How do you top the rich, full-bodied wines of Bordeaux? Find out in this engaging lecture that takes you through the silky and delicate wines of Burgundy (including those from Chablis and Beaujolais) and the German-influenced tastes of Alsace (including varieties of Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris).
The last lecture was about bordo Rich full-bodied powerful masculine wines now has how does anything top that when I first started in the industry I started at a wine shop called the Burgundy wine company and the late El hotchkin had said to me and I will always remember
Him saying this when he said you sew your oats in Bordeaux but you retire in burgundy burgundy is the antithesis of Bordeaux while Bordeaux is full-bodied with deep coloring gripping tannins burgundy is perfumed and silky and elegant with a a more delicate body and less grip but no less powerful like
Think of Grace Kelly with a c hither look in her eyes burgundy 2o can age for decades and evolve gracefully now in this lecture we’ll also cover the anxious and flavorful wines of alas you’ll need the following wines for today a shab or Bon Blanc a me or any
Burgundy a white burgundy from the coat de bone a um a red burgundy from the coat door a balet either a boal Novo a Bo vage or like we have here which is a crew of B and an alas janer or an alas P the region of burgundy is at about the
Same latitude as Seattle Washington because it’s so far inland however it’s quite Continental which means it’s cold Winters and fairly hot very sunny summer Summers what implication does this have Frost hail and rains are quite common in this region which at the wrong time can destroy that Year’s crop or damage the
Quality therefore understanding vintages is quite important for burgundy because certain years can represent ideal growing conditions and much better wine than others now take for example the 2007 and 2005 vintages for red burgundy 2005 was quite sunny and dry throughout the growing season and wine makers would
Have been uh concerned with drought if it hadn’t been for the rain that came in finally mid August but in addition to the sunny warm days the nights were cool uh practically ideal to ripen PIR beautifully while keeping the fresh acidity a burgundy from 2005 has noticeably ripe red
Fruit in in the nose as well as the flavors on the palette and it’s rich and concentrated in its fruit on the pallet the acidity and ripe tannins are are perfectly imbalance in the 2005 and this is a great well balanced vintage that will age for quite some
Time now take a look at the 2007 vintage it got off to a good start with the the warmest April in 50 years but it was dreary and gray and cool and wet from May to about August so the grapes had you know um were struggling quite a bit to
Ripen Growers worried constantly about the gray rotten the mildew during this time and and they had to take more care when they selected the Clusters and the grapes now as I’ve described it you might think that the 2007 vintage is terrible not so it’s not a classic exceptional vintage but a vintage like
This creates more finessed driven Wines By this I mean they’re they’re fragrant with more obvious mineral terar notes a more delicate body higher acidity and light tannant also the fresh fruit is more restrained it definitely lacks the power and structure and the ability to age like the 2005 but it’s drinking
Beautifully now this is why people go crazy reading up on harvest reports they want to predict how well these wines will taste and age the quality of the wine also depends on when the grapes are picked in burgundy the Rainy Seasons begin in the fall and as we mentioned in lecture
Three if it rains during harvesting there’s a risk that the vines will soak up all that water diluting the flavor of the grapes wine in this area of France has an ancient history it’s likely that when the Romans conquered Gul in 51 BC they found Kelts in this region already
Making wine but we’ve got recorded evidence back to the 2 Century ad however it took months especially the San order to bring glory to this region through centuries of trial and error and meticulous recordkeeping they determined the best great varieties the best plots and the importance of teoa most of The
Vineyards in burgundy belonged to the church or nobility until the French Revolution after that many Vineyards were sold off and the Napoleonic Code banished Primo Genta so people split their Vineyards even more in order to divide them evenly amongst their children now think about it one father
Splits up his Vineyard for each of his five children who each of them have three to five children and so on and so forth this means a specific Vineyard can have many plots and many different own owners for example cloo one of the largest grown crew Vineyards at 50
