Current state
It’s an interesting time to be in Burgundy. Due to a combination of scarcity, quality and trends. The price of Burgundy has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.Most of the winemakers I have talked to don’t feel particularly comfortable in this new found position. They feel awkward that their wine can’t be enjoyed by the everyday man and is now a play thing for the rich and famous. In a lot of occasions for the top grand cru’s the wine is never drunk, just traded and invested in. Land prices in the regions are rising faster than wine prices making it difficult for small domaines to expand their operations. With large groups (LVMH or American Billionaires) snapping up the grand cru and premier cru vineyards at a premium before they even get a chance to hit the market. A prominent head of a domaine commented that ‘we are getting a lot of heat because burgundy prices are increasing, but the price of our wine is rising at far lower rate than costs of land, fruit and labour’ . After witnessing how much it costs for land and for fruit here, it makes the average price of a bottle of Burgundy actually seem pretty reasonable.
In a world where there is an incredible oversupply of both fruit and wine, with people drinking less and prices dropping to unsustainable levels, Burgundy is the rare exception. With prices rising and rising, associated with some difficult vintages, it leaves the domains with a problem of how to allocate and how to be accessible to the average French drinker. There is also the question of how they can be discovered by a new generation of drinker, who are often priced out of purchasing a good bottle of burgs. It’s a problem, but if you could give me the choice of having an estate in Bordeaux or Burgundy. I would be far happier to deal with the problems of Burgundy than those of Bordeaux or the broader wine world in general. Which is one of oversupply, decreasing land values and less consumption.
Climate change hasn’t been kind to the region, with a combination of extremes making it difficult to produce wine. Frosts in winter, and the bipolar choice of either extreme heat or large volumes of rain during the growing season leading to large variability across the vintages. Climate change and cost of premier cru and grand cru vineyards are leading forward thinking domains to purchase land in areas that have consistent quality without the designation of cru status, or in areas that seem to be undervalued. A few people we talked to were purchasing vineyards in cooler locations to mitigate the risk of increasingly warmer years. A case in point is the area of Saint Romain, previously considered too cool to grow top quality wine with sites very high in limestone. In the warmer years of 20, 22 and 23 it’s an area that has made outstanding balanced wines. Marange on the southern end of the cote d’ore, only received premier cru status in 89, but faces south on an outstanding slope with great soils. The land is cheaper than those of Corton by makes wines of a similar quality. The best exposed and drained soils — unsurprisingly, mainly in the grand cru locations will suffer less in bad years and perform even better in good years (hence the cru status), this makes them even more valuable with climate change. Getting the most sun in a cold year and getting drainage from rain sun exposure to dry the fruit. In a hot year vintners may want to look for cooler sites.
Since the late 1990s burgundy has invested heavily in the winery. Even the small domains sort fruit, rejecting anything that would diminish quality. It’s not how the bunches of grapes look in the vineyard, it’s actually what ends up getting through past 10 people sorting fruit that will determine the wine in the bottle. However it does lead to lower volumes of wine and with fruit/land being so expensive, it’s pretty painful to throw out even a small bunch of grapes.
Vintage Guide.
I found it super helpful to understand vintages in Burgundy. It gave a far better indication of what you would get in your bottle than the producer themselves. In comparison to say Australia, vintages reach higher highs and lower lows in Burgundy and really impact the final wine. With Australia having a lesser range of temperature and weather extremes.
2020- Very hot leading to intense, high alcohol rich wines.
2021- Frosts wiped out 70% of the crop, it was a cool season. The wines have vibrancy and complexity. But the village level wines can be acidic and flavourless.
2022- A warm, high yielding year giving the wines a great consistency. Most wines from 2022 seem to be outstanding across the board from village up to the crus.
2023- Wines tasted in barrel were outstanding. From all accounts it was warm, similar to 2022 with slightly lower yields.
2024- The most challenging season imaginable. The region normally receives 800mm of rain in a year. 2024 it has received 1500mm. Minor frosts lowering yield, storm events during flowering really effecting fruit set and consistent rain throughout the growing season leading to large amounts of downy mildew which has also lowered the yield. In the lead up to vintage starting botrytis started to take hold leading growers to a difficult position to harvest at lower alcohols with less rot or leave on the vine to achieve ripeness but have to deal with significant rot on the sorting table. Normally alcohol goes up 1% a week. Due to the rain and the soils being water logged, it’s going up by 0.3% a week making the decision of when to harvest even more difficult. If I was a winemaker here, I would leave the fruit on the vine and sort the fruit diligently. and reduce volume and sell on the fact that the very long ripening season gave wines of great complexity, acidity and freshness but also ripeness.
A cheats guide to buying good booze from burgundy.
