The first wine that really knocked my socks off was the Ayala Brut Zero Dosage (around $45). This is a Champagne made from a blend of 45% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. It had a beautiful expression of fruit with a purity and an elegance that made the finish linger in my mouth for quite some time. The wine had a freshness and brightness to it that would make it a wonderful wine to pair with sushi, lobster or scallops. The interesting thing about this wine is that it is a “Zero Dosage” wine. This means that it is a totally dry Champagne and that in the process of making the wine, in the final step, no sugar was added to sweeten the wine. Sometimes “Zero Dosage” wines can be too dry and acidic, but this wine achieves a beautiful balance between tangy acidity and ripe fruit.

The second wine I thoroughly enjoyed was one that I had never tasted prior to Monday. It is the Pehu Simonet Brut Selection Champagne (around $40). This is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Pehu Simonet is a small grower (they produce just over 3000 cases a year apparently) and the winemaker, David Pehu, is the 5th generation of his family to be in the Champagne business. I found the wine to have a delicious citrusy note with a fairly full mouthfeel and a long finish.

The final wine I want to mention is the Louis Roederer Brut Premier (around $35). The wine is a blend of 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. A small percentage of the wine is aged in oak, so there is a slight toasty, yeasty character to the wine that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought the wine was nicely balanced and a terrific example of a well-priced Champagne that would be perfect for pairing with a variety of shellfish dishes.

Also keep in mind that some of these, such as the Roederer are available in half bottles, which not only makes them more affordable, but makes them ideal for pairing with a meal for two. And don’t forget that there are a number of affordable and delicious sparkling wines on the Wines of France Top 50 list, so you have a wide variety to choose from depending on your meal, your palate and your budget.

Burgundy can be divided up into several main regions. We’ll start with the northern end of the region, which is where we find Chablis. Millions of years ago, the area around Chablis was actually under water, and today you can still find fossils of oyster shells in the limestone-clay soils of the region. The wines of Chablis are white, and all made with 100% Chardonnay. Most of the wines from this very cool climate are going to be crisp in acid with notes of green apples and a gunflint/mineral character. It used to be that there was very little new oak used in Chablis, but now you will find some producers who use it. When you are shopping for Chablis, you will find wines with labels that say Appellation Contrôlée (AOC for short) Chablis, AOC Chablis Premier Cru and AOC Grand Cru.

As we make our way from North to South, the next part of Burgundy is the Côte d’Or, which is actually divided into two sections – Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. There are 25 villages (also called communes) in the Côte d’Or which produce wines from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. You can see from the map below the names of all of those different villages. While both the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune produce red and white wines, the Côte de Nuits is more known for its red wines and the Côte de Beaune more respected for its whites (but you can’t deny that it does also produce some excellent red wines).

There are two main appellations that cover pretty much all of Burgundy: Bourgogne Rouge (Pinot Noir) and Bourgogne Blanc (Chardonnay). If the grapes are grown in one particular village or even from a specific vineyard in a village, then the wine might be entitled to a more specific AOC (Bourgogne Rouge and Blanc are pretty broad appellations). So here is where it starts to get a bit more confusing: within the 25 villages of the Côte d’Or, you will find a large number of vineyards that have their own appellation. Some of these vineyards have also earned special designations. There are those classified as Premier Cru and then there are those elite sites that are considered the best of the best that are classified as Grand Cru sites. There are so many different appellations to mention that it might take weeks for us to discuss them all! (If you would like more information on each specific village, I suggest starting with Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine – it is THE reference book every wine lover should own.)

While it is true that Premier Cru and Grand Cru Burgundies are very expensive, the majority of wines produced in Burgundy are actually pretty affordable. You can find a wide selection of good quality Burgundies priced between $15 and $35. I recommend that you start off looking for wines that have “Bourgogne” on the label (followed by Blanc (or Chardonnay) or Rouge (or Pinot Noir). You can find several to try on my list – like the Burgundy Hills Pinot Noir, the Domaine Faiveley Bourgogne Blanc & Rouge, Maison Joseph Drouhin Laforet Chardonnay & Pinot Noir, and the Olivier Leflaive Bourgogne “Les Setilles.” Wines labeled Côte-de Beaune-Villages or Côte-de-Nuits-Villages can be a good value and I also suggest keeping your eyes peeled for good values from some of the lesser-known villages like Marsannay, Fixin, Savigny-lès-Beaune and St.-Aubin.

