Category Archives: France

Trump’s tariffs hit wine sales

05 Thursday Dec 2019

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How does President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs impact the average consumer? We saw it up close Wednesday at the small wine shop where I work part time in retirement.

We’re big fans of Beaujolais wines and sell quite a bit of the gamay-grape wines to our customer base. We’re constantly looking for new and exciting Beaujolais Cru. Yesterday the La Pierre Morgon Cuvee’ arrived for a tasting event.

Most Cru level Beaujolais cost around $20-$25 with the very best maybe hitting $30-$40. This wine can be found online for about $40. But when the wine arrived yesterday the per bottle cost including the tariff, plus our standard markup, drove the price to more than $60.

Frankly, that’s going to be a tough sell. Sure, we sell many wines costing more than $60. But no one expects to pay $60 for Beaujolais.

While not earth-shattering headline news, it’s a real world impact of how a tariff can drive prices in your household.

Maybe you’re not a wine drinker or buy only value wine and see this as much adieu about nothing. But the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) estimates the 25 percent tariffs will cost each American household approximately $2000 next year. And recently the President has threatened to increase the tax to 100 percent.

Laurent Drouhin, of the famed Burgundy house, said Tuesday his family is very leary of the tariffs and any increase to 100 percent. Drouhin has exported wines to the US for decades and have not followed popular trends of shifting their sales to China.

“If the 100 percent tariff goes into effect that’s going to big a big thing,” he said. “Maybe we have to pick up the phone.” The reference was to selling wine to China.

So the tariffs aren’t something effecting someone else. Eventually it will effect all of us.

Regardless of politics, the tariffs will impact all of us. Using tariffs to negotiate trade deals is like using a hammer to open a bottle of wine – pretty hard to swallow.

Visiting Brouilly’s dynamic duo

21 Thursday Nov 2019

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COTE De’ BROUILLY, Beaujolais, France –  The NBA has Lebron and Steph while the NFL boasted dynamic duos like Peyton and Tom.

Leagues boast superstars but they don’t necessarily play on the same teams. Two of the Cote de Brouilly’s wine superstars are unequivocally Claude Geoffray and Nicole Chanrion.

The duo’s story is one of a lasting family legacy while the other is an endearing matriarch of the wine region.

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Claude talks about his wine aging philosophy

Geoffray recently retired as the fifth generation winemaker at Chateau Thivin high atop Mont Brouilly. He maintains the family business started in June 1877 by Zaccharie and Marguerite Geoffray. While Claude is ever-present around the winery, acting as ambassador and leading tastings of their Chardonnay and Gamay-based wines, the 6th generation, Claude’s son Claude Edwouard, will continue the tradition. The son’s education came from working side by side with his father and in the vineyards and wineries of Saint Emilion, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, and others.

Claude hosted our foursome in the Chateau’s family dining room with the house dog and cat snuggled in front of a roaring fireplace on a cold November Wednesday. He poured us his well-balanced and soft Chardonnay, made from grapes on a plot an hour south of the Chateau. And then we explored his signature Cote de Brouilly, an estate Cote de Brouilly, and the family signature bottle made from the best grapes each season the Cote de Brouilly Zaccharie.

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Pouring a 2003 vintage

One of the great things about Beaujolais Cru is the cost. The Cote de Brouilly sells in the US for $20-$25. The Zaccharie is in limited US release. At the winery, the Zaccharie sells for 29E, though we saw it at a local restaurant in Morgon for much more.

During our walk through the various portions of the cellars he picked up a dusty bottle of 2003 Cote de Brouilly and poured that for us as a grand finale. The wine was gorgeous, elegant and slays every thought that Beaujolais Cru is wine meant to be drunk when it’s young.

The Geoffray name has a long history and bright future. Claude told us he was off to Paris to present his wines while his son, stepdaughter and three grandchildren keep busy atop Mont Brouilly.

