Sunrise in Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny vineyards, Burgundy, France

Most introductions to the Burgundy wine region begin with a pyramid. You’ve probably seen it; regional and village at the base, Premier Cru above it, Grand Cru at the top. It’s a useful diagram, and it isn’t wrong. But it teaches hierarchy more than it teaches wine. What it won’t tell you is why the levels feel different in the glass, what actually changes as you move up the slope, and why two bottles at the same classification level can taste so different from each other.

The Côte d’Or: The World Class Wine Region With Enormous Range

The Côte d’Or is a thin escarpment of limestone running roughly 50 kilometres from Dijon in the north to Santenay in the south. It is divided into two parts: the Côte de Nuits in the north, which produces red wine from the Pinot Noir grape almost exclusively, and the Côte de Beaune to the south, which produces both the region’s finest red and its greatest white Burgundy from the Chardonnay grape.

What gives this Burgundy region its character is geology - and therefore its terroir. The hillside is composed of layered Jurassic limestone, laid down over millions of years in varying densities and depths. The mid-slope — where the best vineyards consistently sit — benefits from good drainage, adequate sun exposure, and a limestone subsoil close enough to the surface that vine roots must work to find water and nutrients. That effort is what gives the wines their precision and their longevity. The lower slopes are richer in clay and tend to produce broader, less structured wines. The upper slopes are thinner in soil and more exposed; they can produce wines of aromatic lift but less body.

The Appellation - the Key to Understanding Burgundy

The classification system exists, in theory, to reflect this geography. The same two grapes, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, are used throughout the region but with very different characters (depending on location and winemaker). The best-sited mid-slope parcels were classified first as Premier Cru and Grand Cru. The flatter, lower parcels became village appellations. Regional Bourgogne could be sourced from anywhere within the defined region. In practice, the system was codified over decades and has its anomalies — some Premier Cru vineyards outperform their Grand Cru neighbours, and some village wines from exceptional producers rival classified wines at twice the price. But the general logic holds, and understanding it makes every bottle easier to read.

The Starting Point: Bourgogne Côte d’Or

The Bourgogne Côte d’Or appellation is a relatively recent creation, formally recognised in 2017, representing one of the most useful developments in Burgundy buying for American consumers. Unlike generic Bourgogne, which can be from across the wider region, fruit for these wines must come specifically from the limestone heartland of this part of Burgundy. The best examples have a very mineral structure, lifted red fruit, and a clarity that links them unmistakably to the villages above.

Think of Bourgogne- level wine as a calibration wine. It shows you how the Côte de Nuits tastes before site specificity and prestige amplify things. Take as an example a domaine like Marchand Frères, whose vineyards span multiple appellations across the Côte de Nuits; their regional wine is made with the same care as the village and Premier Cru bottles — manual harvesting, sorting in the vineyard, fermentation that responds to the vintage. The result is wine that earns its origin rather than simply stating it.

The Village Level: Three Different Arguments

Move up from regional Bourgogne into the named villages of the Côte de Nuits and the differences become immediately apparent — not just in quality, but in character. Three villages illustrate this range more clearly than any diagram.

Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru vineyard in Gevrey Chambertin, Burgundy, France

Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest and most structurally assertive village on the Côte de Nuits. The wines tend toward darker fruit — blackcurrant, plum, a hint of iron and earth — with tannins that feel architectural rather than decorative. This is Pinot Noir that expects time. A village Gevrey from a careful producer needs three to five years to begin showing its full range, and will continue to develop for a decade or more. The terroir here is deeper and richer than further south, which gives the wines their density and their sometimes austere character in youth.

Chambolle-Musigny sits just a few kilometres to the south and produces wine of an entirely different temperament. Where Gevrey speaks in structure, Chambolle speaks in perfume — violet, rose, red berry fruit, and a finish that seems to hover rather than land. The soils are thinner here, with more active limestone near the surface, and the result is wines of unusual delicacy and finesse. Even in warmer vintages, Chambolle retains a transparency that is one of the most distinctive signatures in all of Burgundy.

Morey-Saint-Denis occupies the strip between these two giants and often acts as the translator between them: more structure than Chambolle, more aromatic lift than Gevrey, and an innate balance that makes it one of the most complete villages to drink at mid-range prices. It is frequently overlooked by buyers chasing the better-known names on either side, which means it often represents some of the best value on the Côte de Nuits.

Tasted side by side, these three villages demonstrate that the village level of the Burgundy hierarchy is not a single flavour profile. It is a range of arguments, each made convincingly by a different piece of ground.

The Premier Cru Level: Where Terroir Begins to Speak

Premier Cru is where the Burgundy hierarchy becomes genuinely interesting, because it is where specific named vineyards — rather than villages — begin to define the wine. There are hundreds of Premier Cru designations across the Côte d’Or, each one tied to a particular parcel of land whose character is distinct enough to warrant its own name on the label. The format is always the same: village name first, vineyard name second. Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses. Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux Saint-Jacques. Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots.

What changes at Premier Cru level is not simply quality — it is specificity. A village Chambolle-Musigny expresses the general character of that commune: its perfume, its fine tannins, its limestone-driven precision. A Premier Cru Chambolle from Les Amoureuses — a parcel that sits immediately below Grand Cru Musigny on the mid-slope — does something more particular. The aromatic lift is greater, the mid-palate more layered, the finish longer and more defined. You are no longer tasting a village. You are tasting a specific piece of terroir within that village, one whose exposure, drainage and vine age have been deemed, over centuries of observation, to produce something consistently finer than its neighbours.

