The Great Estates of Burgundy, Explained

To arrive in Burgundy expecting the grand châteaux of Bordeaux is to misunderstand it entirely. Here, along a narrow ribbon of hillside called the Côte d'Or, the golden slope, the greatest wines in the world come not from imposing estates but from an intricate patchwork of small plots, many no larger than a garden, worked by families whose names appear on the label in modest type. Burgundy is the most fragmented and, to many, the most beguiling wine region on earth.

The reason lies in history. Where a Bordeaux château can span hundreds of acres under single ownership, Burgundy's vineyards were divided and subdivided over centuries, accelerated by inheritance laws that split holdings among heirs with each generation. Today a single famous vineyard may be shared among dozens of growers, each farming a few rows and each making a wine subtly different from a neighbor working the identical patch of ground. The result is that in Burgundy the producer matters as much as the vineyard, and a great grower can coax brilliance from a modest plot while a careless one squanders a grand cru.

Burgundy classifies its land in a strict hierarchy that has nothing to do with the size or grandeur of an estate and everything to do with the ground itself. At the base are regional and village wines, above them the premiers crus from superior named plots, and at the summit the grands crus, a tiny handful of hallowed vineyards whose wines are among the most expensive in existence. The whole system rests on the Burgundian faith in terroir, the belief that a specific slope, soil, and exposure leave an unmistakable signature in the glass, and that the winemaker's role is to reveal it rather than impose upon it.

Two grapes do almost all the work. Pinot Noir gives the great reds, delicate and perfumed rather than powerful, while Chardonnay produces whites of a richness and precision that the rest of the world spends fortunes trying to imitate. In the hands of the finest domaines, both reach heights that seem to defy the humble appearance of the vines from which they came.

At the top of this world sit a small number of legendary names. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti stands above all, its wines the most coveted on earth, but it is joined by domaines such as Leroy, Armand Rousseau, Georges Roumier, and, for whites, Domaine Leflaive and Coche-Dury, houses whose bottles are chased by collectors around the globe and whose annual releases sell out in hours. Their scarcity is extreme, their prices vertiginous, and their wines, for those who manage to taste them, unforgettable.

For the collector, Burgundy is both the most rewarding and the most difficult of pursuits, a region where knowledge counts for everything and access is jealously guarded. Building a Burgundy cellar is a study in patience and relationships, one that rewards the same discipline described in our guide to starting a fine wine collection. To source the great domaines, or to secure an allocation of a sought after grower, contact us.