The region - BURGUNDY - land of CONTRASTS
The Burgundy wine region begins a hundred kilometres south from Paris and stretches on 360 kilometres down
to Lyon. It is a patchwork of tiny vineyards in villages strung along a narrow valley and divided in numerous
districts: Chablis, Côte d'Or (divided in Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune), Côte Chalonnaise, Mâconnais and
Beaujolais.
It is a region of numerous soil types and microclimates and these have been identified to give 400 separate
classifications. The soils are predominately Limestone, Clayey-limestone and marl.
The vineyards cover 25,000 hectares and are divided into 99 wine appellations comprising 5,200 wine growers
of which 85% of the vineyards are smaller than 10 hectares. From this area they produce 180 million bottles
of wine.
Pinot Noir grape dominates the region's red wine particularly in the Cote d'Or where 90% of the production
is red wine; while the Gamay grape is grown in Beaujolais. Chardonnay is the most common white grape grown
and is the focus of growers in Chablis, with Aligoté being used in the region to produce cheaper white wines.
The Côte d'Or, is where Burgundy's most famous and most expensive wines are found, is split into two parts:
the Côte de Nuits which starts just south of Dijon and extends to a few kilometers south of the town of
Nuits-Saint-Georges,while the Côte de Beaune starts at Ladoix and ends at Dezize-les-Maranges.
The wine-growing part of this area is just 40km long, and in most places less than 2km wide and is made
up of tiny villages surrounded by a combination of flat and sloped vineyards.
Burgundy experiences a continental climate characterized by very cold winters and hot summers. The
weather is very unpredictable with rains, hail, and frost all possible around harvest time. Because
of this climate, there is a lot of variation between vintages from Burgundy. Hence the wines can range
from pleasant drinkable wines to some of the finest and most expensive wines in the world. It is this
difference that provides a wonderful incentive to personally come, explore and discover the wines of
Burgundy.
What makes this a great area for wine and food lovers?
Nature has given the wine-growers of Burgundy the opportunity to use their skills and experience to
produce a huge range of wines from the same grape varieties. And when it comes to food what better to
serve with such nectar than the subtly flavoured, traditional dishes of Burgundy? Trout, carp, pikeperch,
Bresse chicken, Charolais beef, mild or strong Dijon mustard, Burgundy snails - cuisine at its finest!
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