Premier Cru wines also represent the level at which ageing potential increases most noticeably. A well-made village Gevrey may need three to five years to open fully. A Gevrey Premier Cru from a good vintage will often be at its best between eight and fifteen years from harvest. This is not a reason to avoid them — many of these wines drink beautifully young, particularly from Chambolle and Morey — but it is a reason to approach them with patience in mind. At this level of the hierarchy, time is not an inconvenience. It is part of how the wine was designed to work.

The Grand Cru Level: What Changes and What Doesn’t

Grand Cru vineyards represent the top two percent of Burgundy production. There are 33 Grand Cru appellations in total, concentrated almost entirely on the Côte d’Or. They stand alone on the label — no village name is needed, because the vineyard name is itself the address.

Chambertin. Musigny. Montrachet. These are not villages. They are specific parcels of land whose reputations were established centuries before the modern classification system confirmed them.

Charmes-Chambertin is one of the largest and most accessible Grand Cru vineyards in Gevrey, and it illustrates well what Grand Crus actually are in practical terms. Compared to a village- Gevrey, Charmes offers greater aromatic depth, a more layered mid-palate, and a finish that extends considerably longer. The tannins are present but integrated; the fruit is richer and more complex; the wine has a sense of scale that village bottles, however good, rarely achieve. It is Gevrey written in capital letters — but with warmth and generosity that makes it approachable younger than some of its neighbours.

What wine made from Charmes-Chambertin amply demonstrates is that Grand Cru is not simply a more expensive village wine. It is wine from a site where the geology, drainage, sun exposure and vine age combine in a way that amplifies the regional character without distorting it. The limestone is closer to the surface, the drainage is more precise. The yields, in the hands of a serious producer, are lower. Every variable points in the same direction.

Domaine Marchand Frères, whose production at Grand Cru level is measured in dozens of cases rather than thousands, makes Charmes-Chambertin as a conclusion rather than a statement. It is reached only after everything below it — the Bourgogne, the village wines, the Premier Crus — has been done correctly. That approach is visible in the glass: the wine has nothing to prove, because the work has already been done in the vineyard.

How to Use This Burgundy Wine Knowledge When Buying

Understanding the shape of the Côte d’Or changes how you approach a wine list or a shop shelf when buying Burgundy wine. The hierarchy is not a ranking of prestige so much as a guide to character, concentration, and ageing potential. A village Chambolle from a careful producer will almost always outperform a Grand Cru from a careless one — and this is true at every level of the pyramid.

Perhaps the most practical use of this knowledge is the producer question; before asking what level the wine is, true Burgundy wine lovers ask “who made it?” A Bourgogne Côte d’Or from Marchand Frères or a comparable serious domaine is a more reliable choice than a village wine from a name you do not recognise. The hierarchy matters, but it shouldn’t replace the attention you pay to the person who made the wine.

The second thing to keep in mind is patience. Village wines from the Côte de Nuits — Gevrey in particular — are often bought and opened too early. Premier and Grand Cru wines even more so. If you are buying to drink immediately, Chambolle and Morey are more forgiving than Gevrey. If you have a cellar and time, Gevrey and Charmes-Chambertin will reward you more generously than almost anything else the region produces.

In a region where three successive vintages had tested winemakers’ resilience — first the devastating frosts of 2021, then the drought and heat pressure of 2020, then the mixed fortunes of 2019 — the 2022 harvest arrived like a change in weather. Both the red and white wines make a compelling case that 2022 was something genuinely rare; a year when Burgundy’s identity held its own and shone through, even against the pressures of a warming climate, creating wines of exceptional quality and consistency.

This is a vintage report in the truest sense — a look at what happened in the vineyard and the cellar, and what it means for the bottles you are choosing now.

How What Happens in the Vineyard Affects the Vintage of Wine

The winter of 2021 to 2022 was drier and cooler than Burgundy had experienced in several years — closer to what older winemakers describe as a traditional winter. This mattered because it slowed the vine’s vegetative cycle, setting up a more measured growing season. The respite was short-lived. By the end of March, summer-like conditions arrived early, pushing Chardonnay — which buds earlier than Pinot Noir — into growth before the worst of the frost season had passed. Two nights of sub-zero temperatures followed. Damage was limited, but the anxiety was real.

Spring established itself in mid-April, and then gave way rapidly to a warm, dry summer punctuated by intense heat waves. Winemakers fought to manage vine growth; the vigour that made 2022 so productive also demanded constant attention. Flowering happened early, roughly two weeks ahead of schedule, and the potential for a large, healthy crop became apparent almost immediately. The bunches were full, well-formed, and ahead of schedule.

The drought, which had been the defining concern of 2020, returned. Winemakers who had invested in older vines with deeper root systems were better placed; those farming younger vines on shallower soils faced more stress. Then, in late June, the rain came — intermittent summer storms, sometimes violent, carrying the risk of hail. Some hail damage was recorded, but nothing on the scale of 2021. The rain was broadly welcome.

The final weeks before harvest brought another heat wave in this hot vintage, pushing ripeness rapidly. Sugar levels rose quickly, requiring close monitoring to avoid over-ripe, flabby wines. And then, just as an August harvest began to seem inevitable, rain arrived again — moderate, beneficial rain that the vines absorbed and that added volume to the crop. The harvest ultimately came in the first week of September: a healthy, plentiful, well-ripened crop across both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Burgundy After the Harvest: What Happened in the Cellar

The challenge of 2022 in the cellar was managing ripeness without losing the acidity that gives Burgundy wine its structure and ageing potential. Many vintages in warm years produce wines that taste impressive young but lack the backbone to develop over time.

2022 is different.

