46. Exploring The Styles of Wine Produced in Burgundy

In this episode of The Wineitupanotch Podcast, we continue our 'Diving Into Burgundy' series by delving into the various wine styles of the Burgundy region. 

The episode aims to demystify Burgundy for listeners, making it easier to appreciate and enjoy its complex and varied wines and dispel some of the intimidation factor that accompanies the storied wine region of Burgundy, France. 

Whether you are a seasoned wine lover, someone who is pursuing wine studies, or a budding wine enthusiast, you will surely find this episode helpful in better understanding the phenomenal Burgundy wine region!

For more educational resources from the Wineitupanotch “Diving Into Burgundy” series, be sure to visit the Wineitupanotch website and the Wineitupanotch Youtube channel!

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Transcript

EPISODE SHOW NOTES

In Episode 46 of The Wineitupanotch Podcast, host Anshu Grover, a Certified Specialist of Wine and DipWSET, continues the 'Diving Into Burgundy' series by delving into the various wine styles of the Burgundy region. 

Anshu emphasizes the importance of understanding these basic wine styles to enhance wine appreciation and develop your confidence as a wine lover. 

In addition, she provides resources through the Wineitupanotch website and encourages listeners to explore previous episodes - particularly Episode 44, which covers Burgundy's grape varieties.

This episode is perfect for those who wish to enhance their knowledge about the wines of Burgundy.

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

00:00 Welcome and Background to the Diving Into Burgundy Series

02:25 Exploring Wine Styles in Burgundy

04:17 Dry vs. Sweet Wines in Burgundy

05:17 Sparkling vs. Still Wines in Burgundy

06:33 Wine Colors in Burgundy

08:37 Fortified Wines in Burgundy

08:59 Summary of Burgundy Wine Styles

10:04 Conclusion and Next Episode Preview

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, and welcome to The Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine, life, and everything in between. My name is Anshu Grover, I am a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) and a DipWSET, I'm your host for this podcast, and I am so thrilled that you've decided to join me today. Thank you for doing so.

Welcome to Episode 46 of the podcast. 

Today, we are going to be continuing our “Diving Into Burgundy” series. Now, if you are joining me here on the podcast for the first time, this might be the first time you're hearing about it, or if you are returning, you've heard about this series before hopefully. But just for the benefit of all listeners and viewers (if you're watching this on YouTube), I'll explain that Wineitupanotch Lifestyles, the company that I own and run, has launched a specific educational series called “Diving Into Burgundy”.

I am personally very passionate about the Burgundy region. I find it to be the source of incredible wines and I'm fascinated by how complex it is and how expensive some of the wines can be. Having said that, I also recognize that understanding Burgundy is very challenging. There's a lot of complexity there.

Some may say it's by design, but I actually think there's good historical reason for it. And unfortunately, that complexity can really get in the way of people learning to really enjoy the wines of this region. I often get notes from people just saying, you know what, I find Burgundy a little bit intimidating, it's not a region I'm all that comfortable with or I know it enough about and sometimes you know, I don't really want to try those wines because I don't know what I'm looking for. 

So there are definitely degrees to learning about Burgundy, but in this particular series, we're focusing on some of those key facets that will really help you to feel a little bit more comfortable when it comes to understanding what's in your glass if you're having a wine from Burgundy. The Wineitupanotch website is full of a lot of cool resources, so definitely go check that out, and I'll be sure to link that in the show notes.

We've also been doing some social media content, putting things on the various platforms that Wineitupanotch is active on, doing things on YouTube as well in terms of standalone videos, and then there's content on the 

[00:02:00] 

podcast. So depending on how you like to get your learning materials, your educational materials, there's definitely something for you.

Now in Episode 44, we looked at the grapes of Burgundy. Our focus there was really trying to unpack which wine grapes are used in the region of Burgundy to produce the wines of Burgundy. And you can go back to Episode 44 and have a listen if you haven't already because I will not be talking about wine grapes in this particular episode.

Today we are focusing on wine styles. And really what do I mean and you know, why is that important? 

There's a lot that can go behind the concept of wine style, but at its most basic elemental level, wine styles refer to the broad categories that, you know, as consumers, we may think goods could be put into. This depends, of course, on the goods we're talking about but in the case of wine, some of those broad categories include - is the wine dry or sweet? Is it still or sparkling? Is it a regular or is it a fortified wine? Those are really the kinds of things we're talking about when it comes to wine styles.

As an added layer, there are definitely aspects of wine style that are determined by the decisions that are made in the vineyard and in the winery…everything from the use of oak through to the use of natural production methods or natural methods in the vineyard or not. But in this particular episode, we are not looking at that, we're really focusing on that base category that determines wine style. 

Why is this important? 

When you want to purchase wines from a region, it's very helpful to know generally what you're going to find, especially when you're first starting your exploration of a wine region. And to be honest, even when you become quite well acquainted with this information, and you become a little bit of an expert in the world of wine, there is just so much diversity when you cut across the wine world, that it can be sometimes a little bit confusing to remember what the various wine styles are in a given country or in a region.

And you know, when you get to the level that I'm at from a studying perspective, certainly at that WSET Diploma level, or the certified specialist of wine I have, you have to know all of that information in order 

[00:04:00] 

to be successful and to obtain your qualification. 

But I really do think as a consumer, it is helpful to understand what kinds of wine styles are made in some of those key wine regions that we will likely encounter in our journeys as we study, learn, and enjoy wine. 

So let's get into it. 

Now, the first thing we're going to think about is whether the wines of Burgundy are actually dry or sweet. That is the first categorization.

