With over 280,000 acres (120,000 hectares) of vines producing a staggering 71 million cases (6.4 million hectolitres) Bordeaux is the largest wine producing region in the world. Situated in the South West of France the wines became the aforemost mentioned in the world thanks to the healthy trade they enjoyed with the claret-loving, one time rulers of Bordeaux, the British. What made the region particularly famous and popular across the world as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, at a time when other French wines were largely unheard of outside of their own borders, was the ease at which it could be shipped by ocean across to Britain and by extension, to it’s colonies throughout the world.

In contrast Burgundy, at around 70,500 acres (28,530 hectares) and producing just under 31 million case (2.8 million hectolitres) a year is but a fraction of the size of the Bordeaux region. The history of Burgundian wine will be forever connected with the Roman Catholic Church and in particular The Benedictines and Cistercians who lands came from donations from French royalty hoping to stay in the graces of God as early as the sixth century. The church gradually lost control of the vineyards over the following millenium and any last grip they had was relinquished after the French revolution of 1789 saw the lands broken up and sold off. Due to its inland location Burgundian wines were unable to create the global presence of it’s Bordelais counterparts, however in the fourteenth century, upon the arrival of the Papacy in Avignon, which was readily accessable from Burgundy, wines from Côte d’Or built up a reputation as being some of the finest in the land.

Bordeaux enjoys a maritime climate, aided by the Gulf Stream which adds further warmth via the ocean and rivers in the area. To the south west lies the very important pine forest, le Landes, which acts as a shield from the harsh winds, rain and cold snaps that would otherwise plague the Bordelais vines. Burgundy’s climate, as befits it’s more northernly location. is a cooler, more continental climate with a wide annual temperature difference. This has been both a gift and a curse to Burgundian wines, its true that the cooler weather can help produce some of the most breathtaking, thought provoking wines in the world, but it can also lead to the grapes not being able to fully ripen and thus falling well short in terms of their quality and flavour profile.
more continental climate with a wide annual temperature difference. This has been both a gift and a curse to Burgundian wines, its true that the cooler weather can help produce some of the most breathtaking, thought provoking wines in the world, but it can also lead to the grapes not being able to fully ripen and thus falling well short in terms of their quality and flavour profile.

Much of the soil in Bordeaux’s most esteemed appellations is gravel and stone, this is largely the result of the tide thrown up by the river Gironde, which runs out into the Atlantic Ocean and is fed by the smaller Dordogne and Garonne. Soil rich in gravel is good for allowing the water to drain effectively, is poor in nutrients as well as being excellent at retaining the sun’s warmth. The warmth is important for helping the grapes ripen whilst the lack of nutrients in the gravel topsoil forces the vine roots to dig deeper into the rich subsoil. This is however, not the case throughout the region as clay can be found predominantly on the right bank of Bordeaux, most notably in Pomerol and St- Émillion, the Merlot grape in particular thrives off of the cooler, damp, often iron-rich soil that the clay provides, while further south in Graves and Sauternes a variety of grapes benefit from the limestone and chalk available to them.

Burgundy’s soil is largely dominated by limestone, which gives its wines some of the minerality that is often mentioned when describing wines from this region. While it is likely to be pure limestone found in areas such as Côte de Beaune that produce predominately white wines, the combination of marl and limestone found in such appellations as the Côte de Nuits seems to accommodate the red wines very well. There are exceptions to the rule however as with the Portlandian soil that can be found in parts of the Chablis region and generally creates fruiter wines, or the soil rich with sandstone that can be found in the south of Beaujolais.

With over 80% of wine made within its borders being red, Bordeaux is overwhelmingly a red wine region. Red wines from Bordeaux are almost always a blend, local law decrees that all reds from the region must contain at least one of the following grapes, Merlot, Cabinet Sauvignon, Cabinet Franc, Petit Verdot or Malbec. Merlot is the most planted and most often used, it’s said to give the wine a more rounded, softer attribute. Cabinet Sauvignon is the other major grape used, adding the structure to the wines through the use of its high levels of tannins. Rounding out the five red grapes are Cabinet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, each bring their own individual aspects to the wines although are generally used in much smaller proportions.

Although world famous for its red wines in recent years some of the Bordeaux whites are beginning to gather momentum amongst the wine critics. Bordeaux white wines will be made using one or more of the following four grapes; Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle and Ugni Blanc. Perhaps the most famous of these, and the ones held in the greatest esteem are the sweet wines from Sauternes-Barsac, these luscious, rich wines are made in the
unusual manner of allowing Botrytis cinerea, a form of fungus more commonly known as noble rot, to infect the grapes and remove the moisture, leaving only shriveled sweet grapes. Even without noble rot, the Sémillon grape, when blended with small amounts of Sauvignon Blanc, is capable of producing intoxicating, honey scented wines, none more so than those from the Graves area of the region.

In contrast to the nine main grapes of Bordeaux, Burgundy uses just two, and two are all it needs as the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from this region have remained among the most respected in the world. While Chardonnay has gone on to be grown with varying degrees of success throughout most countries of the wine growing world, Pinot Noir, a notoriously fickle grape at the best of times has never been able to find another country or region that can quite compliment it’s complexity. In the south, Beaujolais, technically part of Burgundy but very different in almost every way, use the light, fruity and non-tannic Gamay as their red grape of choice.

The largest and most famous Bordeaux region of them all is the Médoc, home to four of the five Premier Cru, The top appellations being Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac and St.-Estéphe, the Médoc region is situated from the north-west of the city of Bordeaux all the way along the banks of the Gironde almost until it reaches the ocean. Many still see the area as the heart of the red wine world. St-Émilion is located across on the right side of the bank, famous for its Merlot based softer wines than those primarily made from the harsher, more tannic, Cabinet Sauvignon from the left bank’s Médoc. The tiny Pomerol, just north of St-Émilion offers plumier, more rounded Merlot based wines than its southern counterpart. Graves, situated to the south east of the city of Bordeaux was once famous for producing the wines that the English called claret, nowadays although still dominated by the five major red grapes (see section 1.4) it also produces excellent whites made from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc, usually blended.

