What's your favorite trivia or "fun fact" about Burgundy?

I’m hosting my wine group this Thursday, and we will be exploring red Burgundy. This group leans very heavily into Cabernet (Napa and Bdx) so this dinner will have a different “feel” to it as it will have a much more education angle.

As part of the fun, I wanted to print up some placards with “fun facts” about Burgundy; how small it is relative to Bordeaux, how much wine is produced, price per acre, oldest winery, most famous person(s), etc. Any tidbit would be neat - doesn’t need to be wine related.

Any fun facts or trivia about Burgundy you particularly like?

Will be sure to post notes after dinner.

Thanks!

If you’re looking for trivia I’d just use Google. Everyone on this board lies about facts but tells the truth about opinions, and that’s been true ever since Todd started this board in Volnay in 1963. That’s almost twenty years ago.

Its possible all of my post is irrelevant to what you’re looking for but here goes.This is what I tell people are the only things you need to know. All of the below overgeneralizes and oversimplifies but it works for me:

All French Pinot is red Burg, with exceptions.
All red Burg is pinot, with exceptions.
All French Chardonnay is white Burg including Chablis, with exceptions.
All white Burg is Chardonnay, with exceptions.
The exceptions don’t matter.

North Burgundy is the Cote de Nuits. South Burgundy is the Cote de Beaune. The highest status red Burgs are from five villages in the Cote de Nuits. Memorize all five in order to enjoy red Burgundy. Morey, Gevrey, Chambolle, Nuits, Vosne.

Negociants can make great wine at half price.

Everything Jadot made until that guy retired, including the stuff on the bottom shelf at Safeway, is worth the money.

Gamay is great Burgundy at one fifth the cost. Tastes different though.

Some red Burgundy tastes a lot like California pinot but even those tend to be less oaky and more interesting than California pinot. Most red Burgundy seems leaner higher acid and earthier than California pinot. Red Burgundy needs age much more than California pinot does, it’s like Bordeaux that way. Without age it can be really lean, really high toned, really earthy, really light, and sometimes tannic, in short not worth drinking. With many exceptions.

Vintages really matter. Buy from medium good vintages. They drink sooner and are less expensive yet full and rich. Utterly perfect Burgs usually need way too many years and way too many dollars. Don’t buy them. Seriously.

You can make great Grand Cru Burgundy by solely reading old books about viticulture and vinification written in French.

As long as you also have a background in auto parts.

Duh.

When I worked retail people were SHOCKED by the oxymoron of “White Burgundy.”

Customer: Where is your Burgundy?
Me: This way, on your right is red and on the left is white.
Customer: Doesn’t Burgundy mean red?
Me: harakiri

Some Burgundy Fun Facts:

• Burgundy was well known for making wine all the way back to the era of the Roman Empire
• Since the Cote d’Or was not well situated to easily ship large amounts of wine to urban centers by water transport, they focused on small quantifies of “fine” wine instead of cheap plonk since it made the cost of ground transport worth it
• The catholic church owned the majority of vineyards on the cote d’or until the french revolution
• Drouhin hid wine from the Nazi’s in secret tunnels during the german occupation
• Most vignerons in Burgundy consider Musigny the region’s best wine, not Romanee Conti
• During the middle ages, the best wine coming from Burgundy was white
• Volnay is known as being light and elegant because it used to contain alot of white grapes. The reputation has stuck despite having traditionally had producers who made tannic, brooding wines in the modern era.
• During the early part of the 20th century, negociants wanted to market burgundy wine like Champagne: blends that were sold as “house styles”. Growers wanted to market the wine based on terroir. The growers won the debate.
• Sparkling Chambertin used to be really popular. Really.
• During the 17th century, growers complained they had to make dark, rich wines for the export market instead of the light and elegant style they prefered
• The monks themselves never really worked in the vineyards. They had lay brothers or peasant serfs do they work while they studied scripture, prayed and transacted business
• The church gained so much vineyard land in Burgundy because nobles donated it to them in order to get into heaven
• Dijon used to be an important wine growing village
• More Gamay used to be grown on the Cote than Pinot Noir. Especially in Morey.
• The Cote de Beaune used to be known for red wines
• Up until the 80s most burgundy was made by farmers but sold in barrel to negociants
• Truchot and Jayer made great wine because of their farming skill not winemaking skill. All Jayer did differently than his peers was use new oak. All the rest was farming.
• The family behind Dujac made their fortune manufacturing crackers before turning to winemaking
• Most Burgundy has more alcohol than what is stated on the label
• Alot of burgundy winemakers like to drink their wine young and think the americans and british age it too long
• For 2000 years burgundy was drank within a year of it being made. Only in the 19 century did the confluence of standard bottle sizes, strong glass, widespread cork usage and a british taste for aged wine led to it being aged
• Burgundy used to be its own country during the middle ages and had a culture distinct from France
• During the 70s and 80s wine makers often had to add acid to wine because too much potassium was added to vineyards during the 50s and 60s
• During the first 3/4 of of the 20th century the british and low countries considered bordeaux light and elegant and burgundy rich and dark. As a consequence negociants would blend in wine like syrah from the rhone to meet expectations
• Winemakers in burgundy can add acid or sugar to fermentations but not both
• There is wine made in Burgundy from a grape called Caesar
• Horses are not a traditional part of burgundy agriculture. Before vines were ripped out due to Phylloxera, they were not planted in rows. It was a random tangle of vines. Only after the replanting and the surplus of horses available from the world wars did people start using horses for plowing.
• Jean-Marie Fourrier’s father was once rude to Robert Parker and thus was blackballed from selling wine traditional markets in Europe. This forced Jean-Marie to turn heavily towards to US market which ironically wasnt as poisoned for them despite Parker being an American. This is why Fourrier is a superstar in America but relatively unknown in France.