And between dry and sweet - those are endpoints - there are varying levels of sweetness. But if you remember that the concept of dry means that there is no detectable residual sugar on your palate all the way through to very sweet, where you're obviously drinking a wine that has lots of residual sugar - in the case of Burgundy, wines, generally speaking, are very dry…they all have about five grams of sugar or less.

Stylistically, this is the style of the region and you can pretty much be guaranteed that you are not going to find any wines with large levels of perceptible residual sweetness on the palate. Now, as the climate is changing, of course, there are higher levels of residual sugar sometimes and in certain parts of the region of Burgundy, you may encounter some wines that have a little bit more residual sugar in them.

But generally speaking, they are never going to taste sweet on the palate. So that's the first thing you want to remember when it comes to wine styles of Burgundy i.e. they are always dry. 

Secondly, let's talk about whether the wines are sparkling or still. The wines of Burgundy can actually be both. While a lot of people from outside of France may not know this, Burgundy does have a denomination called “Crémant de Bourgogne”. That's the official name of the AOC (or the appellation) that produces sparkling wines.

And about 11% of the production of the region is in fact sparkling wines or Crémant. I'll just pause and say these sparkling wines are made in the essence of Champagne. They feel like Champagne, follow a lot of the same principles of production that Champagne does, but it would be a mistake to confuse the two. Champagne is its own distinct, discrete product and 

[00:06:00] 

has a very specified way in which it must be made which is not mirrored by Crémant de Bourgogne. Having said that, Crémant de Bourgogne does come very close to Champagne production methods, and generally they would say it's produced in the Champagne style.

And therefore, Crémant de Bourgogne can actually present exceptional value for the savvy wine consumer. So if you're looking for a good sparkling wine at a good price point, definitely consider Crémant from all over France, but particularly, Crémant de Bourgogne can be lovely. 

That means that the remaining 89% of production is all still wines.

Next, let's consider the colors of wines that are produced in the Burgundy region. 

Once again, we've got a little bit of a tipping of scales in favor of one versus another. It might come as a surprise for you to hear this because generally speaking, a lot of people will think of red wine when you think about the really expensive and coveted wines of Burgundy.

But actually the fact is that the majority of wines produced are actually white. In fact, 60% of wine production out of the Burgundy region is white wines, with 29% going to red and rosé wines. Rosé wines, I would say, is a very small percentage of that number because it's mostly just the Crémant and one appellation that produces rosé wines.

So of that 29%, more of that is definitely red wine. But again, you can see there's quite the difference between the amount of red wine produced and the amount of white wine that's produced. And as I said, that may come as a surprise to some, a lot of people might not think that it's sort of a 60/ 29 split. 

Now, if you've done your math - as I always say on these episodes, I expect many people will do the math as I'm speaking - you'll realize that what I just talked about, 60 percent and 29 percent only adds up to 89%.

The remaining 11% is for the Crémant that we spoke about, for which the Vins de Bourgogne organization doesn't provide a breakdown. However, if I had to guess, I would say that most of that Crémant de Bourgogne is in fact white wine. So if you were to include that, I think the scales may actually tip more to a 

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70/30 percent split in favor of white wine. So definitely more white wines are being produced in the region than red. 

What about orange wines? The Burgundy region actually does not produce orange wines. So you will not find orange wines with the label of Burgundy on them. Now, you can always be producing any kind of wine style you want anywhere in the world. However, when it comes to orange wines that are labeled as Burgundy, that is not a style that's produced in the region.

Okay, so we've covered dry wines versus sweet wines. We've covered sparkling wines versus still wines, and we've covered the various colors of wine that you can find in the wine region of Burgundy. 

The last category that I want to address here is the category of fortified wines. Fortified wines are not a major category in Burgundy.

In fact, I can't really think of many fortified wines that are produced out of the region, so you don't have to think about fortified wines when it comes to Burgundy. Again, remember anything can be produced anywhere, but I'm talking about wines that are labeled as Burgundy proper.

Let's just do a quick rundown of the key wine styles that you will find in Burgundy. Generally, the wines are dry with less than five grams per liter of residual sugar. They could be still or sparkling, but they'll only be sparkling if they're labeled as Crémant de Bourgogne, and that is only 11% of production.

They could be red, white, or rosé across both still and sparkling wines with a tipping towards white wines. And you're not going to find orange or fortified wines labeled as Burgundy coming out of the Burgundy region.

Now the big question is likely to be what is the best wine style out of the Burgundy region? And I think there are as many answers to that as there are drinkers of Burgundy wine. It is such a personal choice. What is best for you? At the end of the day, wines do change and vary so much from plot to plot, village to village, grape to grape, producer to producer.

So really it does make sense to invest the time to continue to learn about the region and the producers that resonate with you and pick the wines that you love accordingly. There is no answer I can give you. Although of course 

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I have my favorites, but to be honest, I love to drink widely from the Burgundy region.

And with that, I will bring this episode of The Wineitupanotch Podcast to a close. I hope you have found value in this episode in terms of better understanding what kind of wines you would find in the Burgundy region. The next installment of this series is going to be looking at the various subregions within the Burgundy region. So definitely tune in for that. 

And as I mentioned, go back to Episode 44 and have a listen to the podcast episode about the grapes of Burgundy. Also visit the Wineitupanotch website for lots of resources related to Burgundy, including some reviews of the wines that we've tried and loved here at Wineitupanotch.

As always, thank you for tuning in. I love chatting with you. Send me your comments if you have them. Please do consider leaving a review - it does definitely help us on The Wineitupanotch Podcast. 

And until next time, I wish you lots of peace, love, light, and of course, really good wine. Take care. Cheers!