Hectares or 123 acres is split into 100 plots with 80 different owners so that’s roughly 1 and A2 acres per owner who each produce and label their own bottles of clo of vjo and that’s one of the largest there are many times when a single owner will
Have just two rows of vines within a specific Vineyard this fragmentation created the need for nego what’s a nego a nego is a wine producer who buys grapes versus one who owns The Vineyards and makes wine from his own estate on burgundy labels you can tell if a wine was produced solely from
Grapes from The Producers Vineyards as it will have the word domain on the label domain is the French word for estate and it refers to a Vine growing and wine making estate in burgundy again just as we discussed in Champagne whether the grapes were purchased or owned by the estate is not
An indicator of quality it just lets you know who owned the row of vines Vineyard or Vineyards from where they came from classification of Vineyards is a bit different unlike bordeaux’s 1855 classification burgundy doesn’t classify Wines By producers but by individual Vineyards in 1855 Dr jul Laval formerly
Classified The Vineyards and this system was then formalized in 1861 by the bone Committee of Agriculture there are three premium tiers of classification gron crew which is a single Vineyard designation of the highest quality and there’s not many of these because it’s maybe about 2% of production then you have Premier crew
Also a single Vineyard designation of high quality and this represents maybe about 12% of production then you have the vage level no single Vineyard designation and this makes up about 36% of production if the primary title on the label is Bonia like we have here meaning I mean it could say bergonia Rouge
Bergonia Blanc or it could just say say Bonia app it means the grapes can come from anywhere in burgundy however there are also sub regions these consist of multiple Villages so they’re smaller than the region of burgundy but not as small as a particular Village this class fits
Between Village and bergonia such as kot Deone or kot unfortunately just like with the Bordeaux classification there’s a lot of memorization involved if you’re going to be a guru of burgundy there are 33 gr crew Vineyards over 500 Premier crew Vineyards and even more to memorize with
Vage level Vineyards so that’s a lot to learn but don’t worry though I’ll show you an easy trick to decode the label first of all if it’s a premier crew or grown crew you will see these words written on the label if it doesn’t say that it means it’s either a vage or
A regional wine if the label only only has the name of the village then it’s a vage level wine it’ll also say app on the label right next to the Village name if on the label you see the village and the name of the vineyard then this
Is a primere crew again they help you out because they’ll also say Premier crew on the label however if you only see the name of the vineyard on the label without the name of the village or Appalachian it’s a gr crew also starting with the 1990 vintage all
Gr crew burgundies must include the words Grand crew on the label so Village only equals Village Wine Village plus the vineyard equals Premier crew and Vineyard only equals gr crew this should at least give you a head start there’s at least one easy thing to remember about burgundy and that’s it
Has two main great varieties charday for whites and P Noir for Reds burgundy is the birthplace of these two Noble great varieties and they’re held as the gold standard against which chardes and pun noirs are measured around the world this is why you may see on the back label of
A California charday or even in Oregon P Noir where they say very Burgundian character now here we have a shabi shabi is the region farthest north in burgundy it’s about 2hour Drive East of Paris this is a very cool region and they only make white wine now the type
Of soil they have here is called kimmeridgian chock because the seabed that formed sh went all the way up to kimmeridge in the UK the soil is quite light which reflects the sunlight up onto the vines if you’ve ever been to the White Cliffs of do the soil looks very similar to
This the wines of sh Show one end of the spectrum for charday now here we have a Meo another charday but a little bit further south we’re going to compare the colors now notice that the color of the shabi is much paler than the MEO this might be a clue that it comes
From a cooler climate and it does shab is much cooler now let’s smell it do our chest chin nose test do you smell it here not really how about here still not so much unfortunately charday is a neutral grape varri in terms of its aromatic intensity so
You’re going to have to stick your nose in the glass we’ve seen the shab in other lectures but again you get some green apple Aromas like Granny Smith apples very citrusy lemony note but there’s a benchmark in shab a bench Mark Aroma that I’ve always used to identify shab
