon Romain is 13.5 which is actually pretty instructive. And I actually think that, and I actually think that, um, uh, uh, that kind of coheres with, um, you know, our, uh, our tasting, um, our assessment of, of those individual wine data points, so, um, thank you all, as ever, for joining us, oh, you fucking rock, um, you heard me talk a lot, I hope you all enjoyed the wines at home, uh, for all you Burgundy aficionados in the audience, I hope I did justice to, um, you know, the alpha and omega that is Burgundy, uh, I wanted to close things out so with a quote from, um, your dog's namesake, Die Madame la Loup-Bizet-Loi, one of the great women in wine, uh, who until recently owned half of the Domaine Romani-Conti, um, and I'll recommend this book, uh, it's out of print, sadly, but it is really, uh, the greatest book that I think you know exists on Burgundy, it's James Wilson Terroir, um, uh, and he asked Madame la Loup-Bizet-Loi about Terroir, and um, uh, her reply was typically forthright in his words, suppose that one day we might know the nature of all the elements which compose this nourishing new earth between the pebbly surface and the Jurassic sub-basement, Would we then be able to determine exactly the physical and chemical influence of these elements on the intrinsic fundamental character of the wine issued from them, and she answered, herself, personally, I do not believe so, for all of this is too dynamic, I would say almost alive to put into an equation.

I remain convinced, however, that the fundamental character of each wine depends on the nature of its subsoil, uh, and, you know, that really embodies for my, um, you know, to my mind, what I love about wine; it is something that is, um, uh, tasteable, something that is, um, discernible, that nonetheless exceeds our grasp. You know, there's this great quote that, you know, Man's reach should exceed his grasp, or else what is a heaven for, and, you know, I like this notion that we are chasing after something that we know surpasses our understanding, but we know just as firmly, know, uh, you know, we know just as firmly, you know, that we are convinced, um, you know, from bones to ball, you know, exist, none, nonetheless, and, um, you know, I love the way that, uh, uh, the Madame Lalu-Bizet, you know, encapsulates that notion, so, uh, I want to drink you know, to trying to understand things that nonetheless surpass our understanding, alone, together, cheers to you all.

You know, I love the way that,  the Madame Lalu-Bizet, you know, encapsulates that notion, so, uh, I want to drink to that, you know, to trying to understand things that nonetheless surpass our understanding, alone, together; cheers to you all.