Wine Country: Comparing the Provinces of Burgundy and Bordeaux

When it comes to things that people consume there is always a rating or ranking system out in place to compare each product against another product. Burgundy is a region with in France that produces wine. Bordeaux is also a place within France that produces wine. To those who don’t drink wine it is easy to see that wine is all the same and that is not the case. To compare Burgundy and Bordeaux wines all things come in play like terroir, amount of wine produced, the grapes used to produce the wine, and many other things. The major differences between Burgundy and Bordeaux wines are their terroir and the grapes used.

To begin both places are areas within France that produces wine. Burgundy is located near the city of Dijon and stretches about 100 miles down downwards towards the city of Lyon (Slinkard). This is a very large area that is not close to the any body of water. This makes the weather of the area continental, which, means that the summers are very dry and hot while the winters are vey cold. Since burgundy is not close to an area of water the soil is very tough. The soil is mostly made up of limestone. The stone likes to hold in heat so the grape vines can survive the cold of winter. This can give the wine a mineraly flavor that some people try to avoid when making white wine.

Burgundy is famous for their production of white wine, which to some is confusing. Most think of red wine when Burgundy is said, which is pretty common. Unlike Bordeaux the wine is not a blended one. It is made from only one varietal of grape, which is the Chardonnay grape. They also produce red wine but use only the Pinot nior grape varietal. Collectively the Burgundy region produces about 193 million bottles of wine. About 62% of the wine produced is white, 30% is red and 8% is Cremard de Bourgogne. Cremard de Bourgogne is Burgundy’s own brand of sparkling champagne that they make within the region (Slinkard).

Unlike Bordeaux, Burgundy is broken down in to smaller pieces of property that belong to individuals who grow grapes, produce wine, do both or do neither. Some of these small regions make bigger well-known areas of growing grapes. The top five most well known growing regions in Burgundy are Chablis, Cote de Nutis, Cote de Beaune, Cote Chalonnaise and Maconnais. Those who don’t have grapes to grow, usually have a wine production building. They buy the grapes from the vineyards, produce wine and put the label under their name. These people are called neogciants; some might even regard them as a middleman. This process makes the making of the wine different from each other in so many ways. With that in mind the grading system for Burgundy wines come in to play.

In Burgundy the grading or ranking system is almost the same as the one for Bordeaux but the only slight difference is the words used for the ranking system and also the fact that Chablis has its own ranking system. The general ranking system for the Burgundy region is Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Village, and Generic. The Grand Cru is the best of the best of the Burgundy wine almost like the top ten percent. The Premier Cru is second best of the wine and so on with Generic being the base line of all the wines. With Chablis the ranking system is different but almost similar to the Burgundy ranking system. The top one being Grand Cru Chablis and the bottom on is Petit Chablis. If that isn’t enough the AOC states that all Burgundy wines, red and white, need to be made with Pinot Nior and Chardonnay exclusively (Slinkard).

This area of France is by the coastline in the western region. This makes for a more controlled and stable weather pattern. The mild winters and cool summers help the flavor and maturity of the grapes. The Bordeaux grape growing area is broken down in to areas by the river. The Gironde River cuts the area in to two pieces. The left bank of the river has the regions Medoc and Graves. This bank has loose gravel, which helps to hold in heat so the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes can reach maturity. The right bank has a smaller river branching off of it and hugs the appellations of Pomerol and St. Emilion. The smaller river goes and cuts the through the Graves, Pessac-Leognan and Sauternes. On the right bank the soil is composed of limestone and soil, which act as a sponge to hold in a lot of water for the Merlot grapes then get grown on this side of the bank. The Merlot grapes mature faster then the Cabernet Sauvignon, which in turn can be a good thing. If one year the grapes done do so well the majority of the wine would be add with the other one. The Cabernet Franc helps to support the taste of both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (Slinkard, Bordeaux Wine). In the Sauternes region this is different. This is where the Botrytis Fungi grows on the grapes and makes the wine sweeter. They nicknamed this fungus as the noble rot since the nobles only drank this wine.

The Bordeaux area produces about 70 million cases of wine per vintage. With the amount of wine produced the AOC has a grading system in place to find the quality wine of the Bordeaux region. The top ranking is AOC, which about 10% of the wines get put in to every year. The second is VDQS or Vin Delimite de Qualite Suprerieure, which means it has the potential of being an AOC but are missing a few traits. The third one is Vin De Pay where it only has to hit four qualifications. The last one is Vins De Table, which is the general category of all wines. About 40% of the wines produced in Bordeaux fall in to this category.

Between the two regions there are major differences between the flavors of both wines, terroir, and the grapes used. The AOC also have an understanding of the wine by standardizing the process but letting the wine makers have creativity over the length of aging and make it is aged in. With Burgundy making mostly White wine and Bordeaux being more known for its red wine these two places are very unique and exciting places to be.