What's Going On in the World of French Wines

In the first part of my Burgundy post we discussed some of the history of the region, the concept of terroir (the taste of a place) and the main grapes of the region (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay). In this part, we will go over the main regions of Burgundy and also cover some tips for buying Burgundy wines.

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 …

I’ll be honest – I’ve always considered Burgundy to be my Achilles heel of the wine world: I love the wines from this region of France and find them completely fascinating, but the sheer number of different appellations and vineyards, as well as producers, has always confused me a little bit. Add to that the fact that I don’t really speak any French, so the names on the bottle frequently don’t sound the same way as they are spelled, and you have a bit of a challenge.

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 …