コレクション: Burgundy

Burgundy ranks vineyards, not producers. Regional wines come from wide areas. Village wines carry a commune name such as Meursault or Gevrey-Chambertin. Premier cru comes from a named plot within a village, and grand cru from the small number of plots ranked highest, labelled with the vineyard name alone. Browse grand cru Burgundy.

A single grand cru vineyard can be split among dozens of owners, each farming a few rows and making wine their own way. Two bottles with the same vineyard name can therefore differ a lot. That is why regular buyers learn producer names first and vineyard names second, the reverse of how most people approach Bordeaux.

Almost all red Burgundy is Pinot Noir and almost all white Burgundy is Chardonnay. Chablis in the north is Chardonnay grown on limestone with little or no oak. Beaujolais to the south uses Gamay and is a separate style. Aligote appears in small quantities as a crisp white. Browse white Burgundy.

The whole region is small, the top-ranked vineyards are tiny, and holdings are fragmented, so a sought-after cuvee may run to only a few hundred cases worldwide. Several short harvests from frost and hail have cut volumes further while global demand kept rising. Village-level bottles from good growers remain the sensible entry point.

Pinot Noir shows better slightly cooler than Bordeaux, around 14 to 16 degrees Celsius. In a warm Hong Kong room, half an hour in the fridge before pouring is usually right. Too warm and the perfume disappears behind the alcohol. Most village wines need no decanting, though older bottles should be stood upright first. Browse red Burgundy.

It works well. Pinot Noir has modest tannin and bright acidity, so it sits comfortably with roast duck, soy chicken, char siu, braised mushrooms and even lighter seafood dishes. It handles a mixed Cantonese table better than a heavy tannic red. Keep the sauces on the savoury side rather than very sweet or very spicy.