Chablis is Burgundy’s northern-most point, to truly be a wine from Chablis, or even for a wine to call itself a Chablis, it must be made within this tiny district and contain only the grape Chardonnay. However many wine makers, notably in the new world, will often call their wines Chablis in order to boost their sales, despite not meeting either requirement. True Chablis should be fresh, bright and have a good level of minerality. Moving south we enter the Côte d’Or, home to some of the world’s greatest Pinot Noirs, within this region Côte de Nuit in particular aided by steep slopes and grape yields kept incredibly low, can provide reds that will make you never want to drink a wine made from another variety in your life. Also within the Côte d’Or is Côte de Beaune, an area that again produces great Pinot Noir but is perhaps more famous for its Chardonnay which many proclaim as amongst the world’s greatest white wines. South of Côte d’Or is Mâconnais, once more an area well known from producing white wines made from Chardonnay, in particular the appellations of Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé and Mâcon-Villages. Finally at the very south of Burgundy as previously mentioned is Beaujolais, unlike any other red grape orientated area in Burgundy, Beaujolais uses the grape Gamay.

The main difference between Bordeaux and Burgundy with regards to growing mentality and procedures is the implementation of advanced technologies which Bordeaux seem to have embraced whilst Burgundy remain some what static. Despite being steeped in heritage and claiming the concept of terroir as the all important aspect of winemaking, Bordeaux winemakers are surprisingly quick to switch from traditional methods to using state-or-the-art equipment. Lots of research has been conducted into methods that have ensured advances in flavours and body textures for both white and red wines over the years, in addition recent years have seen the Bordelais begin to pick based on the concept of tannin ripeness over the traditional method of sugar ripeness and introducing the method of ‘reverse osmosis’ – a controversial method for altering the water levels to create denser bodied wines.

In Burgundy there are no such general assessments available, methods can change from vineyard to vineyard, from one area of a vineyard to another. Some winemakers insist on using new oak barrels, although others will refuse to, some will increase alcohol levels through the use of chaptalization while others will never entertain the notion. These decisions are very much up to the individual grower in Burgundy and due to this, the sorts of technological advancements seen in Bordeaux are still some way off.

The most prominent classification of Bordeaux wines that exists today is the 1855 classification of the Médoc, which was commissioned by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce in time for the Exposition Universelle in Paris later that year. Red wines from hundreds of châteaux were ranked in order of perceived quality ranging from Premier Cru (First Growth) down to Cinquième Cru (First Growth) with originally only four (now five) Châteaux named in the group with the highest quality, those were; Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild, Latour and Haut-Brion (an exception actually from Graves). In addition, within the Médoc there are also the Cru Bourgeois, the collective name for around 200 châteaux that remain unclassified.
Graves then identified ten white and thirteen reds from châteaux from within its borders that it gave its own Cru Classé (classic growth) classification to, unique from that of the Médoc. More recently, across the river in St-Émilion a more systematic approach was constructed to deal with the wines, with a three-tier structure required to be reviewed every ten years, the tiers are named Premier Grand Cru Classé Group A, Premier Grand Cru Classé Group B and Premier Grand Cru Classé.

Burgundy at first appears less complicated with just Premier Cru and Grand Cru (Grand Cru being the superior of the two) however where this differs from the Bordelais mindset is that these classifications are given to the area of land that contains the vineyard. Unlike in Bordeaux, where each vineyard will belong to one château and it is the château that has been classified, Burgundy classifies only the land. So a vineyard area may have its own classification yet also have a number of different winemakers each creating their own wine within it to varying levels of success. What this means is that the consumer can buy two Grand Cru of the same vintage from the same vineyards operating under the same name and yet still end up with two totally different wines.

Of course the system in Bordeaux is far from perfect either, for should a château that is classified as a Deuxième Cru buy a vineyard from a château classified as Quantrième Cru then that vineyard will automatically take on the classification of the château that is purchasing it, despite the fact that the wine created in that vineyard is not of the standard of the wine created in the vineyard classified as Deuxième Cru quality.

Each method, whether in Bordeaux or Burgundy, has its merits but unfortunately each also contains fatal flaws that are unlikely to be dealt with anytime soon.

In Burgundy there are many growers often tending to tiny, scattered patches of vineyards throughout the region, many of these growers will either simply not have the yields nor money to bottle and distribute the wines made from their grapes themselves or perhaps for whatever reason they just don’t want to do it. In step the négociants. Négociants make their living from buying the wine from small growers, blending many together in quantities large enough to sell to the mass market and then do just that. In the past this has held back the quality level of many Burgundian wines but in recent years a combination of a decrease in these négociants and an increase in the passion and knowledge of those who survived recessions to still be standing have resulted in an improvement of quality and consistency particularly amongst the Burgundian Pinot Noir.

Bordeaux was also once rife with négociants, unlike Burgundy however these négociants were generally from other countries, namely the British Isles, this is because historically wine from Bordeaux has attracted more attention from foreign investors than from those within the French borders. The négociants would act as middlemen for the Bordeaux winemakers, taking on barrels of young wine and maturing them in their own cellars prior to shipping them to their final destinations. Over the years the rise of the châteaux system saw the négociants’ power diminish and with it their profits, most are now out of business or have mutated into a new breed of seller.

Images supplied by Mara Winston, taken during our trips to Bordeaux & Beaujolais, June – August ‘08

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