In short
A “cellar” guide to Burgundy wine—its history, geography (terroir/climat), grape rules, vineyard classification, why prices vary, how to drink it, and how climate change is affecting production.
Guests
Geordie Willis of Berry Bros & Rudd (wine professional with decades of Burgundy opinions and buying experience). “Dad” (Nick), Tom Chamberlain’s guest/relative described as a long-time Burgundy collector and taster; he discusses specific bottles, vintages, and drinking windows.
Key claims
Burgundy is dominated by Pinot Noir (reds) and Chardonnay (whites), with Gamay banished from core Burgundy in 1395. Complexity comes from limestone terroir and fragmented vineyard “climat” shaped by monks and later Napoleonic inheritance laws. Grand Cru is the top tier (then Premier Cru, villages, etc.), and Burgundy is often best understood by vineyard/land rather than producer. Top wines are scarce and allocations rise with fixed vineyard sizes. Climate change brings warmer temperatures but more damaging weather (hail/frost), threatening yields.
Notable examples
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (rare Grand Cru); Hospice de Beaune auction (2011 Pommard? actually Puy Fouissé); Le Montrachet/Bâtard-Montrachet; Clos Saint-Jacques/Clos de Bouchot; Chablis value; Oxyduress/Mercurey; 2002 Chambolle-Musigny (Robert Arnaud); 1990 Claude La Roche (Domaine Ponceau); 2014 “Mercury” (affordable example).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe History of Burgundy
0:45 to 2:55
Discover the rich history of the Burgundy wine region from Roman times.
“because all the villages are actually called by the names of the proper fine wines.”
Grape Varietals in Burgundy
2:55 to 4:57
Explore the significance of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Burgundy.
“There were four wonderful Burgundian dukes with great names.”
The Terroir of Burgundy
4:57 to 8:28
Understand the geological and climatic factors influencing Burgundy wines.
“And we know Burgundy today as being two grape varietals, is that right?”
Vineyard Ownership and Production
8:28 to 12:18
Learn how vineyard ownership affects wine production in Burgundy.
“And you were saying that, because you mentioned Cote de Beaune, you were saying that Beaune was the sort of capital.”
Understanding Winemakers and Regions
12:18 to 14:00
Gain insight into the relationship between vineyards and winemaking in Burgundy.
“Forgive me, could that not potentially be a recipe for disaster in that, you know, let's say four children inherit an estate and they have four children each and suddenly it all kind of goes down like that.”
Understanding Burgundy's Complexity
14:00 to 14:30
Explore the importance of winemakers and vineyards in Burgundy's wine quality.
“might have something like Claude de Bourgeois, where you have lots of different people making a Claude de Bourgeois.”
The Life of a Burgundy Winemaker
14:30 to 15:00
Learn about the dedication and lifestyle of Burgundy winemakers.
“It can be a little bit daunting for a region that only has two grapes, but actually that's where I think a lot of people get their real pleasure from is understanding the vineyards and the regions more.”
Burgundy vs. Other French Regions
15:00 to 15:40
Understand the differences between Burgundy wines and those from other regions.
“And the winemaker is probably living in a small house and underneath his house will be a cellar twice the size of the house he's living in.”
Decoding Burgundy's Wine Complexity
15:40 to 16:50
Discuss the complexities of Burgundy wines compared to Bordeaux.
“which they just want quantity wines coming out, and they want to sell as much as they can.”
Burgundy's Grand Cru Explained
16:50 to 19:10
Get an overview of Burgundy's Grand Cru classification and its significance.
“Because it feels like it's a much more complex wine to be educated on in comparison to these Bordeaux wines that trade off the list.”
Show all 29 chapters
Understanding Wine Classifications
19:10 to 20:40
Learn about various wine classifications in Burgundy and their implications.
“In Burgundy, the classification came much later and the Appellation Controllée came in in 1935.”
The Impact of Soil and Climate
20:40 to 23:00
Discover how soil and climate affect wine production in Burgundy.
“most famous vineyard there was Chambartin, the Grand Cru was Chambartin.”
A Beginner's Guide to Burgundy Wine
23:00 to 24:50
Gain a simplified understanding of Burgundy wine and its appellations.
