By Steve Pignatiello

When you hear the word “Burgundy”, what thoughts come to your mind? Some think of a generic red wine. Others think of wines such as Gallo’s Hearty
Burgundy. Those who know fine wines think of those wines which come from that exclusive wine region in France known as Bourgogne.

Bourgogne (or “Burgundy” as we say in English) is the name of the most complex single wine region in the world. When I give wine talks throughout the Southeast, I meet many people who are very knowledgeable about wine. But if they have one area of weakness, it’s invariabley their lack of knowledge about Burgundy and its wines. Well, I’ve been asked to “de-mystify” Burgundy through a series of articles, of which this article is the first.

Burgundy is a tiny, tiny wine region surrounding the cities of Dijon and Beaune in France. Because it is so small, it produces a very limited amount of wine each year — in fact, it produces only a fraction of the wine that is produced by other well known areas, such as Bordeaux and California. Yet, Burgundy is so famous because the best wines from that region are among the top wines in the world.

The simplest part of a Burgundy is that its wines are single-grape wines. In general, red wines are made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes, and the white wines are made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. From this point on, it can become very complicated. One small village can include dozens and dozens of tiny vineyards. And a narrow dirt road or a simple stone wall can separate a Grand Cru vineyard (one of the world’s best) from a more ordinary village vineyard. This patchwork of vineyards means that wines can be of quite different qualities even though the grapes might have grown up right next to each other.

The situation becomes further complicated by the ownership of vines. Each small town may have between fifty to a hundred winemakers, but it’s rare for winemakers to own an entire vineyard. Instead, winemakers measure their ownership of vines by rows within a vineyard. A quality winemaker will make exceptional wine while a pedestrian winemaker will make mediocre wine — yet the grapes were only grown a few rows apart. To further complicate matters, the bottle labels contain the exact same identifying information, except for the name of the winemaker.

So, if you are not familiar with each small town, and you’re not familiar with the patchword of vineyards in those towns, and you don’t know who are the top winemakers in the area — then what’s a wine-loving American going to do when it’s time for a good Burgundy or when you want to pair great wines with a killer dinner party menu? It can be downright intimidating to try to pick excellent yet affordable wines when choosing from this melange of towns, vineyards and winemakers.

One of the main reasons I founded P.Comms. Int’l was to make some of the best Burgundy wines from some of the top winemakers available and affordable to Americans. Most of these wines are reserved for consumption in France. Through my friendships with these world-class winemakers, I get an exclusive selection of their quality wines here in America. Future articles will discuss how to identify the best Burgundy wines and how to pair these wines with food. A votre sante!