The acidity — primarily tartaric acid, which holds up better in warm conditions than the malic acid that tends to diminish in heat — is present and structured. Early barrel tastings in late 2022 showed wines with what one producer described as ‘enormous charm and vitality’: deep, ripe fruit freshness balanced by a mineral thread that keeps the wines honest.

Across both red wine and white wines, the consistency is notable. In a region where one side of a hillside can perform dramatically differently from the other, 2022 showed unusual uniformity of quality. Appellation after appellation — Chambolle in the Côte de Nuits, Volnay, Gevrey, Meursault (in the heart of the Côte de Beaune), Chassagne-Montrachet, even Chablis in the north, which had its own weather story — produced wines that inspectors and merchants described in similar terms: ripe, balanced, complete.

The white wines deserve particular attention. Chablis in 2022 achieved something unusual: richness without sacrificing the mineral precision that defines the appellation. The Côte de Beaune whites — Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet — show the breadth and depth of warm vintages allied with an acidity that should allow them to develop over a decade or more. These are not wines to drink immediately.

Tasting Report: How to Think About Buying 2022 Now

The 2022 vintage has been arriving in the American market in meaningful volume through 2025 and 2026. Prices have risen, as they tend to do for a vintage that earns widespread praise — but the quality premium is justified, and the range of wines available at village and regional level means that the vintage is accessible to all, not only to those with large budgets.

Village-level red Burgundy from Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Volnay, and Pommard are showing well now and will continue to develop over five to ten years. These are the bottles to put down if your cellar allows it — but they are also drinking comfortably already for those who prefer not to wait.

Regional Burgundy — Bourgogne Rouge and Bourgogne Blanc — from skilled producers in 2022 offers some of the best value in the vintage. The quality of the underlying fruit translates even at this level, and the wines are accessible now without the patience required to age Premier and Grand Cru bottles.

White Burgundy from the Côte de Beaune is perhaps the most compelling buy of the vintage for American drinkers. Meursault and its neighbours have produced wines with the texture and presence that the market associates with great white Burgundy, at prices that — while not cheap — remain significantly below their counterparts in prestige appellations.

One point bears repeating: in Burgundy, the producer matters as much as the vintage. A skilled winemaker in an average year often outperforms a careless one in a great year. 2022 is a vintage that rewards the quality it was given — but buying from known, careful producers remains the most reliable guide, regardless of the year on the label.

A Burgundy Wine Vintage That Answers a Question

The broader significance of 2022’s reputation as a good vintage in Burgundy is not just its quality. It is what the vintage demonstrates about Burgundy’s capacity to adapt. Climate change is altering growing conditions across the region — earlier harvests, higher alcohol levels, reduced malic acidity — and the assumption among some critics has been that Burgundy’s identity, rooted in a particular kind of cool-climate tension, would eventually be compromised beyond recognition.

Whatever adjustments were made in the vineyard and cellar to manage the heat and the drought, they were made with sufficient skill and restraint that the wines reflect their origins rather than simply the conditions of the year.

That is not a guarantee about future vintages. But it is a reason for confidence in the quality of these classic Burgundy wines — and for opening a 2022 bottle with full attention.

Now Taste the 2022 Burgundy Vintage For Yourself

Wine lovers can buy vintage charts or read what wine critics have had to say on vintages, but there is really no substitute for experimenting yourself with wines from a variety of different years, to really get under the skin of a great vintage.

Cyclists passing by tractor with trailer during harvesting in vineyards, France

There is a particular pleasure in arriving at a vineyard on a bicycle. You have felt the slope, smelled the air, noticed how the vines change character as the geology shifts beneath you. When you finally stop and maybe do a little wine tasting, you are not a tourist consulting a map. You are someone who has just come through the landscape that made it.

Burgundy is one of the best wine regions in the world to explore by bike. The terrain is varied but manageable, the roads are quiet, and almost every charming village worth knowing about sits within comfortable biking distance of the next. There are a wide variety of cycle routes to choose from depending on your personal likes and dislikes. For example, there are miles of cycle paths to explore by the side of the Canal du Nivernais or the Canal de Bourgogne if you like waterways. Cycling along a Burgundy canal with the sun on your face, en-route to another world-class vineyard or one of the famous châteaux, is an experience that will live long in the memory.

What follows here is a practical three-day route from Dijon south to Beaune — taking in two of Burgundy’s most celebrated wine corridors for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes that Burgundy has become so famous for, and several of its most characterful places along the way.

Before Your Burgundy Bike Tour: Practical Considerations

High-quality bikes, including electric-assist models for those who prefer a more relaxed pace, are available for hire throughout the region. Electric bikes in particular have opened up Burgundy cycling to a far wider range of visitors — the gradient differences between valley floor and mid-slope vines are small but cumulative, and having the option to assist makes the difference between a tasting stop and a rest stop.

Plan your fitness level honestly before you go. The three-day route below covers approximately 100 kilometres in total, averaging around 33 kilometres per day — well within reach of a moderately active cyclist, particularly with electric assist. Pack light, carry water, and book accommodation in advance; the villages along the Côte d’Or are popular in summer and rooms in the better-placed small hotels fill quickly.

One practical note: Burgundy’s wine roads are not always clearly signed for cyclists. A downloaded offline map on your phone, or a GPS device with the bike routes pre-loaded, is strongly recommended.

Your Tour of Burgundy Cycling Itinerary: Dijon to Beaune and Beyond

Day One Route: Dijon to Nuits-Saint-Georges — The Côte de Nuits

Begin in Dijon, the northern gateway to the Burgundy wine region and a city worth arriving a day early to explore. The Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne anchors the old town; the covered market on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings is the best introduction to the region’s produce you will find anywhere. The famous Citeaux Abbey (which the cheese is named after) is a little to the south.