Further down the road in Burgundy you will find the Côte Chalonnaise and below that, the Mâconnais. The Côte Chalonnaise produces both red and white wines that can offer very good values for Burgundy – look for wines from Rully, Mercurey, Givry and Montagny in particular. The Mâconnais, which is home to the well-known Pouilly-Fuissé appellation, producers mostly white wines, but there are still some reds made, too. The wines of the Mâconnais region can also offer some excellent values for Burgundy lovers: I suggest looking for wines labeled as Mâcon-Villages, Viré-Clessé, St Véran and, of course, Pouilly-Fuissé. Two to try from my list are the Labouré-Roi Pouilly Fuissé Vallon d’Or and the Domaine des Valanges Macon-Fuissé.

One of the important things to understand about Burgundy is that it has a very fractured vineyard system, where it is possible that a single vineyard can potentially have multiple owners. This fractured system has to do with several things – the fact that vineyards were predominantly owned by the Church up until the French Revolution, the fact that the Napoleonic law of succession, which divides an estate equally between an individual’s heirs, has traditionally been enforced in Burgundy, and the fact that land is so highly valued and expensive in this region.

All of these factors have contributed to why négociants, or wine merchants, are so popular in Burgundy. Négociants such as Jadot and Latour, to name only two, buy up grapes or wine from various grape-growers in Burgundy and then produce wines under their own private label. (Many grape-growers in Burgundy simply don’t produce enough grapes to make bottling and selling the wine worthwhile.) The positive side to this, and what makes a complex region somewhat easier to navigate, is that when you find a négociant you like, you will also usually discover that this same négociant makes wines from other villages and vineyards in Burgundy. So, by looking for the negociant’s name, you have the unique opportunity to taste all of the different terroirs to find the wines that best suit your palate.

Yes, Burgundy can be a challenge, but for most, it remains a puzzle well worth attempting to decipher. There are very few regions in the world that produce wines from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as exquisite and memorable. So go ahead and take the plunge into Burgundy. I don’t think you will regret it!

What’s a wine lover to do? Well, for one thing, you can’t let it stop you. You have to bravely plunge right into Burgundy because if you decide to skip drinking Burgundy, then you will definitely be missing out on some of the most wonderful wines in all of France. So to help you along on your journey of discovering Burgundy, this is the first of two posts that cover some of the key things you need to know about Burgundy and how you can work on developing a better understanding of this incredible region.

Let’s start off with a little bit of history about Burgundy. This is a region that has been making wine since at least the 4th century AD – if not before. While it is likely that the Romans brought some grapevines with them when they invaded Gaul way back in the 1st century AD, it is also believed that there were already vines being farmed in Burgundy for the purpose of making wine. Unfortunately, detailed record-keeping wasn’t popular until much later, so we will never know the exact details of the origins of the Burgundian wine industry. But by the Middle Ages, we can be very certain that grapes were being grown by nobles and peasants alike. Part of why we know this has to do with the fact that during the Middle Ages in Burgundy, wine-making became one of the central activities of the monks of Burgundy and it was this group that truly revolutionized the winemaking of the region.

As the Church owned a vast amount of vineyards and monks had the time, skill and resources to study the different grapes and vineyards, it was a natural fit. Over time, through intense study and documentation, monks helped to identify the best sites in the region and also which grapes produced the best wines on those sites. The region of Burgundy is very closely tied to the concept of TERROIR, which can be loosely translated to mean “the taste of a place.” Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are grapes that are reflective of their terroir – meaning that the wines produced in Burgundy from these grapes will taste differently, depending on which particular vineyards they are grown in. “Terroir” is thus a combination of grape, climate, exposure, soil and, last but not least, human know-how. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were identified very early on as grapes that were capable of producing exceptional wines in Burgundy, with its limestone soil and cool climate.

Therefore, after centuries of work, the Burgundians feel strongly that it is best to concentrate on two main grapes: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In fact, as far back as the 14th century, it was recognized that Pinot Noir produced better wines than other red grapes that were being grown in the area. So almost all of the white wine from Burgundy is made from the Chardonnay grape and almost all of the red wine from Burgundy is made from the Pinot Noir grape. (There are, as always, just a few exceptions, but only a few, so it is pretty safe to stick with knowing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.)