Down the windy roads up Mont Brouilly in a small village, unassumingly along the main highway is the production facility for Domaine Chanrion. As we pull into the parking lot a spry, white-haired woman walks briskly to meet us. No introductions are really necessary because our host is Nicole Chanrion the  matriarch of Brouilly.

Chanrion has guided her one-woman operation since the 1970s, leading the way for female winemakers. She has won the respect of her peers – male and female – heading the Brouilly winemakers association. In recent years, her son has joined the team.

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Nicole Chanrion

Her unbridled charm, wit and a twinkle of the eye is among her many charms. The large wooden casks where she ages her Cote de Brouilly are among her tools to make one signature bottle of great Beaujolais Cru.

She took glee in finding a 2010 Cru to pour for us and again prove these wines will age beautifully. But Chanrion is a global citizens not afraid to share her opinions on politics and politicians. She does it all with a wink and a nod but expresses concerns about the potential 25 percent tariffs which could hit French wines. The majority of Chanrion’s annual production is sold in the U.S.

After a few photos we said our goodbyes. She was clearly thrilled to have US visitors including one who helped sell her wines in the US. She giggled and gasped when told a photo of her and I would be displayed in the shop.

What an awesome day of great people and outstanding wine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoosiers Loving Dry Rose’

02 Sunday Jun 2019

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Brian Borlick, in a nifty pink shirt and slacks, was in constant motion grabbing bottles, pouring pink wine, and talking deals.

Borlick is Premium Division Manager for Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) in Indianapolis. He is also known within the Indy wine world as RNDC’s Rose’ guy.

Indiana Rose’ sales climbed 99 percent as of February, ending a 12-month period. Staggering! National sales increased 64 percent over the same time period, according to Nielson statistics.

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Borlick

“I remember we had a tasting 13 years ago,” Borlick said at a recent event for industry insiders and buyers. “We had 18 wines and about four people showed up. The last two years we’ve had over 100 wines and more than 100 people came to taste.”

Borlick noted that supermarkets, small restaurants, and maybe even Hoosiers were slow to the pink wine love affair – but not anymore. “Even restaurants in small towns are pouring by the glass,” he said. “All supermarkets have at least a few Rose’ wines.”

Gooley, manager and wine buyer for three Indianapolis retail stores under the Vine & Table banner, believes acceptance of dry pink wine is a generational issue. “I think it’s the baby boomers getting over the fact they’re not sweet,” he said. “We grew up with white zinfandel and still a lot of people have the idea if it’s pink it’s sweet. I also think we have a millennial generation willing to trust us and when they come in and we say it’s dry they buy it. I think we’ve done a good job of convincing people that dry rose is the red wine drinkers’ white wine.”

Borlick was like most Americans a little more than a decade ago. He thought of Rose’ as a coyingly sweet pink wine. “Then I went to France for the first time in 1999 and was force fed some Rose,” he joked. “I was planning not to like it but loved it. The French drink it for lunch and dinner.”

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Gooley

Most alcohol distributors certainly have Rose’ in their portfolio but RNDC is one of, if not, the biggest in Indiana. The dry pink now appeals to consumers of all ages but is particularly driven by the younger millennial generation.

“People used to go into wine shops and see 10 roses now they see 50 – people see that and think they must get in on this,” Gooley said. “Most rose’ sells between $10-$25. That fits with the rest of the retail market that’s had a great increase in that price range.”

Wine wholesalers and retailers do worry about a pink over saturation. “Rose’ sales are going to continue to grow but maybe not the same as past years,” Borlick said. “Now, every winery and an uncle are making a Rose’.”

Gooley agreed with his distributor’s comments. “We’re now in a position where consumers are going to get some substandard roses and poor quality. They’re are going to find things in lower price points that are not going to last a year or year and a half in the bottle and then are going to think I don’t like Rose. But they spent $5 on it.”