Côte Rôtie is in Morey-St-Denis

Faiveley is primarily known as a producer of trains and train equipment.

Burgundy was once the bottom of a prehistoric ocean. You can find fossilized sea shells in the vineyards.

Ok, a nice story (about how „limited“ the view of a Burgundian wine-maker actually can be).

In the mid-nineties I visited a (then already retired, now dead) wine-maker who still had some older vintages to sell, e.g. 1989/90/91 … he also had a fine parcel of vines in the neighbourhood of the famous „La Tâche“ vineyard.

Talking about La Tâche he grew more and more angry, opened a drawer and showed me a price list: „A thousand (French) Francs for a bottle La Tâche, a thousand … and my wine is only 100 FF, only a few meters apart - this is stupid, foolish, crazy …“ (he was almost crying).
Then I asked: „Have you ever tasted La Tâche … to compare?“
He replied: „No, never!“

(well … )

BTW: La Tâche is now - depending on the vintage - between 1500 and 3000 $ and more,
the other wine (now made by the son and grand-son) sells now for 150 to 500 $ and more …

Yes, and it´s a very nice hotel (Chambre d´hôtes) - highly recommended for visiters to Burgundy … (if you don´t need any luxury)!!! View on Clos des Lambrays …

There are actually still some vines on the (1er Cru Morey-St-Denis) “Cote-Rotie”, but if they are vinified at all, they are certainly not bottled under this designation …

I bought a cheap copy of Desmond Seward’s Monks & Wine from Amazon a while back, and many of Berry’s points are confirmed in it. The statement that the monks didn’t set foot in the vineyards…not so much. It is true that, in many cases, the vineyards were of a size that made this “fact” true, yet universal truths rarely are both.

Not trying to give anyone a hard time; I would like to endorse the book, however. I rarely drink Burgundy (inconsistent quality at too high a price for a novice like me!), but I have a great respect for those who invest the time/$$$ in gaining an understanding of the region’s mysteries.

So long as it isn’t white, post 1993, and aged.

Phillipe le Hardi was the Duke of Bourgogne in the 14th century (starting a line of ducs which rivaled the French kings in power). However, Gallo Hearty Burgundy is not named after him…nor for any town named “Hardi” or “Hearty”. You won’t find it on a map.

Jayer also did a cold soak, not as long as Accad, but the main contribution was indeed vineyard mgt.

Wouldn’t buy a white Jadot now, even Chevy Demoiselles, one of my prior favorites.

Interesting thread, fun. Will give it some thought.

Berry,

Great list. Adding to your point, I have been told that Jacky Truchot was generally the first person out in the vines every morning and took that as a real source of pride. I think your comment shows what the key to making great wine is.

According to Wikipedia, “The Chambertin wines were one of Napoleon’s favorites and it is said that he insisted that they be available to him even during his various military campaigns. According to Hazlitt, Chambertin was the only wine Napoleon drank during his reign as Emperor, “and he seldom drank it pure.”” Chambertin - Wikipedia

There is more to your story about Drouhin and the Nazis. Hiding from the Nazis in the Hospices de Beaune - Decanter

According to an article from John Gilman in a View From the Cellar,

“In appreciation of all that the Hospices de Beaune did for Maurice during his months in
hiding at the end of the war, he and his wife Pauline made a donation in 1947 of vineyard parcels
that Maison Drouhin owned in Beaune to create what would become the Hospices’ “Cuvée
Maurice Drouhin”.”

Monks and Wine is a decent book but in my humble opinion is more of the “popular history” than a scholarly treaties. They largely state the “party line” of the Cistercians.

I over state my point slightly because in the earliest days of the Cistercian order there was an explicit effort reduce the amount of time and prayer and have a more “work is prayer” lifestyle. This was indeed one of the distinguishing characteristic of the Cistercians over the “black monks” and was one reason their fundraising was so fast and successful. But like most things in life, human nature takes over and the practice quickly didn’t match the ideals. The reality is that once the order was well established the Monks did less and less manual labor and largely delegated it to conversi (lay brothers) and tenant peasants. Part of this is because the monks themselves were exclusively drawn from the ranks of the aristocracy while the general populace could at best hope to become conversi (and even this would often require land donations as an entrance fee).

So while my statement was a bit too absolute, the truth is that once established, the cistercian monks were alot more like their predecessors than their reputation stated and their asceticism and work ideals were more marketing than reality.

Im moving so all my books and some of my notes are boxed up, but I can later cite my sources if you are curious.

Starting in the 1800’s and continuing into the 1900’s the villages/communes in Burgundy appended the name of the villages greatest wine into the villages names in order to the enhance the prestige of all the wines from the commune and make them more easily identifiable. Hence ,Chambolle-Musigny,Vosne Romanee,Gevrey Chambertin etc etc.