From Dijon, take the D122 south — known locally as the Route des Grands Crus — a road that threads through some of the most famous vineyard land in the world. Within a few kilometres you reach Marsannay-la-Côte, one of the Côte de Nuits’s quieter appellations and a good place to stop early before the more celebrated villages begin.

The route continues through Fixin and into Gevrey-Chambertin, where the church, the medieval Château de Gevrey-Chambertin, and the surrounding Premiers Crus reward a proper stop. Continue south through Morey-Saint-Denis and into Chambolle-Musigny — the contrast in atmosphere between these two villages, separated by barely two kilometres, is one of Burgundy’s minor wonders. Chambolle is quieter, more picturesque, and the vines here produce wines of unusual finesse.

End the first day in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The town has more character than its slightly industrial approach suggests, and several good restaurants clustered around the main street. It is also home to the Hospices de Nuits, whose annual spring auction, held in the cellars of the nearby Château du Clos-de-Vougeot, is one of Burgundy’s most distinctive events.

Day Two Itinerary: Nuits-Saint-Georges to Pommard — The Heart of the Côte de Beaune

The second day takes you through the most photographed stretch of Burgundy wine country. Begin with a morning visit to the Château du Clos de Vougeot, the great medieval winemaking estate that now houses the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. The château is open to visitors and the enclosed vineyard — 50 hectares, more than 50 growers — is the most instructive illustration of Burgundy’s fragmented ownership model you will find in one place.

Continue south through Vosne-Romanée. This is not a village that announces itself loudly. The lanes are narrow, the houses modest, and the vines utterly unremarkable to look at. But Vosne-Romanée contains the most concentrated cluster of Grand Cru land in Burgundy — including Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, and Richebourg — and walking or cycling its paths gives you a sense of how intimately place and wine are connected here.

Cross into the Côte de Beaune via Ladoix-Serrigny and continue to Aloxe-Corton, whose hill of Corton — carrying Grand Cru vines on three sides — is the dominant landmark of the northern part of this region. Both red Corton and white Corton-Charlemagne are produced here; the latter, grown on the upper western slopes, is one of Burgundy’s great white wines.

End the second day in Pommard or the nearby city of Beaune itself, depending on preference. Pommard is smaller, quieter, and entirely focused on red wine; Beaune is the region’s capital and considerably more lively, with its medieval Hôtel-Dieu where the world-famous UNESCO world heritage site of the Hospices De Beaune auction is held, its network of négociant cellars open for tasting, and a good selection of restaurants.

Day Three Route: Beaune to Santenay — The Southern Côte de Beaune

The third day is the most rewarding for those drawn to white Burgundy. Heading south from Beaune, the route passes through Pommard and Volnay — two communes whose red wines embody the difference between structure and elegance as clearly as any two appellations in the region — before arriving in Meursault.

This is the village where white Burgundy becomes most immediately compelling to the broadest range of palates. The wines are richer, rounder, and more accessible than the steelier Chablis to the north, and the place itself has a relaxed, prosperous character. Several domaines here welcome visitors for tasting; a mid-morning stop at a winery is well worth planning in advance.

The route continues through Puligny-Montrachet and into Chassagne-Montrachet — places whose names have been attached to the greatest white vineyards in the world, Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet among them. From Chassagne the road drops gently toward your journey’s end - the town of Santenay, one of the southernmost villages in this region, and a quiet, spa-town character quite different from the communes in the countryside to the north. The Romans came here for the mineral waters; the wines produced on the slopes above — particularly the deeper, more structured reds from the Gravières Premier Cru — are still undervalued relative to their quality.

What You Can Learn from a Burgundy Wine Cycling Tour

Three days on a bicycle through the Côte d’Or teaches you something no tasting note or wine book can fully convey: that the differences between appellations are not abstract.

Burgundy is a region that rewards attention and patience whilst you immerse yourself in its wine culture. The quiet country cycling routes of Burgundy bring something unique to your experience of it. A bicycle is, quite literally, the perfect vehicle for it.

Try These Burgundy Wines Before Visiting the Vineyard...

If you are interested in trying wines from some of these communities along this route — Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, Santenay and many of the other fine Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays — head over to burgundywine.com

Female farmer and winemaker picking a bunch of grapes in the vineyard

There is a version of Burgundy’s history that reads as an almost exclusively male story — the monks, the dukes, the celebrated vignerons whose names have been attached to the same parcels for generations.

That version of the story is incomplete.

Walk into most discussions of Burgundy and you will hear the same names repeated, usually almost entirely male. But women have worked the vineyards of Burgundy for centuries, and in other winegrowing regions of France too. What has changed, in recent decades, is that they are increasingly the ones making the decisions — about how to farm, how to vinify, and what kind of wine they want their land to produce.

This shift is not a correction so much as a recognition. These are women shaping their local wine industry and collective reputation.

Once almost invisible in a region long shaped by inheritance traditions and patriarchal norms, women winemakers in Burgundy have risen from just a handful at the turn of the 21st century to an estimated 10–15% of the region’s roughly 4,000 producers today.

Many females in the industry have gained international recognition for their strong embrace of organic and biodynamic practices, and a more collaborative culture in what was once an insular industry. While still underrepresented, women are helping redefine Burgundy’s identity, bringing both innovation and renewed attention to quality, sustainability, and vineyard expression.

In this article we look at some of the best, and how their innovation is helping to redefine this region, now and for future generations who may follow in their footsteps.