The most popular Rose’ is the lighter color and lighter palate of Provence Rose, the redder and more palate dominating Rose’s of France’s Rhone Valley and Tavel retain traditional popularity

Many credit the growth to Rose’ rise to powerhouse labels like Chateau d’Esclans’ Whispering Angel, the world’s most popular Rose, which has released 3.2 million bottle vintages in recent years. One of the other celebrity-driven but nice drinking Rose’ wines is Chateau Miraval. Insiders know actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie invested $67 million in the estate in 2008. Both wines sell for $19.99 to mid-$20 range.

Too often specific wines can be hard to find. But most reputable wine shops or even liquor stores have a wide selection. Look for Rose’ of Pinot Noir from the West Coast, Oregon or California, and pink from Provence or Southern France.

 

Time to start stocking up on Rose’

06 Friday Apr 2018

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If it’s spring it must be a column about dry Rose’. If you are still shunning the wonderful dry – and yes, pink – Rose’ wines from around the world you are the fool fellow winos.

grape-sense-logoRose’ is beyond hot in the wine sales market – it’s a rocket ship. From mid-2016 to mid-2017, Rose sales in the U.S. increased by 53 percent in volume according to BeverageDaily.com and Nielsen sales data. Rose’ represents less than two percent of all US wine sales but the growth is unprecedented in any category.

While it is difficult to get up-to-date sales figures, the growth of French Provence Rose’ – the category leader – is stunning. In February of 2016, Nielsen reported an increase in sales over the previous 12 months of 54 percent on volume and 60 percent on value.

The growth rates for imported Rose, which comes from a number of countries but is dominated by the French, is crazy. Rose’ sales have outpaced the rest of the imported market for more than 10 years. In 2016, Provence Rose’ held 64 percent of all imported Rose’ sales.

IMG_1254 (1)More than 160 Provence wineries are exporting the salmon-colored wines to the US. For more than a dozen years exports of French Rose’ have grown every years at double digit rates.

Two of the biggest selling French Rose’ wines are Chateau d’Esclans Whispering Angel and Domaine Miraval’s short, stout bottle with the backing of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Even these two best sellers come in at the mid $20 price point. It’s not unusual to see Whispering Angel under $20 down to $15 come end of the summer clearance – if there is any left. Several producer make several price levels of Rose’ with d’Esclans Garrus at the top of the pack at an average of $80 a bottle.

But if you’re not a Francophile there are plenty of Rose choices at home where quality is skyrocketing in the last couple of years. Oregon and California producers, particular those who grow Pinot Noir, have jumped into the booming Rose’ market. After attending a recent Rose’ tasting presented by one of Indiana’s biggest wine distributors, it’s easy to see the vast improvement in Rose’ of Pinot over past years.

But look around your wine shop for Rose’ wine from Spain, many of Italy, and Rose’ of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec.

It’s not just a summer sipper. Rose’ owns the summer and has eyes on becoming more a year around part of your wine shopping habits.

NOTE: Would you like some specific Rose’ recommendations? You’ll find a long lists of Rose wines Howard has tasted and recommends listed in the following post.

 

Howard’s 2018 Rose’ wine picks

29 Thursday Mar 2018

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This post accompanies my every-other-week column which went out to newspapers and websites Mar. 29 about Rose. Here are some specifics wines to look for at your nearby wine shop and liquor stores. The full column will be posted on this site April 2.

whHoward’s Rose’ Picks: The Whispering Angel and Miraval are very good representations of Provence Rose’ but there are so many out there to choose from. I recently attended a distributor’s Rose’ tasting of more than 100 wines. Obviously, I could only taste a few but here are my picks and a couple of other recommendations.

I’m liking Oregon and California more with every passing vintage but the French are still the masters. When everyone started jumping into the Rose’ market a few years ago, there were some wines that lacked depth and structure. More recent offerings have been darn good Rose’. As any regular reader of my musings knows, I love Oregon.