So what do these wines taste like? Well, there is a good deal of variation depending on where exactly in Burgundy the grapes are grown, thanks to terroir. But overall, you can describe the whites as being elegant and mineral with little to moderate amounts of oak. The use of new oak, which gives wines a toasty, vanilla note, is not as popular in Burgundy as it is in other places around the wine world, so many of the whites do not see 100% new oak, but instead only a proportion of new oak. Depending on the appellation, which we will address in the next post, the Chardonnays of Burgundy can be nutty, taste of golden apples, lemons, and spice, or be lean with notes of green apples and minerals.

The reds, made of Pinot Noir, tend to be moderately intense in color, sometimes even on the pale side, as Pinot Noir doesn’t have as much color potential as other red grapes. On the nose they are aromatic, with notes of red fruits and spices. Pinot Noir tends to make wines with supple, silky tannins and a smooth mouth-feel. The wines can have earthy aromas and flavors, but also hints of raspberries, cherries and cooking spices. The best examples from Burgundy are capable of extensive aging and will only get better with time. The common thread for both the reds and whites of Burgundy is how food-friendly these wines are, as Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from Burgundy tend to have high levels of mouth-watering acidity and moderate levels of alcohol.

In my next post, we’ll get into the different appellations of Burgundy and how to deal with the challenge of buying wines from this region.

What makes Pinot Noir so finicky? Well, for starters, it is a bit of a temperature sensitive grape. It prefers cooler climates and it tends to like limestone soils – two reasons why it does so well in Burgundy. It is also a thin skinned grape which can make it susceptible to some of the diseases and viruses that can affect grapevines. The thinner skin of Pinot Noir is part of why the color of many wines made with Pinot Noir are lighter than wines made with grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. The paler color isn’t a sign of inferior quality – it more has to do with the fact that there is less pigment to be extracted from Pinot Noir grapes.

Pinot Noir has a pretty interesting history. It is an extremely old grape – one that we think dates back to the 1st or 2nd century AD. There are some indications that it was grown in Burgundy by the 4th century AD and we do have 14th century records from Burgundy that mention a vine called Pinot. Due to its advanced age, Pinot Noir is prone to mutating – since it has been around for so long, vines of Pinot Noir with variations have developed. That’s how we have gotten Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Meunier to name a few. Pinot Noir is also (and we know this through DNA analysis of Pinot) one of the parents of Chardonnay.

So what are the characteristics of Pinot? The color can range from a very pale to moderately intense cherry red and it tends to become garnet in color as it ages. Notes you might find on the nose range from herbal and spicy aromas to fruity aromas of strawberries, red cherries, and black cherries. You can also find hints of violets, black pepper, beets, prunes and plums. Pinot Noir can sometimes have a nose that can smell earthy, gamey, mushroomy or even like a barnyard. I tend to find that Pinot Noir grown in climates that are too warm makes for wines that smell like tomato plants (have you ever smelled your hands after handling a tomato plant? It is a very specific smell that is hard to describe). It is almost an under-ripe and over-ripe aroma that makes me think that the heat didn’t give the grapes the time they needed to ripen (Pinot likes a long growing season).

On the palate, Pinot Noir tends to be described using very sensual language. The body can range from light to full and the tannins are frequently described as being fairly firm, but silky and velvety textured. Acidity is usually fairly high with moderate to moderately high alcohol levels and Pinot Noir is usually very ageworthy. Besides being the main grape of Burgundy (just about all red Burgundy is made from Pinot Noir), you will find Pinot grown in Champagne, the Loire Valley, Alsace, Germany, Oregon, California, New York, Italy, New Zealand, Australia and Canada to name just a few.

If you are looking to sample a few Pinot Noirs, there are several on my top picks to choose from including: Burgundy Hills Pinot Noir, Chamarré Grande Réserve Pinot Noir, Domaine Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge, Fat Bastard Pinot Noir Vin de Pays d’Oc and Maison Joseph Drouhin Laforet Pinot Noir. To taste it in sparkling form, look for Lucien Albrecht’s Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé, Moet & Chandon’s White Star and Taittinger’s Brut La Française.

So how exactly is Champagne made? Well, first the grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) are picked by hand. This is necessary because you want to avoid breaking any grapes so that there is no contact between the grape skins and the grape juice. This is important because color in a wine comes from skin contact and as 2 of the 3 grapes for Champagne are red – but the final color of the wine desired is more often than not white – you don’t want to encourage anything that will promote skin contact and color extraction.