Perhaps the best known is Ludivine Griveau, the chief winemaker at the Hospices de Beaune. It is a great story in itself which we will cover at another time. But to illustrate the growing influence of women winemakers, we choose to focus on a few passionate, perhaps lesser known or under the radar, winemakers.

Their work stands on its own—but taken together, it also tells you something about where Burgundy is heading. To be a “woman in wine” in Burgundy, your wines must speak for themselves in terms of quality — and the wines now being made by women winemakers are among the most compelling reasons to pay attention to the Burgundy wine region right now.

A New Generation of Women Winemakers Hone Their Craft

Finest Female Burgundy Winemakers and Their Wine Styles

Agnès Paquet, Auxey-Duresses

The Paquet family has held vine parcels in historic Auxey-Duresses since the mid-1950s, renting the land to local vignerons until the early years of this century. When the family decided to sell, Agnès stepped forward to protect her heritage. She studied her craft with the same rigor she has since applied to her viticulture — organic principles, indigenous yeasts, manual harvesting — and has built a domaine of 13 hectares that is now considered one of the most innovative in its appellation.

Burgundy winemaker Agnes Paquet of Auxey-Duresses

Auxey-Duresses sits in a side valley off the Côte de Beaune, cooler than its neighbours and historically underestimated. Agnès is a winemaker who uses that coolness to her advantage.

Her whites — particularly the Auxey-Duresses Blanc — are models of precision and minerality, and possessed of a quality of freshness that many more celebrated appellations would envy. Her reds, including an Auxey-Duresses Rouge made with a high proportion of whole-bunch Pinot Noir fruit, carry a delicacy that belies the appellation’s reputation for producing austere wines.

Her wines enjoy growing acclaim, but she is also one of the more thoughtful voices on the question of what the Côte de Beaune’s lesser-known appellations can become.

The Oudin Sisters, Chablis

Christine Oudin left Paris in the 1980s to raise a family and tend a small inherited vineyard near Chablis. Today, her daughters Nathalie and Isabelle run the domaine and its winery, and are regarded by many observers as among the finest producers in the appellation.

Nathalie trained in biology and oenology; Isabelle came from the tourism sector before committing fully to the family business. Their approach across their portfolio is methodical and promotes sustainability: no herbicides since 1985, no oak barrels for their village and Premier Cru Chablis, a harvest-to-harvest focus on letting the limestone and the climate speak without interference. The result is Chablis of unusual purity — wines where the Kimmeridgian character of the soil comes through with a directness that heavier production methods tend to obscure.

Burgundy winemakers the Oudin Sisters and their Chablis wine

Their Vaugiraut Premier Cru, from parcels of Chardonnay planted by their grandparents, is a consistently rewarding wine: it has a stony, floral taste, and with that particular saline persistence that identifies great Chablis. It is the kind of wine that makes the case, quietly and without effort, for the Oudin approach to winemaking - one of the most impressive in France today.

Stéphanie Saumaize, Pouilly-Fuissé

Stéphanie Saumaize and her partner Pierre Laroche established Domaine du Château de Vergisson estate in 2012, bringing together two families of grape growers from the villages of Solutré and Vergisson — the twin limestone outcrops whose profiles define the skyline of southern Burgundy. In a little over a decade, they have become one of the names that savvy buyers of Mâconnais whites follow keenly.

The Pouilly-Fuissé appellation received Premier Cru status for 22 of its climates in 2020, a recognition long overdue in a region often dismissed as Burgundy’s more accessible, less serious southern extension. Stéphanie’s wines suggest that this reputation was always poorly calibrated. Her Pouilly-Fuissé “Sur la Roche,” made from vines planted by Pierre’s great-grandfather, combines richness with a mineral drive that makes it easy to understand why the appellation is gaining ground with collectors accustomed to paying considerably more for wines of comparable complexity, who want these wines in their cellar.

Stephanie Saumaize, Burgundy winemaker

What These Burgundy Wine Producers Have in Common

Each of these female winemakers works differently — different appellations, different techniques, different relationships with oak, aging and élevage. What they share is a commitment to the vineyard as the source of quality, and a refusal to make wines that apologise for their origins.

There is a broader point here, too. Burgundy is a region that rewards attention to people as much as to place. The hierarchy of appellations matters, but it is not the whole story. Some of the most memorable wines being made in the region right now are being produced by people working outside the most celebrated villages, in appellations that still offer value precisely because the world has not yet caught up. Agnès Paquet in Auxey-Duresses, the Oudin sisters in Chablis, Stéphanie Saumaize in Pouilly-Fuissé — these female-led domaines are not footnotes to the Burgundy story. They are part of its most interesting current chapter.

Discover The Wine of These Female Winemakers

If you’re curious about how wines from pioneer winemakers Domaine Agnès Paquet, Domaine Oudin, and Château de Vergisson taste, they are available through burgundywine.com.

A winemaker inspecting a bottle of wine in his cellar

Tasting wine, especially from renowned regions like Burgundy, often attracts controversy due to the subjective preferences, complex terroir, and varying winemaking practices. Burgundy’s wines are known for their distinctiveness, but the classification system used here often sparks debate on quality versus price. Burgundy has its tensions.

Some question whether the classification system rewards reputation more reliably than it rewards what is actually in the glass. Others debate the role of the winemaker’s hand — whether the careful use of oak or the shaping of fermentation enhances a wine’s complexity, or pulls it slightly away from the purity that Burgundy has always promised. And then there is climate: as growing conditions shift, so too does the conversation about what a Burgundy wine should taste like, and whose influence — the land’s or the cellar’s — deserves the greater credit.

