The Bourgogne (Burgundy) wine region embraces six different wine-growing districts: Chablis, Côte d'Or (divided in Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune), Côte Chalonnaise, Maconnais and Beaujolais. All of them were formerly part of the Duchy of Burgundy which has been splited at the time of French Revolution. Geographically the region is not a consolidated area like Bordeaux, but a straggle of vineyards along a narrow series of hills. In fact Burgundy region starts 60 miles south-east of Paris and stretches for 220 miles to a point just north of Lyon. Because of the extension of the area, it is possible to find in Burgundy region a great variety of soils and climates which produce a wide range of wines, both white and red, dry, sparkling and even Rosé. Therefore the two most popular wines in Burgundy are Beaujolais and Chablis. Burgundy is a region where, thanks to long experience and careful selection, a single grape varieties have been married to a matching climate and soil. Red quality wines in Côte d'Or are all made from Pinot Noir and all the classic white wines of the Côte de Beaune - Meursault, Puligny Montrachet, Chassagne Montrachet, Corton Charlemagne and Montrachet -and also the dry wines from Chablis and Pouilly Fuissé in Maconnais all come from Chardonnay. The less fine but more prolific counterpart of Pinot Noir is Gamay which has been rejected in Côte d'Or but has found its natural habitat in Beaujolais. The Chardonnay counterpart instead is Aligoté, a grape used in the whole region.

BOURGOGNE APPELATIONS

Grand Cru

Totally 33 vineyards have the appelation Grand Cru or Tète de Cuvée. On theirs label is indicated the name of the vineyard:

Bâtard-Montrachet
Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet
Bonnes-Mares
Chablis Grand Cru
Chambertin
Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
Chapelle-Chambertin
Charlemagne
Charmes-Chambertin
Chevalier-Montrachet
Clos de la Roche
Clos de Tart
Clos de Vougeot
Clos des Lambrays
Clos Saint Denis
Corton
Corton-Charlemagne
Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet

Échezeaux
Grands Échezeaux
Griotte-Chambertin
La Grande Rue
La Romanée
La Tâche
Latricieres-Chambertin
Mazis-Chambertin
Mazoyères-Chambertin
Montrachet
Musigny
Richebourg
Romanée-Conti
Romanée-Saint-Vivant
Ruchottes-Chambertin

Premier Cru

600 vineyards reached the appellation "Premier Cru". On the bottle is shown the name of the town and the name of the vineyard.

STATISTICAL INFORMATIONS ABOUT BURGUNDY REGION:

Size: 31 500 km2

Population: 1,600,000

Main City: Dijon (150,000)

Extension of the vineyards: 25,000 hectares (60,000 acres)

more than 5,000 wine growers

Production: 180 million bottles

65% dry white wine - 35% red wine

3% of French wine production - 6% of quality French wine production

Grapes grown in Burgundy:

Pinot Noir
Gamay
Chardonnay
Aligoté

Other articles on Burgundy:

-Bourgogne Viticole

-Regional Appellations: Bourgogne and Bourgogne Clairet 

-Bourgogne Aligoté and Bourgogne Passe-tout-Grains

-Bourgogne Grand-Ordinaire and Crémant de Bourgogne (and Bourgogne Mousseux)