Once picked, the grapes are pressed in whole bunches, again to prevent as much skin contact as possible. The wine is then fermented with the goal of producing a wine that has high acidity, moderate alcohol and a fairly neutral aroma and flavor. Different vineyards and different grapes are fermented separately and then blended together. The blending step is considered to be one of the most important, as you are not only blending together wines that have just been fermented, but also wines from other vintages. The goal is to create a base wine that will produce a sparkling wine that reflects the house style. For some houses, this can mean blending together as many as 300 different wines to create the final base wine!

After the final base wine is created, a process known as Assemblage, then the Liqueur de triage, a blend of sugar syrup and yeast, is added to the wine. The wine is then bottled and stored horizontally at a cool temperature while the secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle. The secondary fermentation that occurs adds not only carbon dioxide (bubbles), but will also add a bit of alcohol and complex flavors and aromatics to the wine. Once the secondary fermentation has finished, the wine will then go through a process called remuage, or riddling. During remuage, bottles will be slowly and gently tilted and turned so that they move eventually from a horizontal to a vertical position with the neck of the bottle pointing to the floor. This will allow the sediment that has been created as a result of the secondary fermentation to collect in the neck of the bottle.

Once the riddling has been completed, the sediment then has to be removed from the bottled. During the disgorgement process, the neck of the bottle is dipped into a freezing solution and then the cap removed. The sediment, which has frozen into a small “ice cube” of sorts, is pressed out by the pressure of the CO2. The final step before the wine is sealed with a mushroom shaped cork, is for the Liqueur d’expédition to be added to the wine. The Liqueur d’expédition, or the dosage, is an addition of wine and sugar that is added to Champagne to adjust the sweetness level.

• Here are the common levels that you will see for Champagne:
  Extra Brut – no sugar, extremely dry
  Brut – very dry
  Extra Sec/Extra Dry – dry
  Sec/Dry – off-dry
  Demi-Sec/Medium Dry – med-dry/sweet
  Doux – very sweet

Personally, I have always found these labels a bit confusing. Why isn’t “Extra Dry” drier than Brut? Instead, Extra Dry, while still on the dry side, can have a little bit of sweetness to it. If you want to compare Champagne sweetness levels for yourself, simply try the two from my list – the Taittinger Brut and the Moet & Chandon White Star. The Taittinger is a Brut Champagne while the White Star is an example of the Extra Dry style.

The sparkling wines of the Champagne region are truly in a unique class all their own. While so many people tend to think of Champagne as the “go-to” wine for celebrations and New Year’s, there is so much more to appreciate about this region and the wines it produces. Champagne, while it does have bubbles, is still a wine, and a very food-friendly one at that. You might be surprised at the idea, but next time you are having sushi or a fish dish, consider opening a bottle of Champagne. Or even try it with BBQ – you might find yourself pleasantly surprised at the combination.

And furthermore, next time you find yourself in Paris, I recommend thinking about a day trip out to the Champagne region. There are any number of producers to visit and the city of Rheims is well-worth exploring. But check the times and tours before you go – making up your own translation to a tour of Champagne caves can be amusing, but you’ll definitely be missing out on some key information that will help you appreciate this wine!

Chardonnay’s most famous home is in Burgundy, where it is the grape that gives us both the steely, mineral, green apply wines made in Chablis, as well as the buttery, rich, full-bodied wines of Meursault. While Chardonnay has proved itself to be a fairly easy grape to grow, it thrives in cooler climates. This is one reason why it does well not only in Burgundy, but in Champagne as well. Chardonnay is one of the most popular white grapes in France and it can be found in the Savoie, the Jura, the Loire and the Languedoc, to name just a few. Chardonnay can also be found all over the world – most notably in California, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Italy (but the list is much longer).

Characteristics of Chardonnay can run the gamut – few other grapes are as versatile and also as responsive to a winemaker’s skills. The color of Chardonnay wines can range from a pale, greenish yellow to deep gold. The color will vary depending on the region and climate, with cooler areas producing wines with less pigmentation and warmer spots producing wines with deeper colors. Another influencing factor is whether or not the wine has been aged in oak barrels. Aging Chardonnay in small oak barrels will produce a wine that is a bit darker when compared to a Chardonnay that has been kept in a stainless steel tank.