“Because what a Burgundy wine producer is trying to do is get the absolute best out of the land.”
Exploring Notable Burgundy Wines
24:50 to 28:00
Dive into specific notable Burgundy wines and their characteristics.
“Let's go left to right as to what they are and why you've bought them and what you think of them.”
Exploring Burgundy Wines
28:00 to 29:10
Learn about different types of Burgundy wines and their unique characteristics.
“they've got the little sort of shield on one side and it says Auspice de Bonne on the top and so on.”
Understanding Wine Value and Rarity
29:10 to 30:50
Discover why Burgundy wines are considered rare and how price has changed over time.
“which is it's called Creo Baton Morache now Baton Morache is the top name for Grand Cru in white burgundy.”
Finding Value in Burgundy
30:50 to 33:00
Get insights on where to find value in Burgundy wines, including lesser-known appellations.
“So in terms of the cost per bottle, or indeed what the words would be on a menu, it is a little bit complicated.”
The Importance of Terroir in Pinot Noir
33:00 to 34:40
Understand how terroir influences the character of Pinot Noir from Burgundy.
“It would be the region, But I don't think you'd find many.”
Choosing Burgundy Wines at Restaurants
34:40 to 36:20
Learn tips for selecting Burgundy wines from restaurant menus without feeling overwhelmed.
“I mean, they do get up to, you know, something like DRC, De Min Romani-Kanti, will get up to tens of thousands of pounds of bottles.”
When to Drink Grand Cru Burgundy
36:20 to 42:00
Find out the best times to drink Grand Cru Burgundy and the advantages of earlier drinking whites.
“So when you're pouring, the shoulder catches some of that sediment in there.”
Understanding Burgundy Wines
42:00 to 43:30
Learn about the characteristics and aging potential of Burgundy wines.
“because it's going to be out of most people's range anyway.”
Dining and Wine Pairing Tips
43:30 to 48:20
Discover how to select the right Burgundy wine in restaurants.
“And therefore, you're in the right spot.”
The Role of Supermarkets and Independent Merchants
48:20 to 55:20
Explore the advantages of shopping for Burgundy wines in supermarkets and independent stores.
“I think probably that's probably rare rather than everybody.”
Climate Change and Its Impact on Burgundy
55:20 to 56:00
Understand how climate change is affecting Burgundy wine production.
“But nowadays they've more or less debugged bad vintages because throughout they've got this technology which is actually telling you how each vine is operating.”
The Impact of Weather on Burgundy Vintages
56:00 to 56:49
Learn how weather conditions can affect the quality of wine vintages in Burgundy.
“was going to be serious storms, and they put plastic cover over the entire estate because the year, I mean, vintage itself was fine.”
Why Burgundy is Revered for Pinot Noir
56:50 to 58:20
Discover the reasons behind Burgundy's reputation for producing exceptional Pinot Noir.
“Ultimately, we've got a huge amount of factors that come into Burgundy.”
Market Trends and Global Demand for Burgundy
58:21 to 1:00:21
Examine the changing dynamics of the Burgundy wine market and its global demand.
“who's one of the masters of wine, who in my mind is the most knowledgeable person in the world on the subject of Burgundy.”
Choosing Wine for Dinner Parties
1:00:22 to 1:01:50
Get tips on selecting the right wine to bring to dinner parties and gatherings.
“sort of ordering whatever they can all the time.”
Recommendations for Burgundy Wine and Glasses
1:01:51 to 1:04:24
Learn about recommended Burgundy wines and the best glassware for tasting.
“And I think you can, again, you do it by price.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:01People are full of surprises, especially when you travel together. Thankfully, Verbo is not. When you book a Verbo, you get VerboCare and 24-7 live support. So your house doesn't surprise you like your friends might. If something's not as described or doesn't work, Verbo's there. Real people. Real support. Anytime. Book today on the Verbo app. If you know, you Verbo. Terms apply. See verbo.com slash trust for details. They say it takes 10 years to learn about Bordeaux and the rest of your life to learn about Burgundy. You'll find if you ever go on holiday to Burgundy, you can't just turn up. You need appointments.