In a blind taste test it’s the aroma of chalk now there’s no scientific evidence that suggests that the chalk in the soil gives you the chalk Aroma however it’s still noticeable so I’m not sure if this is all power of suggestion but you can still notice it now let’s taste
It sh is extremely delicate in body and especially for Chardonnay and it’s very crisp especially in in wet vintages it can even get auster and racy but shab Le especially at the vage level is uned so you don’t see any Oak flavors or any new Oak flavors I should
Say any vanilla toast Spice in your vage level of SH now for Premier crew and grown crew sh you generally do see a little bit of Oak now all of the seven gr crews in shab are located along a Southwest facing slope coincidence not a chance the Setting Sun is always warmer than
The Rising Sun in the East these sloping Vineyards have the best drainage and get the most sunlight this ripens these grapes extremely well providing richness and weight now traveling south we get to the coat door region or Golden Coast or golden slope the name deres from the color of
The Vineyards after the Harvest they turn a beautiful gold this region is made up of two large regions the cotui in the North and the kotone in the South now we’ll taste a chardonay from the region of Meo in the kotone which is where most of the high quality vages for
White wine in the code door come from likeon P Ando we already noticed that the color was a little bit deeper than the chabi it’s a soft straw as opposed to a very very pale straw now we’re going to smell it it’s much more aromatically intense
And you do get like red delicious apples in there it’s got an apple kind of fruit but you also notice that mineral tone but this has got some oak on it so you’ll notice that toastiness that vanilla that spice and there’s a hint of butter in there so I probably think it’s
Had some malolactic fermentation done to it remember the malolactic fermentation is turning the acid you find in green apples malic acid to the acid you find in milk which is lactic acid and The Benchmark that I have foro is hazelnuts especially towards when you pull the glass away now let’s taste
It in earlier lectures we talked about battonage Le stirring now on the pallette you get more of a creamy texture and if you can’t find this go back to the shab and then go to the MEO the MEO is weigher and and richer but you also notice that creamy texture so
Likely this has had some done to it as well but now towards the finish the flavor that I’m left with is um one reminiscent of hazelnuts and that’s the Benchmark for Mero now let’s look to the p noirs p Noir as I mentioned in lecture six is the headache grape even though this
Where is where it originates it’s no more agreeable there it’s quite finicky and difficult to deal with however when you get it right there is no place on Earth that pinoir can get so so perfumed fragrant and long lasting north of the kotab bone is the
Sub region of Ki where many villages are known for their highquality powerful Reds such as jetin and M each separate Village has its own unique character again due to the T I should point out that sometimes burgundy Reds have what’s called a a barnyard smell and it’s just what you’d
Imagine but some people find that it adds a Pleasant complexity to the wines here for example we have a prier crew from bone now let’s look at the color it’s quite clear uh it’s a clear pale Ruby and you can definitely see your fingers through it let’s do our chest chin nose
Test I can definitely smell it’s quite aromatic and on the nose it’s beautiful strawberries cherries cranberries but because this is from the old world remember in Europe I definitely get a strong mineral tone to it and also because this is seen a little bit of Oak I definitely get some Vanilla some spice
And a hint of clove to it now let’s taste it has beautiful beautiful fruit on it but the body is quite light now this is a primier crew and if you want to taste complexity go get yourself a Bonia Rouge and compare it to that you’re going to find there’s many more
Layers of flavors in the P crew than the bonna the bonna is going to be a bit more just simple fruit but you’ll notice like when we’re talking about Bordeaux um this is much much lighter in body but and the acid is quite high but even though you have some
Grip here for p Noir it’s nothing like you see for Cabernet sovo but it’s got this elegant structure and great finesse now the difference in terroir um bone is different and let’s say the wines you see in the Ki uh like jeffre shamban which is known for the most firm
Gripping tannin of any pin Noir in burgundy as opposed to shambal musini a little further south where it has a much more feminine character a little more perfumed and rounder and softer edges to those tants this is what fascinated me about burgundy it’s the home of Taha and