The wines listed here may not all be easy to find but they are all sold in Indiana: Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas, CA. – a blend of traditional Rhone grapes; Conundrum Rose, CA. – A well-known producer growing gamay; Mirabeau Pure, FR. – traditional Provence blend and probably my favorite of the entire tasting.; Lunda Nuda, IT. – an unusual blend of Sangiovese-Merlot from Multipulciano; Maison Louis Jadot Gamay Rose’, FR. – light bodied from one of Burgundy’s biggest names;

b_Miraval-Rose_zoom_7Cloud Chaser, FR. – lighter than many of the others but nice freshness; St. Andrieu, FR, – a nice choice if you prefer a bit more mouth feel; Esedune Cab Franc,- a bit above average but Cab Franc Rose’ continues to improve and take market share ; Canto Perdrix Tavel, FR. Tavel is often too big for my Rose’ palate but this one is more understated; Susan Balbo Malbec/Pinot, AR, – tasted this Argentinian winemaking rock star’s Rose’ several years ago and was underwhelmed. The 2017 version is quite enjoyable: Willakenzie Pinot Noir, OR.  – nice, well-balanced Rose’ … one of many from Oregon.

Of course this means I didn’t taste somewhere around 85. There were also several I tasted that I didn’t care for very much.

Cheers!

Stepping up your wine drinking

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in California, France, Newspaper Column 2018, Uncategorized

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So how do you take the next step in your wine drinking? Let’s say you have an interest or desire to drink better wine. Perhaps you feel stuck drinking the same $15 Tuesday night red or white.

grape-sense-logoThe easy answer is to spend more money. You can go out and buy a $30 bottle instead of the $15 and odds are good you’ll drink better wine. But perhaps the approach should be more discerning.

If you want to improve your wine picks then get into a wine shop or a liquor store, big box store, that has a big selection. And yes, you’re going to pay more for better wine.

Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions is what’s the difference between a $15 and $50 bottle of wine. The answer isn’t neat and simple but several factors will help you appreciate the higher price beyond the taste.

Higher-end wines are usually made in small batches. Would you rather drink wine made in a silo or one made in a small oaken barrel? Would you rather drink wine where grapes are indiscriminately yanked from the vines by machines or hand-picked before heading to the winery? Would you like to drink wines where the vineyards produce seven tons per acre with no pruning or wines grown in a vineyard where leaves are trimmed for ideal ripening and fruit is dropped during the growing season to increase the intensity of the fruit? Those things greatly increase labor costs.

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There are reasons – good and bad – that bottle costs more than $100.

The biggest material expense is oak. Cheaper wines are aged in used oak barrels or oak barrels from less prestigious regions. In recent years, the much-derided use of oak chips has proven a popular and cheap alternative for low cost wines. Top-end wines are aged in new French oak barrels which can cost $1,500-$2000, while most are $1000-$1,200. American oak barrels often cost half or a third of that amount.

Is there a difference in the golf club you buy at the local big chain discount store and the club you’d buy at a top-flight pro shop?

There has always been something pseudo glamorous about a $100 bottle of Napa Cab. Now it’s hard to find a Napa Winey with a top bottling that costs less than $100. Napa’s top vineyard To Kalon is in such high demand that the vineyard owner will only sell to producers who price their wines at certain levels above $100 a bottle.

But, as noted earlier, lets move beyond price. One approach to drinking better wine is taking a wine you like and go online to see if the winery produces a more refined, and higher-priced, similar bottle. If the winery has a $15 Cab there is a good chance it also produces a $30-$50 Cabernet.

Going to a wine shop should expose you to someone with expertise who can ask you questions about what you’re drinking and suggest the next logical step. Logic doesn’t dictate going from $15 to $100. If you’re sold that bill of goods leave and don’t return to that wine retailer.

If’ you’re drinking mostly $15 wine, your next step up the wine ladder should be in the $25-$50 range. Look for wines from a specific region. If you’re buying Napa Cab – and that’s all it says on the label – the grapes could come from 16 different sites in Napa. That’s good wine but there are probably no defining characteristics. Instead, buy a Napa Cab from Rutherford, Mt. Veeder or Howell Mountain for nuance in the flavors.