0:39There's a wonderful thing you can do if you drive from north to south in Burgundy. You actually pass through all the finest labels you've ever come across, because all the villages are actually called by the names of the proper fine wines. This idea of Terrawire is this connection between soil, climate, topography, and human intervention. I see you've been rubbing them in the dirt to make them look slightly older. Well, no, I do prefer to drink from what I call the dusty end of the cellar. Hello and welcome to The Luxury Dispatch, the podcast that reveals the refined and the rare people, items, and stories that make up the luxury industry.
1:16I'm Tom Chamberlain, and today we shall be descending into the cellar. into that ancient, hallowed, and frankly ruinous world of Burgundy wine. A place where limestone and monks and Napoleonic inheritance law conspired over a thousand years to produce something the rest of the world has never quite managed to replicate. My guests are Geordie Willis of the legendary Berry Brothers and Rudd, a man who has spent his life in devoted and distinguished service to the great, and a man many call Nick, but who I call Dad. had an Inafile who has accumulated over many decades a considerable number of opinions about Burgundy and how it should be drunk and who with.
1:53Hello to you both. Hello. So this is definitely one of those subjects that I think anyone who's watching or interested in the Luxury Dispatch will have heard of, will think they know a bit about, but ultimately will be curious to know more. So why don't we just go right back to the beginning. Burgundy has a lot of history, both when it comes to the wars between the English and the French. The Burgundians were huge players in that. When did Burgundy as a great wine region become something that the world knew about? And certainly when it became established in France? Well, I suppose Burgundy was producing wine right back to the Roman times.
2:37So you were possibly a thousand years out in terms of how long the Venice history has been there. But it wasn't really until the Middle Ages between the 14th and 15th century that Burgundy came into its own. And this was a time when the Burgundian dukes ruled the land. There were four wonderful Burgundian dukes with great names. There was Philip the Bold. There was John the Fearless, Philip the Good, Charles the Rash. About John the Drunk. John the Drunk, the lesser known John the Slightly Tipsy. He was talked about less. But the reason that's important, there's two reasons really, but one of the reasons is that Burgundy stretched much further than it does today.
3:28So we think about Burgundy as being this region in the mid-east of France. But actually at that point, it went all the way up towards the North Sea. So Burgundy was this illustrious region that was known for culture, was known for luxury. The land expanded all the way up towards Flanders, which was sort of the Silicon Valley of the day. So there was huge wealth and huge interest. So the Burgundian Dukes are important in this story, not least because in the 14th century in 1395, Philip the Bold got rid of the Gamay grape in Burgundy, which is why really Pinot is the core grape there. Can you just explain what Gamay grape is?
4:19Yeah, so Gamay is another grape varietal which is in the Burgundy region because Burgundy splits out into different parts. and one part is Beaujolais, which is further south, south of the Makanae, and it's a different land type. The geology is different, so it's granite rather than limestone, which we might talk about in a bit. But Gamay was considered a little bit too rough and ready for the core Burgundy region and was banished south. So Burgundy itself is two very distinct grapes, but not Gamay. Okay. And we know Burgundy today as being two grape varietals, is that right? So, Dad, what was left over?
5:04Well, the two grape varietals, obviously, is the Pinot Noir, which is the principal grape. And in fact, it's 100 % in the whole Burgundy region. And in the south, which is where the finest of the white wines are made in Burgundy, it's the Chardonnay grape, which again is 100 % of all the white wines. They don't have a mix of wines like other districts in France do. It should be really straightforward, because really these two grapes are dominant across the region. There's a couple of small examples, but it is 95 % of the entirety of Burgundy is these two grapes. But surprisingly, it's unbelievably complex in a positive way.
5:50And so when these two grapes, it was established that there would be these two grapes. Yeah. How did that affect the production? or how did it affect, in terms of what we know of Burgundy today, establishing these two as it? Yeah. I mean, how did that come about? Well, I suppose the important starting point is the land, Burgundy itself. Yeah. So if I can just take a moment to explain how it was all set out, because I suspect some of your listeners won't have necessarily been there. Yeah. So you have Shabley at the top. And Chablis is slightly separate at some distance from the core of Burgundy.