Buy vintage first: there’s been massive variability in the seasons and weather in Burgundy. As most plots are small and don’t get blended . The wines really reflect the season. Safe years 19,22,23.
Buy vineyard second . Look for good vineyards or learn about good vineyards. Good vineyards are good in good years but quality in tough years shines. So from vintage 2021 and 2024 the 1er cru sites gonna be more expensive than village but probably double as good .
Buy producer last. There are 2000 producers all producing small amounts from a small region . The iconic domaines are either ridiculously expensive or have volume and are generic/boring . So knowing all 2000 of them is gonna be a challenge especially when you have 5 minutes to look at a wine list and a group of friends waiting for your decision.
Triple points if you know which vineyards perform better in a hot years (looking at you saint romain) . But this is probs best left to the somm.
Wineries & Region
Burgundy wine board registers 3890 wine producers in the region which stretches from Dijon to Lyon (kinda) . To give context Napa/Sonoma only have 1000, Margaret River has about 200. Many domains are very small family operations with wine sold direct to importers with no cellar sales operations. Cellar sales is a foreign concept, something that either large estates do for tourists or small estates do because they can’t export wines (sort of looked down upon). The regions has 51% chardonnay 40% Pinot 6% Alight and 2% Gamay. 100 appellations. 33 grand cru vineyards 44 village and premier cru vineyards. 3600 hectares in the Cote de Beaune 1700 hectares in the cote de units
Tasting the wines
This is where it gets difficult. Most are closed to the public, most you need an appointment for, the top domaines are very difficult to get an appointment without an introduction. Due to the increase in prices and exclusivity Burgundy seems far more closed than it was in 2015 (last time I was here). Domaines are protective of their time and those who waste it. That being said once doors were opened we witnessed only generosity and hospitality from those who we saw. Please note if you organise an appointment it’s only polite to purchase. Though both its possible to arrange appointments without any connections :
Check out the websites below.
Dining
Savigny
Le Soleil ( Natural wine focused fantastic food)
Rade ( Natural wine focused fantastic food in a stunning courtyard setting)
Le Ferme de la Ruchotte (Farm to table meals)
Beaune
Cave madeleine (Traditional Dining, fantastic wine list)
Mersault
Le Soufflot (Fine dining/modern)
Bakeries/Markets
Boulangerie Gagnepain - traditional old school bakery in a barn.
Beaune Markets on SATURDAY- big, a little touristy , antique market on the same day
Chagny Markets SUNDAY- better markets, more local produce at better prices
Saint Romain Coffee Roasters- In Saint Romain easily the best coffee in Burgundy open Monday and Tuesday and Saturday at the beaune markets.
Top 4 things to do in Burgundy.
If you’re here or thinking of coming here it’s obviously cause your into wine. If I was to plan a perfect weekend this is what it would entail.
Farmers market in both Chagny and beaune sat and sun . Buy a bunch of fresh produce and set up a lunch in the sun with a bottle of burgs. Nothing beats it. Probably our favourite days were spent buying a roast chicken in the morning from the markets, along with some cheese, meats, and fresh summer tomatoes and having a long lunch in the sun with 2 or 3 bottles of chardonnay and pinot.
Book in a few appointments for wine tastings in advance. If you can’t find appointments then there are a few websites above and other domaines that are open to the public for a tasting. If you make an appointment - Buy wine from these guys when you visit. It’s good manners , good value and delicious.
Eating out- we found there were some really nice restaurants in savigny les beaune. but Beaune also has some superb dining. List above .
Day trip to Dijon- historic old centre , great dining , markets, tours. Beautiful little French city
Hire some bikes and ride around the vineyards . Mostly flat, stop for croissants , wine and lunch along the way. Get a sense of the place itself at an easy pace.
Points of interest
The Government takes all of the excess grape marc and distills it for medical purposes. It a legal requirement that all grape skins from fermentation and also waste from harvest is given to the government.
Grapes are sold in units that fill a single barrel. So you purchase a barrels worth of grapes or 350kg as this is how much is required to fill a barrel.
You can get a grape middle man in the region who will find the fruit you want and take a commission.
Price for Premier Cru Pinot from Beaune is 3000-5000 euro per 350kg depending on site. Thats between $10,000 & $25000 a tonne inclusive of picking.
The average burgundy price has risen by 150% between 2017 and 2022.
In France they measure the yield of a vineyard in hectolitres. From 330kg of grapes they are aloud 225l of wine . Roughly 675l per tonne.
So they will say . Oh la la I have 5.5 hl a hectare. Which means roughly working backwards they have 5500l per hectare or given they work on 675l a tonne . Thats 8 tonnes per hectare. It’s fucking confusing .In Australia you just measure yield per hectare in kg. So you say. Fuck yeah I got 8 tonnes of that hectare of grapes.
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