You need to get to about the $50-$75 price point to start drinking the really fine wines. In lesser regions, $30-$50 will get you a really good bottle.

If you’re drinking wine costing less than $20 simply ask for some advice and try something that costs 50 percent more or double the price. You’ll consume much better wine.

Bubbles don’t have to be expensive

30 Saturday Dec 2017

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The sale of sparkling wines and champagne has been booming. French Champagne, Italian Prosecco, and Spanish Cava have become year-round refreshing treats. And after years of predictions it could become a big player, England’s sparkling wines are finally turning up on shelves of U.S. wine stores.

grape-sense-logoGrape Sense has urged year-round enjoyment of bubbles, but everyone at least thinks of Champagne at the new year.

Let’s do a quick review of what’s available, something we haven’t done in a few years.

Italian Prosecco is one of the biggest booming wines in the world. The bubbles are lighter, and the wines are a little sweeter. Most Prosecco is made with Glera, native to northern Italy, but up to nine other grapes can be blended to make up to 15 percent of any Prosecco.

rubuliHere is an easy tip to make sure you’re buying quality Italian bubbles. Look for the region Valdobbiadene on the bottle. You don’t have to pronounce it, just remember it. Valdobbiadene is the premier region for the Glera grape.  You can find great Prosecco at most wine shops ranging from $15-$35. Rebuli and Bisol are good producers.

Spanish Cava is even more affordable. There are good bottles as low as $8-$10. Spain is the second largest producer of sparkling wine, second only to Champagne. Much of the Cava is made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, though local grapes like Parellada get involved as well. Look for an easy-to-find bottling like Poema or Segura Viudas is an even better producer.

U.S. producers in California have been around a long time. A personal and affordable favorite is Sonoma County’s Gloria Ferrer. Several different bottlings are available but the entry level Sonoma Brut is a great wine for $20. If you want something special, try the Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc for just a few dollars more. A bit of education, a blanc de blanc is made of 100 percent Chardonnay while a Blanc de Noir would be Pinot Noir bubbles.

Other top California bubble makers include Korbel, Gruet, Roederer, Schramsberg, and Mumm.

HebrartOf course, no discussion of bubbles can exclude Champagne. French bubbles remain the benchmark all sparkling wine producers seek to reproduce. The classic Chardonnay and Pinot Noir bubble blends set the world standard. Many producers near Reims, France, about 80 miles north of Paris, have been making Champagne for hundreds of years.

Like many things French, champagne doesn’t come cheap. There are good bottles around $40-$60 but most people are more familiar with names like Dom Perignon, Bollinger, Krug, Moet & Chandon, and many others. Visit a wine shop and you’ll learn the names you know also make less expensive bottles.

A somewhat newer trend in Champagne is the emergence, at least from a marketing perspective, of grower wines. These are usually small production houses really focused on growing their grapes and making wine with a focus on terroir. In Indiana, look for a producer like Marc Hebrart. The Hebrart Brut sells for around $35 and the Rose’ bubbles about $60.

May you enjoy good health and success in 2018.

 

Beaujolais a great house wine

16 Saturday Sep 2017

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There are lots of different ways to experience wine. A wino can pick up a bottle at the nearest grocery, liquor store or wine shop. An oenophile can taste wines at a retail wine tasting and take home their favorites. A real wine geek can travel to the great wine regions of the world and buy from the producer.

grape-sense-logoBut growing in popularity is another method and that’s wine dinners. Wine dinners usually feature several courses paired by the restaurant’s chef and sommelier. I recently enjoyed a Beaujolais wine dinner in Indianapolis at Fletcher Place’s Bluebeard restaurant.

The hosts mentioned a couple of times that Beaujolais would make a great house wine. I certainly agreed by end of the night. Now, a bit of education before moving on. Most people know Beaujolais from the Nouveau which is harvested, fermented, bottled and shipped around the world every November. While that’s a fruity, and sometimes funky, wine it is not what you want to look for in a fine wine or house wine.