Most of us approach wine tasting the way we approach a test we haven’t studied for. We swirl, we sniff, we attempt to identify notes that have been described to us in books — dark cherry, forest floor, wet gravel — and we might feel vaguely fraudulent when we cannot locate them. We assume the problem is our palate; but it is usually our method.

Burgundy, in particular, often suffers from the weight of its own reputation. People approach wine tastings with such reverence that they forget the most important thing: tasting is about listening, not a performance with rules. What follows in this article is a practical guide — but as you learn more you will develop your own method, and that’s part of the experience.

Tasting Burgundy wine can be done anywhere; it would be great to be able to do it in a winery in Burgundy, or perhaps even the domaine or vineyard where the grapes were grown. Maybe in the cellar of a collector or merchant. Experiences like these are on offer in the region if you are considering a Burgundy vacation. But it’s not essential to make the trip. You can do wine tasting in the comfort of your own home.

Just remember: Most people taste Burgundy as if it’s a test of knowledge. It isn’t—it’s an exercise in attention, and there are three common mistakes that people make most often…

Mistake #1: You Start Tasting the Wine Too Late

The most commonly skipped step in tasting is the simplest. When you have poured your wine, look into the wine glass. Hold it up to the light and observe the color with genuine attention.

A young Pinot Noir from the Côte de Nuits will often be pale ruby, lighter than most people expect — certainly lighter than a young Cabernet Sauvignon. A Chambolle-Musigny may appear almost translucent at the rim. A Gevrey-Chambertin, from a warmer vintage or a site with heavier soils, will be deeper ruby with garnet tones.

White Burgundies tell their own story: a young Chablis is almost colorless with green highlights; a village Meursault carries gold; a mature Puligny-Montrachet premier cru will shift to deep amber.

Color sets expectation. It also tells you something about the vintage, its location of origin, and the age of the wine before you have tasted a drop. Skipping this step is a little like opening a book at the middle chapter.

Mistake #2: Focussing on Naming Aromas When Burgundy Wine Tasting

Wine writing has done the tasting ritual a disservice by loading the nose with so many descriptors that new drinkers spend their time searching for specific fruits, rather than simply appreciating what is there. The nose of a Burgundy is a conversation about aroma, not a series of tick-box exercises.

Pinot Noir typically offers some combination of red and dark fruit — cherry, raspberry, blackcurrant — alongside floral notes that can range from violet to rose, and earthy or savory undertones that often emerge with aeration (adding oxygen to the wine): forest floor, truffle, a hint of mushroom in older wines.

Chardonnay, especially in wines from the Côte de Beaune, offers stone fruit, almonds and a certain creaminess, with secondary notes of toast and vanilla in wines that have had oak used in their winemaking process. Chablis Chardonnay, however, is a different experience entirely: citrus, green apple, and the signature flinty, saline quality that is easier to recognize once you have encountered it a few times.

The most useful thing you can do at this stage is not name what you smell, but simply notice whether it is appealing, whether it opens and changes as the wine sits in the glass, and whether it suggests lightness or depth.

Swirl gently, wait, then return. The nose of a good Burgundy is rarely the same on first encounter as it is two minutes later.

Mistake #3: Rushing Things

The single most common mistake in tasting Burgundy — or any wine for that matter — is moving too quickly. It’s exciting getting a new bottle of wine home that you have carefully chosen, but don’t rush in. Take a small sip. Before you swallow or spit, let the wine sit in your mouth and cover your taste buds; try to notice three distinct phases to your tasting experience.

The attack is what you taste first, within the first second or two: the initial fruit impression, the weight of the wine, the first indication of acidity. In a young Gevrey-Chambertin, the attack tends to be firm and structured; in a Volnay, it is usually lighter and more silky. This is where you begin to understand the appellation.

The mid-palate is what develops as the wine warms and spreads. Tannins, in red Burgundy, become more apparent here — though Pinot Noir’s tannins are characteristically fine and integrated rather than “grippy”. Acidity in white wine, which can seem aggressive on first contact, often resolves into something refreshing and precise. This is also where oak influence, if present in the winemaking process, makes itself known: a toasty, vanilla-infused warmth that should complement rather than dominate.

The finish is the length and character of flavor that remains after you have swallowed. Great Burgundy is defined in many ways by its finish — long, complex and evolving, sometimes showing flavours that were absent on the attack. A short or abrupt finish is often a more reliable signal of a wine’s limitations than anything on the nose.

What Are You Actually Evaluating When Tasting Wine?

Sommelier holding a glass of red wine, tasting and making notes on a degustation card

Good tasting is not about identifying exotic flavours. It is about assessing balance. Does the fruit feel proportionate to the acidity? Is the oak integrated or intrusive? Are the tannins — in red wines — present but fine, or coarse and drying? Does the wine feel complete, or does it taper off before you have finished thinking about it?

That said, if you do want to explore the tasting process further there are many formal tasting opportunities in-region. You could centre your vacation around a wine tour if you want to do a deep-dive into the region and its wines. There are also online tasting sessions that are run by some retailers and specialists that you can join without the need for travel.

Think how you might describe the differences you’ve picked up between wines - using a vivid image by saying “it’s like going from silk to wool” can help you and others to remember and interpret what you were picking up.

Finally, don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. It’s how experienced wine drinkers develop their sense of taste, get to know common wine terms and tasting etiquette, and come to better understand the tasting notes you may be given.

Bourgogne Wines Palate Advisor

Remember: the goal isn’t to get Burgundy ‘right.’ It’s to stay with the wine long enough for it to show you something.

The burgundywine.com Palate Advisor is designed for exactly this kind of exploration — guiding you toward wines matched to specific style preferences rather than prestige.