6:31It's actually closer to Champagne than it is to Burgundy, which is all white wines, tiny bit of Sauvignon Blanc, actually, but broadly all white wines. And Chablis is made from Chardonnay. You then go south and you hit Dijon. And Dijon is the start of the Cote d 'Or, which is a tiny area given its fame. So it's about 60 kilometers in length. at some points is about two kilometers wide. And it's made up of, in the north, the Côte de Nuit, and in the south, the Côte de Bonne. The north is famous for the greatest red wines known to man, and the south is where these wonderful white wines come from.
7:13But the land, which if we go back, even further back to the Jurassic period, is all limestone. So some of it is up north, the Camarigian soil, which has lots of fossils. If you're in Chablis and you go searching around the vineyards, you find these little fossilized shells and stuff like that, which are wonderful. It's almost closer to the Champagne terroir. But as you get into the Cote d 'Or, you have this wonderful limestone escarpment, long and thin from north to south. And it just so happens that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay do wonderfully well there. We would probably be fair in saying that there is no place better for Pinot Noir in the world.
7:59It is grown elsewhere. You get it in places like Oregon in the US. You get it in places like Australia and Tasmania. You even get it to great effect in Central Targo and New Zealand. But Burgundy is the absolute epicenter of Pinot Noir. Chardonnay grows well in lots of places. It's a little bit more easy growing. But at the same time, these two grapes have come up and they are at their absolute best in the region. And you were saying that, because you mentioned Cote de Beaune, you were saying that Beaune was the sort of capital. Beaune is really the centre of the entire Burgundy district and it's north of Beaune, really, where these amazing red wines are made.
8:42I'd add a little bit to what you said. And each estate, it's dependent on whether they have a south, it's the facing of the hills and how high you are in the hills, which changes the soil structure altogether. And some of the finest wines are made in very, very small parcels only because the ground isn't available or it's not of the right quality to be able to produce the grapes that make that very fine top-end wine, the Grand Cru of the very best. And an area like the domains of Romainé Conti, for example, which has five different labels, just make the most stunning wines. They're in such small quantity that, of course, they're almost unaffordable nowadays, sadly.
9:31Well, we'll get to the point about estates and names and how that affects wine. Especially, I think, what a lot of people wonder is why one estate will cost a thousand pounds a bottle where the next door estate is 20 pounds a bottle. We'll get to that in a sec. But let's talk about the transition from Burgundy becoming something that was now filled with estates that had names to it that were developing wines that they were becoming famous for ultimately. Let's talk about that. So even further back than the Jigs of Burgundy, so the reason that there are so many complex vineyards and sites, we call them Klimat, is that the monks in the 12th century and 13th century, there were Benedictine monks who founded their abbey at Cluny in 910.
10:26Later on, Cistercians formed their abbey at Cito, which you may recognize from the cheese, delicious cheese from Cito. But they were extraordinary winemakers and they were meticulous. So they really understood the land. We talk about terroir and this idea of terroir is this connection between soil, climate, topography and human intervention. and because Burgundy is so different, sometimes by a matter of steps, the hills, the slopes, the heights, the aspect of the sun and so on, that all these little fragmented vineyards were considered to be able to produce different styles of wines and so on.
11:14So that was the sort of formation initially of this idea of different climates. On top of that, you get to a point after the French Revolution when the monasteries and the aristocracy had their lands disbanded. And in 1804, you have the Napoleonic Code, which is really important, particularly in Burgundy, because it moves from primogenita to splitting land across all of your heirs. Right, okay. So one huge estate could suddenly find itself... It means that the families hang on to the properties. That's basically what it is. And they will make wines to their own, almost their own menu, almost, because they are just individuals rather than a commune as such.
12:06I mean, they will sell some of the wines into a sort of village wine commune to make the general sort of village wine of the area. But for their own wines, they'll want to make it specifically theirs. they want a particular taste. Forgive me, could that not potentially be a recipe for disaster in that, you know, let's say four children inherit an estate and they have four children each and suddenly it all kind of goes down like that. Is there, like with, you know, Rolex, for example, there is a strict set of codes as to how the company can be run. Is that sort of the same with the vineyards? Are they able to sort of, you know, basically by board decision?