The Beaujolais grand cru wines are those from selected regions in Beaujolais. They are wines that are aged and worthy of your consideration. Beaujolais is a great house wine because most of the 10 grand cru wines can be found for $20 or less.

And if you have never tried Beaujolais the current vintage of Cru wines on shelves comes from the standout year of 2015. Legendary Beaujolais winemaker Georges Duboeuf recently called the 2015 vintage the best since 1947.

TMoulinhe wines I tasted at the Bluebeard dinner were good to outstanding. These wines are also not difficult to find. Many wine shops carry at least some Beaujolais.  We tasted Duboeuf wines with our dinner.

The Macon-Villages and Saint Veran chardonnay wines were a nice contrast and lovely whites. The Villages wine had hints of butter and oak for those who like their Chard in a traditional style. The Saint Veran was crisper, dryer, with lovely minerality and definitely a food wine.

The restaurant served the Villages as our ‘welcome wine.’ We were served a delightful salmon cake with the Saint Veran.

We sipped three Beaujolais red wines made from the Gamay grape. The Cote de Brouilly would have been a standout in most vintage years. The dark red wine was solid with with veal sweetbreads in a mushroom cream sauce.

 

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 84-year-old Duboeuf still active at winery

The night’s standout wines were from Fleurie and Moulin-A-Vents, both considered top regions in the Beaujolais region and both from DuBoeuf. The Fleurie, served with pork loin, was silky smooth with a deep dark fruit flavor on the finish and smooth tannins.

 

The  Moulin-A-Vent was served with ostrich steak with a blueberry demi glace. The last wine was simply the best Beaujolais I have ever tasted. The rich, dark wine reminded me of a good Mourvedre from Southern France. If tasted blind, I’m not sure I would have guessed it was Gamay.

Each of these wines sold from $19-$23. All three reds were $20 or under.

Of course you can buy a few wines of your own, pair them up with dinner plans, and invite over a few friends for your own wine-tasting dinner experience.

If you are looking to keep something around the house to please all palates and guests, then try Beaujolais Grand Cru wines.

Winemakers face climate change

25 Thursday May 2017

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grape-sense-logo“It can be a whim or a wallop that can have an impact on the international wine world and what you are drinking in your glass at home.”

That’s how I opened the last Grape Sense column a couple of weeks ago. I suggested the whim of more Oregon winemakers looking at Gamay as a response to market and establishing some diversity beyond the state’s outstanding Pinot Noir.

But in this column, let’s think about the wham – when winemakers are given no choice or see catastrophic change coming right at them, they act like any farmer. Winemakers are considering changes because of climate change. Forget the politics of climate change, it’s not even relevant in this discussion. Many vineyard owners across the world believe they must anticipate warmer growing seasons. That’s a fact and not a political statement.

California’s Napa Valley winegrowers have taken the issue seriously and been looking at climate change’s impact since 2010. Napa Valley Vintners joined forces with the Climate Study Task Force led by Dr. Dan Cayan and his renowned team of climate scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego.

The task force reported early in 2011 that Napa had warmed slightly in recent decades but not as much as reported in some wine-related, climate change stories.

Anecdotally, there are French vineyard owners who have noted their harvests have moved from October to September. Temperature determines what grapes are planted and even more so when those grapes are harvested.

There are studies related to or performed for the wine industry that suggest temperature increases of 2-3 degrees over the past 50 years. That may not seem like a lot but it has many in the wine world thinking 20 or 30 years down the road for what it means to their vines.

In the short term, warmer temps mean earlier harvests and can be a challenge for winemakers to control alcohol content.

In the longer term increasing temperatures will impact what grapes vineyards will best produce. The conversation and concern has even made its way, quietly, to the stodgy and highly-regulated areas of Burgundy and Beaujolais in France.

