Burgundy Wines
From Chablis in the north (halfway between Loire and Champagne) to Beaujolais in the south, Burgundy's wine has remained consistently excellent throughout the years. Like Champagne, it focuses almost exclusively on three grape varieties. In Burgundy's case, they are the Pinot Noir, the Gamay and the Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir and Gamay are both red grapes, and the Pinot Noir is more common everywhere but Beaujolais.
Burgundy has its own ranking system for wines within its borders. Basically, it creates a five tiered system:
- Grand Cru is a site within a vineyard that has regularly produced excellent wines, it gives the buyer the best assurance that the wine will be good and is thus more expensive.
- Premier Cru denotes a vineyard that has regularly produced excellent wines, although it might not be from as favored a spot in that vineyard.
- Village is the next level, and is just that. A village with a reputation for excellent wine can put its name on every bottle of wine it produces.
- District level is next, if a village has no reputation for excellence, it can put the name of the district on its wines.
- Bourgogne is the bare minimum level of Burgundy wine, merely denoting that the wine came from Burgundy.