Although it’s known for its Limestone soil which provides that finesse there are over 400 different types of soils varied topography pockets of microclimates which each has its wine tasting vastly different than the ones that are very close in proximity in addition how each producer has chosen to interpret and focus that t
Makes each one even more beautiful and unique some producers make a more modern and international style which means that the producer concentrates on bringing more of the fruit Aromas out and might use some you know more new French Oak which gives you that more intense toasty vanilla and spice tones the more
Traditional styles are a bit more oxidative in their wine making and they’ll use a little more older Oak for Less Oak flavor influence traditional style wines showcase finesse and elegance versus big Power and they can have very well harmonized elements it’s a style istic Choice wines from burgundy can be
Expensive unfortunately especially for the premier cruise and gr Cruise not only because of the painstaking labor involved but also because of a limited Supply the entire region of burgundy produces roughly about 22 million cases a year does that sound like a lot well not really when you consider Bordeaux
Produces three times this amount and Gallow produces over four times this amount now let’s go to Bo now although part of burgundy B is the is south and a region unto itself it makes wines using the game grape now go ahead and pick up your balet glass and pick up a bergonia Rouge
Or one of your uh burgundies notice the color a p Noir is even paler than G and if you smell the wine it’s quite different to the Pina Noir you definitely get more raspberry tones in the fruit and and a soft Cherry but is the fruit candied you know it
Does it remind you of bubblegum it’s on the palette it’s quite light and tan and very easy drinking let’s taste it it’s similar in that way to P Noir in that it has that light tannin but the acidity is nowhere near as high as pinoir and it generally doesn’t last as
Long as pinoir and G and Bo is generally appreciated for its useful Vibrance now there is a style of wine here called B Nuvo all the grapes come from the region of Bo but this is a wine that’s fermented and bottled quickly and intended to be consumed weeks after the
Harvest and this country we see announcements in stores for Bo Novo in November perhaps you’ve seen them Bay Novo is a a perfect entry level wine involving no yeast making very fruity flavors almost like um like bubble gum it also has notes of banana and pear with very very soft easing easy drinking
Structure and low alcohol when I was living in London in my 20s I had a few friends that would that were would take me on picnics and the first time they had done this they had asked me to go to the supermarket and pick up some things for the picnic so being an
American I picked up you know potato chips and I picked up some some uh deli meat but when I got there there was some some of the my friends there were French and they just laughed at me because they brought one of the big French loafs of bread they brought some cheeses they
Brought strawberries and they brought a wine and here I thought oh it’s fancy schmancy they brought wine but to them it was a very casual drink and it happened to be a boet now this was the best picnic wine I’d ever had and it was
The best picnic that I ever had and by the way boet is fantastic for Sangria in the summer now not all boet is made like the bo Novo and it’s worth trying some of the higher quality wines more richly fruited wines from from the 10 crew of
Boai we have one here that’s zuas but you may see more and Fu and there’s there’s 10 of them now we travel back up North about parallel to Champagne is the region of alas this region has a strong German influence why do you think that is well before it officially became part of
France at the end of the first world war this territory was in dispute between France and Germany its culture is a blend of both French and German and and the dialect they speak there is is unique sounding both German and French you’ll also notice that the shape of their bottles is this
Long slender flute shape similar to what you see in Germany this is required for all except the p noirs and sparkling lines now classification in alas is quite easy you have alas AC or alas app and alas gr crew that’s it just two there are 50 ground crew Vineyards and
The wine must come from one of the four Great varieties reasing Muscat Pino gree or gt trer these four are considered their own Noble varieties protected by the vog mountains alas has been largely isolated the climate is continental and is largely protected from the storms so
It’s quite dry and warm and sunny the grapes grow on Ste deep slopes sometimes angled as much as as 40° allas is split up into two regions the barine in the North and the oat rine in the South the soil in these regions is largely granite or shist most of the