The news really caught my eye when reading that some growers in Beaujolais and even southern Burgundy were experimenting with a few vines of Syrah. One story even referred to it as a ‘secret’ experimentation with Syrah. During a visit to Burgundy in 2016, I learned firsthand how grounded the Burgundians are in not just Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but to their archaic laws, traditions, and way of life.

I ate in some of the best restaurants in Beaune, the heart of Burgundy, and noticed seldom did wine lists include wines beyond Burgundy.

To even speak of Syrah seems sacrilege after visiting this wonderful wine area. Still, Burgundian winemakers are making big bucks. Burgundy is the most expensive wine in the world. Frankly, some of the lower end reds I tasted during a week-long visit simply weren’t very good.

A little dirty secret of some areas of the wine universe, and certainly not Burgundy, is Syrah and even Merlot has found its way into thinner Pinot Noir wines to add body and structure.

While the Burgundians would shudder at such a suggestion, it’s not much of a stretch to see wine regions begin to accept the idea that some Pinot may need a little more body. Pinot Noir is very difficult to grow. Pinot grapes are small and thin-skinned. Pinot will not survive and thrive in a high-heat environment.

Politically, you can believe in climate change or not. In the wine world, climate change has winemakers in California and France thinking about the future of their industry.

Gaining an Understanding of Burgundy

16 Saturday Jul 2016

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The Grape Sense newspaper column has often focused on introducing new wines, new price points, and an education focus about wine.

There is no bigger educational high point in wine understanding than Burgundy, France. Burgundy is home to a confusing geography, hard to find wines, and most of the world’s most expensive single bottles.

Grape Sense LogoNormally the focus is on value wine. But on occasion a look at other prominent wine regions helps with perspective. Additionally, I just returned from leading a wine tour group in Burgundy – my first-ever visit as well.

Burgundy lies southeast of Paris where the whites of Chablis and silky red and whites of Burgundy have a history going back hundreds of years. Many of the vineyards and wine making facilities date back to the time of Romans. Many of the vineyards and ancient winemaking efforts were started by monks in the early 12th or 13th century.

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Nothing like getting in the vineyard

Burgundy is a place for history. Perhaps the first educational point to get out of the way is a reminder that most all of France doesn’t tell you what grapes are in the wine on their bottles. You have to have a very basic understanding. In Burgundy reds are Pinot Noir and whites are Chardonnay.

After that, it gets complicated. There are approximately 100 specifically designated wine growing regions or AOCs. The wines are named for the region and its growing characteristics or terroir.

An example would be Gevrey-Chambertin which is a small village and surrounding vineyards south of Lyon but north of Beaune, the heart of Burgundy. My group tasted four Gevrey Chambertin wines at Domaine Rene Leclerc. The four wines came from four different vineyards – with a difference in soil, slope, and micro-climate – even though all lie in the same region.

And, the wines had slight differences. The area is known for wines of more structure and slightly more pronounced tannins. We tasted different in the earthiness you get in Pinot Noir and a slightly different level in the spiciness on the wine’s’ finish in your mouth.

Okay, it’s pretty geeky for a wine novice.

A fact that surprised some of us was the production breakdown. In the U.S. if someone says the word Burgundy people think of red wine. Actually Burgundy is planted with 60 percent white wine grapes. The whites were consistently silky and elegant. The better white wines were rich with a full mouth feel while maintaining that silky texture.

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… and then you taste!

Good Burgundy seems to start around $50 or asmore in the U.S. So indeed, not the normal focus of Grape Sense. But they represent some of the best wines in the world and certainly worth a try.

Burgundy is also one of the ultimate trips for wine fans. The walled-village of Beaune is a delightful home base with legendary wine caves beneath the city streets, the famed Hospice de Beaune, and wine tasting shops, Michelin-starred restaurants, and charming hotels throughout the city.

European wine travel requires advance planning. A trip to Burgundy is really the ultimate for real wine fans.