Please share, subscribe or comment if you liked this article. If you find that Burgundy’s tasting language is new territory, then the burgundywine.com team is available to help you navigate it - and above all, to enjoy wine.

The Burgundy Difference

Ask someone to picture a white Burgundy (Bourgogne in French) and they will likely imagine one of two things: a lean, bone-dry wine with a mineral edge that feels almost like cold stone, or a richer, more rounded wine with warmth and depth.

Both are Chardonnay. Both are Burgundy.

But they come from places so different in character that they might as well be two separate regions — because, in a meaningful sense, they are.

Chablis sits at the far northern tip of Burgundy, closer in latitude to Paris than to Beaune. The Côte de Beaune, which produces Burgundy’s greatest white wines — lies some 100 kilometres to the south. That distance, modest on a map, creates a divergence in wine style that is among the most instructive comparisons in the world of wine.

And it’s what makes Burgundy stand out among wine regions; from just two grape varieties comes a whole world of wine, thanks to the unique soil, character, people and history of the region.

The Geology of Chablis Burgundy Wine

The Sainte-Claire church in Chablis, Bourgogne, France, in autumn

Chablis is defined by its soil in a way that few wine regions can claim. The vineyards sit on Kimmeridgian clay, a limestone-rich formation laid down approximately 150 million years ago when this part of France was an inland sea. The evidence of that origin is visible — small fossilised oyster shells are found throughout this limestone soil — and it is tangible in the wine itself. Chablis carries a marine minerality that is genuinely distinctive: a steeliness, a saline quality, a sensation that is sometimes described as sucking on a wet stone.

This character is shaped equally by climate. Chablis is cool, prone to spring frosts that threaten the harvest annually, and located beyond the warming influence that benefits the Côte d’Or. Chardonnay ripens slowly here, retaining acidity that further sharpens the ‘edge’ that is so beloved in Chablis wines.

Wine of the Côte de Beaune: Another Face of Chardonnay

Exteriors, roofs and glazed tiles of the hospital for the poor, Hospices de Beaune

Drive south and the landscape changes. The terroir around Beaune is a mosaic of limestone slopes, each with subtly different orientations, elevations, and subsoils. Villages such as Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet produce Chardonnays of extraordinary range — from the taut, mineral-driven wines of Saint-Aubin to the richly textured, complex whites of Meursault’s Premier Cru vineyards.

The climate is warmer here, allowing Chardonnay to ripen more fully. Winemakers have greater latitude to make choices that shape the wine’s character: the degree of oak influence, the length of time spent on lees, the extent of malolactic fermentation. These decisions determine whether a Côte de Beaune white is lean and focused or broad and generous.

What unites them is quality and a respect for Chardonnay’s capacity to express its precise location. That’s how they can create some of the most precisely textured wines in the world. Producers in the appellation of Saint-Aubin, whose Premier Cru parcels sit above calcite-rich subsoils, make wines with a smoky minerality and precision that rivals villages much further up the prestige ladder.

How to Think About the Chablis vs Cote D'Or Difference

The most useful way to understand Chablis and the Côte de Beaune is not as competing styles but as complementary expressions. Chablis tends to be the wine you reach for before dinner — with oysters, with a simple fish dish, on a warm afternoon when you want something lean and refreshing. Côte de Beaune whites tend to demand a table, a plate - a proper conversation.

Within Chablis itself, the hierarchy matters. This is a region of the world where classification is important. Petit Chablis is known as being accessible and unpretentious. Village-level Chablis is where the minerality becomes compelling. Premier Cru Chablis, from vineyards on the left bank of the river Serein, adds complexity and ageing potential. Grand Cru Chablis — there are only seven climats, all on the right bank of the Serein — produces wines that can rival the Côte de Beaune in richness while remaining unmistakably themselves.

The winemaker Domaine Jean Dauvissat, among others, demonstrates what unoaked Chablis can achieve at Premier Cru level: wines of complete purity, where every flavour traces directly back to soil and sky.

Similarly, the Pinot Noir grape used to make red wines produces wines of very different characters depending on the location of the vineyard, and the terroir in which they grow. Learning to recognize the subtle differences is an important part of appreciating wine from this region. This focus on location and geology also sets these wines apart from other French wine.

Two Entry Points to Understanding Burgundy Wine

For anyone approaching Burgundy white wine for the first time, starting with both regions side by side is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to understand what makes this part of France so unique. Chablis shows you what Chardonnay does when climate keeps it lean and soil gives it direction. The Côte de Beaune shows you what happens when both winemaker and terroir have more room to speak.

Neither is greater than the other. They are different arguments, made convincingly, by the same grape in different places — and that is precisely what Burgundy does better than anywhere else.

In our next article we’ll be looking into the essentials of wine tasting, aroma identification and what surprising things wine lovers may be doing wrong when testing wines from Burgundy.

Continue Your Discovery of the Burgundy Wine Regions and the Chardonnay Grape

Please share, subscribe or comment if you liked this article. burgundywine.com works with more than forty small-production domaines across all four levels of the Burgundy wine hierarchy, including sparkling wine and from all regions of Burgundy including the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Nuits . If you would like to explore what regional, village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines taste like side by side, the Palate Advisor tool on the site is a useful place to begin. There is also a Burgundy Wine Club for like-minded wine enthusiasts to join, and lots of other fascinating information about winemaking and the wines of Burgundy.