Groon crew Vineyard sites are located in the oat rine where the vog are the highest and affect the climate the most here the wines are each made with 100% of one variety now you may hear people sometimes call a specific grape say a varietal but this is incorrect it’s a variety meaning this
Classification under species when a wine is made of 100% of one variety we call it a varietal labeled wine because of the dry and sunny climate The Grapes can get quite rich and concentrated in a blind tasting I would often spot an alation wine for its anxious quality its almost oily
Character even in reasing which which is delicate everywhere else takes on a richer character here though the style is quite dry and still high in acid muskat is grown here as well we mentioned muskat when speaking of muskat toasti in lecture 7 but here in alas
Muscot is made into a wine that is still um has no bubbles in it and dry however it doesn’t lose any of its aromatics it has Aromas of of orange blossom with Citrus and some rose petals but here we have a GT stramer now I love
Saying GT stramer it’s a great name of a grape to say now it’s a unique grape now if you pick up your shabi and compare the color you may see an indication to why it’s Unique the color is much deeper and almost has a tint of flesh tone to it or
Pink that’s because the grapes themselves are pink let’s do our chest chin nose test I can smell it there really can smell it there and then the aroma is just jump out of the glass GTS of GT Trina GTS in German means spice and this wine smells
Of different spices similar to Clove but it’s extreme L aromatic the other types of realas that you get on gtt’s tror is rose petals sometimes cashews but the biggest Benchmark people say for GT tramor is leechy nuts now I never tasted a leey nut before I got to GT streamer but once
I got to gtst tramor I understood that this is must be what lei’s smell like and taste like and then I got one and they were absolutely right so don’t worry if you can’t find it just take my word for it it tastes just like Lees now on the
Palette you can find versions that are sweet and you can find versions that that are dry this one’s actually it’s got a definite sweet impression it’s a little off dry but it’s got a fuller body very round almost oily texture very different from the wines we were tasting
Earlier however the acid is very very low and if you have trouble with perceiving acid this is a great test taste the GT tramer go back to the shab and go back to the GT tramer you’ll notice that it’s kind of soft like falling into a pillow you don’t get that
Marked acidity on the sides of your mouth that make you pucker but also I get a warmth towards the Finish that’s probably because you’ll see it’s about 14 % alcohol I GTS tramor is a big girl you may also have a aino gree we have one here as well Pino gree
Is similar to GT stramer and it’s also pink so you’ll notice that the color in these two wines are quite similar now penree is not as aromatic as GT tramer and it’s less in its leechy notes but it has an aroma of honey suckle it too is kind of fairly low in
Its acid but it’s not as low as GTS and sometime it to sometimes it too can have some sweetness to it you might see vintages prior to 2006 labeled toai delas that actually refers to penree because penree was never involved with the production of the sweet wines of
Tokai in Hungary that we spoke about in lecture 9 um since 2006 it can no longer be called toai dollas another white grape in the Pino family is Pino BL it’s not considered one of oas’s noble varieties but it makes some really nice wine it’s round and creamy and not overly aromatic or
Assertive it’s also one of the only alas wines that sees malolactic fermentation just as in bergundy chardonay and this gives it its creamy texture in alas you don’t see too much new Oak influence in these whites because most wineries use large Oak casks and a lot of these are over a
Hundred years old such old barrels completely lose the oak influence yet still allow a tiny amount of slow oxidation that can round out the structure and harmonize these elements next lecture we turn South we’ll go to Fran’s Ron Valley and hug the Southern Coastline to look at some
Beautiful Wines in the langad do and provance you’ll need the following wines you’ll need a white wine from the rone you will need a either a tel or a Ros from provance so a Ros wine from this area you’ll need a northern Ron SRA you’ll need a coat Dome a shatan
Dup and a red wine from the langued do wines from this region are also Classics for a major Noble grape we’ve already discussed earlier and for a style of wine to which all others are compared to around the world and remember when we said that wine can connect you with the Ancients this
Region has been producing wines that have been highly regarded for their quality since before the first century BC let’s see what you think but until then I’m going to retire to burgundy that is cheers