BURGUNDY’S COTE D’OR – WINE IN 10

Burgundy in total includes almost 30.000 hectares (29.395 hectares). The Côte d’Or is in the middle of Burgundy and is the center for high-quality wines in the region. It is only roughly 50 km long and between Dijon and Santenay. The name either means the golden slope or it comes from Côte d’Orient as the exposition of the slope is towards the east – the Orient.

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What’s up my name is constantin baum i’m a master of wine a retailer and a consultant and this is my channel where we are thirsty for knowledge and wine so this is wine in 10 where i tell you everything you need to know about a region or grape variety in less

Than 10 minutes today i’m going to talk about a region that is way too complex to cover it all in one video so i’m going to split the region in different parts and then do different videos on those different parts in this video i’m going to talk

About the most important part of this iconic region it is the region where most wine nerds end their wine tasting career because it takes some time to understand this part of the wine world so drum roll i’m going to talk about burgundy’s core door which you actually already knew because

It’s in the title So let’s start off with a little history lesson winemaking in burgundy really started when the romans conquered burgundy in 51 bc it was pretty likely that the celts already made wine in the region before the romans arrived but the romans really brought a lot of know-how and understanding of growing vines

When they came into the region in order to understand winemaking in burgundy you really have to understand the influence of the monks in the region they really changed the dynamics of wine making in burgundy and exported their business model all around the world monasteries received vineyards from the royals and wealthy

Donors wanted god to be on their side monks on the other hand needed wine for mass and for their own entertainment monks could really focus on improving quality because they had time they had sellers they were able to keep records and they were pretty well educated for those times the first important

Monastery in burgundy were the benedictines of cuny who received for example the vineyard that is today known as romani conti in 1232 the other really important monastery were the cistercians who were founded a bit later than the benedictines near nuisance george and were the first ones to make chablis

And the first owners of the vineyard known as claude boujou the monks were real wine nerds and they are the reason why burgundy today is so well understood but nerds also make things more complicated than they should be and this is the reason why the vineyards of burgundy are today so difficult to

Understand as they have been broken up into smaller and smaller parcels in order to isolate different characteristics and different quality levels another really important character in the history of burgundy was the duke of burgundy philip the bolt who wanted to decrease yields and increase quality in the region he ordered vintners to rip

Out garment vines and plant pinot noir instead in 1395. he actually said that gummy is harmful to human beings which is a bit rough but without him burgundy might not have been recognized as one of the greatest wine growing regions in the world burgundy as a whole includes 30 000 hectares of vineyards

And the corridor is right in the middle of the region and it is known for producing really high quality wines the cote d’or is only roughly 50 kilometers long and it sits between dijon and santine the name codor either means golden slope or it means could dorian as the

Exposition of the slopes is towards the east the orient cordor is also the name of the department the administrative district the code door sits right on the fault line between the mauvon hills and the zone plane this part of france was under water during the jurassic period and

When the water receded crustaceans and shells died fell to the ground and limestone formed from their remains over time this is why most parts of burgundy contain high levels of limestones and most vineyards are made up of clay and limestone this little stone is actually a piece of limestone from a vineyard

Called romani conti it doesn’t taste that much though in general the best quality grapes come from the middle part of the slope the bottom part of the slope is most of the times too fertile for high quality wine production and the top part of the slope is oftentimes too sparse so that wines

Tend to be more light and not as profound and concentrated in this middle section of the vineyard which tends to be at an elevation of 250 to 300 meters above sea level you can find most of the premier crew and grand cru sites at the top of the slopes you can find

Mostly village level wines and at the bottom of the slopes you also find the large level wines or regional wines but i’m going to talk about the quality levels in a minute the coat door is split up into two parts you have the kote nui in the north which

Is known for amazing red wines and you have the kotu bone in the south which is known for great red wines and great white wines in the courty you find those famous villages called jerry shambatan morissandinis and von romani for example it produces some of the greatest red

Wines in the world but it only represents less than two thousand hectares of vineyards and five percent of the total production in burgundy in the cote de bone some of the greatest white wines in the world are made around the hill of motrache and in corto charlemagne villages like chasana puni and merso

Are known around the world the only grown cruise side for red wine in the coterbourne is corton but there are some amazing wines being produced in bonn volney and palma for example as a whole the kotebone only represents 11 of the total production in burgundy and there are less than 4 000 hectares

Planted to vineyards in that part of the corridor i want to dig in a little bit more into the quality classification in burgundy as this confuses lots of people in this classification vineyards are classified not producers like it is the case in bordeaux and not individual wines as it is the case

With most wine critics today so at the bottom you have the regional appellations like bogor and rush that represents 52 percent of the region above that you have the village appellations that are named after the village such as von roman village this includes 37 percent of all wines in burgundy

Above that you have the premier queer appellations with 640 different sites like bon romanese premier cru this makes up only 10 percent of the total production and then you have the best of the best the concrete like for example rich poor there are only 33 grand cruise in burgundy that account for around

One percent of the total production easy isn’t it so the climate in burgundy is continental with cold winters and relatively warm summers the region often has problems with spring frost you might have seen those beautiful pictures of vineyards with lots of different fires burning between the vines

This looks very nice but spring frost is a real issue and can cost the wine makers a lot of money if it happens burgundy also has problems with regular hail storms or rain falling during spring or during harvest this is why vintage variation in burgundy

Is a real factor when you buy wine when it comes to grape varieties there are really two grape varieties that rule burgundy one is pinot noir as a red grape variety and the other one is chardonnay as a white grape variety these two grape varieties are now planted all around the world

But producers still look to burgundy for inspiration when it comes to making great pinot noir and chardonnay people often forget that there are also other grape varieties being grown in burgundy for example ali gotti gamay and sauvignon blanc in burgundy itself grape varieties rarely appear on the label as vineyards and producer

Names are normally used in order to distinguish different wines but now let’s talk about viticulture and wine making in the corridor wineries overall are pretty small in burgundy the average domain only has 6.5 hectares of vineyards the vine density is super high in burgundy 10 000 vines per hectare so one vine

Per square meter is pretty normal in the region this does normally increase quality as the vines have to struggle more in order to get nutrients from the soil but it also means that most vineyards are not mechanized because you can’t really drive a tractor through those very densely planted

Vineyards the overall yields in burgundy are pretty low less than 60 hectare liters per hectare and even less for premier crew and grand cru sites wine making in the cote d’or varies from producer to producer but pretty much all of the great producers use barik’s small wooden barrels for

Their red wines and their white wines but there are differences when it comes to de-stemming maceration time use of cultured yeast and filtration for example especially the topic of de-stemming grapes was hotly debated in the region on one hand you had ongrijaye who distemped all of his grapes

On the other hand you had oberdel villain from the domenda romani conti who was using very little de-stemmed berries in my opinion if done right wines made from whole bunch naughty stem grapes can have the more complex aroma and a more appealing more age-worthy structure so in conclusion even though i

Traveled through burgundy three to five times per year it is still a region for me that is very complex and i probably will never really understand burgundy in its entirety there’s also no other region in the world where it’s so difficult to find really great affordable wine there’s so many

Different factors at play so it’s sometimes really difficult to know what you’re getting until you’re tasting the wine but if you are like me and you really want to continue learning about wine for the rest of your life burgundy is a great place to be i hope you enjoyed my introduction into

Burgundy’s court door if you liked the video then please like it down here subscribe to my channel and make sure that you’re not missing a video i see you guys again soon until then stay thirsty