A typical example of a Burgundy wine label

Picking up a bottle of Burgundy wine for the first time can be confusing. What looks like a puzzle is actually a map: one that prioritizes place over producer, and land over brand. There is no grape variety listed; almost without exception, the grapes used are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The producer’s name appears in small print at the bottom. What dominates instead is a place — a village, a vineyard, a classification you may not have encountered before. This is not an oversight. It is a philosophy, one that sets the Burgundy region apart from almost every other wine region in the world.

Understanding that philosophy turns the wine label from a barrier into a map. Here is how to read a Burgundy label – and what it has to do with the wine in the bottle.

The First Thing to Know: Appellations Before Winemakers

In most wine regions, the winemaker’s name is the headline. In Burgundy, it is almost a footnote. What matters most — legally and culturally — is where the grapes were grown. This is why you will see the words “Appellation [location] Contrôlée” printed prominently on every bottle. That phrase, abbreviated to A.O.C., is the French system for guaranteeing geographic origin. It tells you, before anything else, the wine’s origin.

In Burgundy, the system of AOC wines is unusually precise and differs from other French wine. Rather than a broad regional designation, wines here are classified according to a strict hierarchy of four levels, each one more specific than the last.

The Four Levels of the Burgundy Wine Pyramid

The four quality levels for AOC in Burgundy

Regional AOC Burgundy

At the base sits Bourgogne Rouge or Bourgogne Blanc. Grapes may be sourced from across the region. These wines represent around half of all Burgundy production and are often the best place to start. They are not inferior simply because they are regional; in the hands of a skilled winemaker, a Bourgogne Rouge can be deeply satisfying.

Village AOC Burgundy

A significant step up in specificity. At village level, Burgundy starts to feel personal. You’re no longer drinking ‘Burgundy’—you’re drinking Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny, places with distinct personalities. Around a third of Burgundy’s output sits at this level. The village name tells you a great deal about style: village-level wine from Gevrey tends toward structure and depth; Chambolle toward perfume and elegance.

Premier Cru Burgundy

Often written as 1er Cru. These wines come from a specific named vineyard within a village, one recognised for the quality of its site - in other words, the specific terroir (soil and geology). There are hundreds of Premier Cru vineyards across Burgundy, among them Meursault, Maranges and Rully - in all regions apart from the Mâconnais in fact. The label will show the village name followed by the name of the vineyard, for example: Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses, from one of the prettiest areas of the Côte de Nuits. Some appellations have a large number of Premier Crus - for example the Beaune appellation in the Côte de Beaune, with more than 40.

Grand Cru Burgundy

The top two percent. Grand Cru Burgundy vineyards stand entirely on their own name; no village designation is needed. Chambertin, Corton, Montrachet — these names appear alone on the label, without a village prefix. There are 33 Grand Cru appellations in Burgundy, and they are among the most scrutinized pieces of land in the world thanks to their superb terroir.

The Vineyard Trap Every New Burgundy Wine Buyer Falls Into

Many Burgundy villages changed their names in the early twentieth century, appending the name of their most famous vineyard to boost commercial appeal. Gevrey added Chambertin to become Gevrey-Chambertin. Vosne added Romanée to become Vosne-Romanée. This creates an important distinction that catches many buyers of Burgundy’s fine wines off guard.

A bottle labelled Gevrey-Chambertin is a village wine. A bottle labelled Chambertin is a Grand Cru. These are not the same wine, and their prices reflect that. Reading carefully — and knowing which names belong to the village and which to the vineyard — is one of the most valuable skills a Burgundy buyer can develop.

Once you learn how to read a Burgundy label in this way, things stop being confusing. It becomes a map of one of the most detailed agricultural landscapes in the world—and every bottle is a different coordinate.

Other Burgundy Wine Label Terms Worth Knowing

A few phrases appear regularly on wine labels in Burgundy and are worth recognizing. “Mis en bouteille au Domaine” means the wine was bottled by the producer who grew the grapes — a sign of the provenance of the wine. “Monopole” indicates a vineyard owned entirely by a single producer; in Burgundy this can be quite a rare occurrence, as plots are often divided across dozens of owners. “Vieilles Vignes,” meaning old vines, appears frequently but carries no legal definition; treat it as an indication of a producer’s intent rather than a guarantee of the quality of the wine.

You will also notice that Burgundy wine labels rarely mention grape variety. This is intentional. In Burgundy, red wine means the Pinot Noir grape was used and white wine means Chardonnay — with rare exceptions such as Aligoté in Bouzeron or Gamay in Beaujolais. The region assumes you already know this, or will learn quickly.

For some appellations you may see slightly different names on the label—for example in Chablis, where the entry-level wines use the prefix “Petit,” followed by the village level, then the Premier Cru and Grand Cru tiers.

Burgundy Wine Labels: A Practical Starting Point

When you next pick up a bottle and prepare to read a wine label at your local wine shop, work through it in three steps. First, find the AOC designation and identify which level of the hierarchy it occupies. Second, note whether the producer is a Domaine — an estate that grows its own grapes — or a négociant, a merchant who sources and blends from across the region. (A négociant may never own vineyards but can still produce exceptional wines by sourcing from top growers). Third, check the vintage. Burgundy is a region where the year matters enormously; conditions vary significantly from one harvest to the next.

None of this requires expertise to begin with. It requires only attention. The label is a document, and once you’re comfortable reading wine labels, every bottle tells you something before you even pull the cork.

Our sponsor burgundywine.com works with more than forty small-production domaines across all four levels of the Burgundy wine hierarchy. If you would like to explore regional, village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines and see how these differences play out in real wines, their wine shop is a useful place to begin. There is also a Burgundy Wine Club for like-minded enthusiasts to join, and lots of other fascinating information about winemaking and recent vintages.