If Burgundy is such a great wine growing region, why does no river run through it?

[Berry_Crawford]

@Mel Knox

There is viticulture near San Francisco because the Catholic Church needed it for mass and there were lots of Italians to drink it.

A lot of early California viticulture was driven by the gold rush too. Aside from the early mission vineyards all the first California grape planting happened in gold mining areas such as Coloma in what is now El Dorado county.

[Mark_C]

@Frank Drew

Kermit Lynch in effect asked, “If Bordeaux is such a great wine growing region, why aren’t there any hills?”

He should walk St. Émillion…

[Mel_Knox]

A lot of early California viticulture was driven by the gold rush too. Aside from the early mission vineyards all the first California grape planting happened in gold mining areas such as Coloma in what is now El Dorado county.
Berry Crawford Wines - Minimal Intervention Zinfandel/Primitivo

Winemaking in the Sierra Foothills could have been much bigger much faster if there hadn’t been barrel vampires.

[Arv_R]

Lots of good, insightful comments on this thread. Thanks for typing them up.

[Berry_Crawford]

@Mel Knox

Winemaking in the Sierra Foothills could have been much bigger much faster if there hadn’t been barrel vampires.

Its how nature keeps things in balance

[Jack_Linden]

In addition to the Rhoin in Savigny, there are the Bouzaise and the Aigue in Beaune, the Meuzin in Premeaux, and the Vouge (from which the Clos de Vougeot gets its name) in Vougeot, to name just a few. The Thames they are not, but they caused serious flood poblems in 2013, particularly the Rhoin.

[A_Songeur]

Burgundy is such a great wine growing region because, indeed, there is n river through it …Simple: They can’t water/irrigate the vines!..

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

@Mel Knox

Re the Mosel/Saar/Ruwer and the steep hillsides: it used to be said that the solar rays bounced off the water onto the vines…this always sounded lame to me, but who knows.Certainly the steep hillsides give the vines better exposure.


Hugh Johnson whittled Roger Dion down to a single sentence: the market makes the wine.
There is viticulture near San Francisco because the Catholic Church needed it for mass and there were lots of Italians to drink it.

I love your last explanation. Makes sense to me. As to the sun reflecting off the river, I drove and boated down the Mosel a few years ago during harvest and it seems like BS to me. The river is so winding that it’s hard to remember exactly, but I seem to recall a few large vineyards on the “south” side of the river.

[Richard_T_r_i_m_p_i]

@J a y H a c k

The river is so winding that it’s hard to remember exactly, but I seem to recall a few large vineyards on the “south” side of the river.

It was obviously the winding river that prompted your memory issue.

RT

[R_Frankel]

@NJBruce

I wonder when the first canals were built connecting Burgundy to the rest of France…and Belgium.

As far as I can tell the earliest canals in France were built in the 1600s. The “Burgundy Canal” was built in the late 1700s/early 1800s to connect the Seine to the Rhone (via the Yonne/Saone). This was late enough that it was probably supplanted by train before it got too heavily used. Based on a cursory poke around the web it seems like coal and grain were the two primary goods transported in these canals, though probably some wine flowed through them as well.

Berry’s amazing detail inspired me to poke around to see if the Romans built any canals in France, and I couldn’t find any evidence of significant ones. They did build canals (there’s a well known one in England and some in Italy) though. Roman cities tended to develop along coasts and rivers, so water-borne transport was the most common. The wonderful network of Roman roads could have been used for wine, but more likely they used ships.

[Craig_G]

@R. Frankel

As far as I can tell the earliest canals in France were built in the 1600s. The “Burgundy Canal” was built in the late 1700s/early 1800s to connect the Seine to the Rhone (via the Yonne/Saone). This was late enough that it was probably supplanted by train before it got too heavily used. Based on a cursory poke around the web it seems like coal and grain were the two primary goods transported in these canals, though probably some wine flowed through them as well

They needed to ship the Hermitage up to Burgundy!

[Berry_Crawford]

@R. Frankel

@NJBruce

I wonder when the first canals were built connecting Burgundy to the rest of France…and Belgium.

As far as I can tell the earliest canals in France were built in the 1600s. The “Burgundy Canal” was built in the late 1700s/early 1800s to connect the Seine to the Rhone (via the Yonne/Saone). This was late enough that it was probably supplanted by train before it got too heavily used. Based on a cursory poke around the web it seems like coal and grain were the two primary goods transported in these canals, though probably some wine flowed through them as well.

Yeah, canals ended not getting much use because within decades of their construction the rail system was built.