Many people think that Chardonnay can only smell like butter or toast, but in reality, the aromatic profile of Chardonnay is very diverse and interesting. Notes of cucumbers, wet stones, green apples, grapefruits, lemons, limes, melons, pears, quince, figs, and golden apples can be found in addition to the common descriptors of vanilla, toast, butterscotch, honey and nuts. Like the color, the nose of a Chardonnay will depend on where the grapes were grown and how the wine was made. Unoaked Chardonnay from a cool climate will tend to have more citrus and green apple notes, while an oaked Chardonnay from a warmer climate will show off a more vanilla, toasty, golden apple profile.

While many consumers think of Chardonnay as having the strange ability to taste like buttered popcorn, this is not the only palate profile for this grape. Chardonnay can range from medium to full-bodied with an alcohol level that runs from medium/balanced to high. The acidity level for a good quality Chardonnay is typically on the crisper side, but if grown in too warm of a climate, it can seem quite flabby. There are a number of winemaking techniques that can affect the character of a chardonnay. If it is kept on its lees (a nice word to describe the sediment created during the fermentation process), a Chardonnay can taste creamy or rich on the palate. Chardonnays are also frequently put through something called a malolactic fermentation (usually abbreviated as MLF). This is a process where lactic acid bacteria convert malic acid (like the acid found in a green apple) to lactic acid (think of the acid in milk). The conversion of the malic acid to lactic acid can further emphasize the creaminess of a Chardonnay and it is also one factor behind that buttery aroma so common to Chardonnay.

While Chardonnay has developed a bit of a bad rap these last few years, it still remains an incredibly food-friendly and versatile wine (when not too heavily oaked and too high in alcohol). If you are a Chardonnay lover or would like to rediscover food-friendly Chardonnays, take a look through my list. You will find a number of different Chardonnays to suit any palate and pocketbook. There are several wines from Burgundy, but also a few from the South of France, which are typically a bit riper and less-acidic. And don’t forget to drop me a line and let me know if you have a favorite French Chardonnay that you would like me to try! I’m always on the lookout for new wines.

How did you get started in the wine business?
“My first full time wine job was at Restaurant Lespinasse at the St Regis in NYC. I was always fascinated with wine (maybe from watching too many James Bond movies when I was a young).  At Lespinasse, I was helping the sommelier at the time with odds and ends voluntarily…when he decided to leave, the Chef, Gray Kunz, offered me the position. I said yes because I thought it would be fun, little did I know where this would take me…”

Describe a day in the life of Bernie Sun, Corporate Beverage Director for Jean Georges Management.
“My days seem to always go by very quickly. I get to my office at around 9:30ish .. I check through my emails (usually around 50 to 75 a day), look through the previous day’s sales and review the group’s purchases and touch base with Jean Georges on anything he wants me to look into. Around noon, I start receiving my appointments with vendors. I taste through maybe about 30 to 50 wines daily this way. By about 3ish, I leave the office to visit our restaurants and touch base with my sommelier/beverage persons, usually one or two per night. I finish up around 8ish.”

What is your favorite French region and why?
“Burgundy – when I drink Burgundies, a tingle goes up and down my spine.”

What has been the most memorable French wine that you have ever tasted?
“During one of my visits to Burgundy, I was fortunate to be able to taste an 1865 La Romanée in Jadot’s wine cellar; the wine was stunning even though it faded in 10 minutes. I was thinking that this wine was made the same year when Abraham Lincoln was President.”

What is your favorite food and French wine pairing that might surprise people?
“An Alsace Pinot Gris with Chopped Chicken Liver. .. a red or white Burgundy would also work well but the Pinot Gris from Alsace would be great with its combination of richness and earthiness.”

What three wines would you have to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?
“A great bottle of Le Montrachet, a great bottle of La Tache and a bottle of Krug Clos de Mesnil for celebrating when rescued.”

What French wine do you drink most frequently?
“White and Red burgundies. I like Mâcon white wines for everyday drinking and Cote de Beaune reds… these are very satisfying wines for casual drinking…”

Tell me what it’s like being the Spokesperson for Burgundy here in the US.
“I was very honored to be chosen as the first US Spokesperson for the Burgundy Wine Region. I was asked by the BIVB (Burgundy Wine Council) to represent them in promoting the wines of Burgundy. The spokesperson’s responsibilities consist of traveling to different cities in the US and educating both the consumer and the trade through lectures and tastings on the wines of Burgundy. Since Burgundy is my favorite wine region, I am incredibly thrilled to carry forth the message on how delicious and versatile these wines are.”