12:41You're right that the fragmentation creates complications. So you can have a very small area that is split by many, many people. So Claude de Vujo, for example, which was set up by the monks, it's only about 50 hectares, I think. But at times there have been many as 80 owners, sometimes with just a number of vines. um so so whereas bordeaux is all about estates and the chateau so you mentioned chateau chateau bordeaux piece uh burgundy is very much around uh vineyards okay if that if that makes sense so bordeaux large and bordeaux is four times the size of burgundy and their production is four times the size as well but the estates the chateau lafitte the latours and so on uh they are large businesses, often family owned still, but large businesses, corporations almost, that have large estates, which all come into one wine.
13:45Whereas a Burgundian winemaker might have lots of little cremats around the place. And the wine is ranked based on the vineyard rather than the person making it. So this is where knowledge comes in really, to be really important, that you might have something like Claude de Bourgeois, where you have lots of different people making a Claude de Bourgeois. But some might be better at making it than others. Some might have more time, attention, skill as winemaker. So actually, knowing your vineyards, your climates, will come on to appellations and things like that. But also knowing your winemakers is a really important part of understanding Burgundy.
14:28And it's a fun part as well. The complexity makes it interesting. It can be a little bit daunting for a region that only has two grapes, but actually that's where I think a lot of people get their real pleasure from is understanding the vineyards and the regions more. How did you come to understand the regions and the vineyards? Well, I think probably from the experience of fortunately being able to taste some of the lovely wines made by the best producers, because there's a vast difference between somebody who will make the top wine of that particular area and the people who, they're different.
15:06It's a different skill. And the winemaker is probably living in a small house and underneath his house will be a cellar twice the size of the house he's living in. And it's extraordinary. And they will make this and they actually live for it. I mean, And it is their life, and that's what they do. And they make most magnificent wines, which are hugely enjoyable to drink. And every year they will be absolutely certain to get it as best they possibly can. I think that actually is where it separates from some of the wines in other regions of France, which they just want quantity wines coming out, and they want to sell as much as they can.
15:48burgundies you know because it's a small quantity they will um you know they want to make the best and and hopefully be able to sell it to the best price for themselves yeah these these are these are small family businesses so so the the house analogy is really interesting because a small farmhouse um if you'll find if you ever go on holiday to burgundy you can't just turn up you need appointments and uh whereas in bordeaux um or napa i mean napa there are uh certain properties where the car park is bigger than the vineyard maybe slightly in Bordeaux it is very much set up as a as a brand there was a phrase Paul Etiquette so for the label where you have these chateaus this status symbols whereas Burgundy has always been small family businesses small holdings a real attention to the land that's not to dismiss any of the other regions who who produce extraordinary wines as well.
16:45But there is something special about Burgundy. Is there a secret for the layman to kind of come to learn about Burgundy? Because it feels like it's a much more complex wine to be educated on in comparison to these Bordeaux wines that trade off the list. It's very difficult to find. Pinot Noir is, as you say, the grape variety. but um there are not that many pinot noirs that are absolutely exceptional i mean it's six i i bought some bottles which which sort of i think probably their bottles which i bought um which have over the past years or so been drunk so in my house and they're all i see even rubbing them in the dirt to make them well no they i i do i do i do prefer to drink what i call the dusty end of the cellar because i think it's it's an exceptional thing if you've got a very fine one no it means that if you um you don't want to buy a bottle and if you can avoid having to drink it when it's extremely young because it doesn't have any of the flavors it's not as complex it doesn't have the um in in bottle it's sort of developing a full um experience is there is there a time period that you think uh burgundy shouldn't be drunk well it depends on the i mean if you're talking about a grand crew which i mean is actually very limited number can you explain what grand crew is well grand crew is the very top end of the the wines that are made there and there are I mean, there's some Grand Cru here, for example.
18:24Should we go from left to right? But just to explain the vernacular quickly. Well, a Grand Cru is their number one production factory. They will also make other wines. And we've spoken in the past about first growth, second growth. So is this the equivalent of that in Burgundy? Yes, it is. It's an entirely different type of recipe. It's the equivalent of a first grade for factory. So, because there's, and then is it Premier Cru after that? Yeah, I mean, it drops down to Premier Cru, and then you've got various other levels. And it's very difficult to actually read the label of a fine burgundy because they all have their own way of expressing themselves on the label.
19:07And often very similar names in the same vineyards. Oh, I see, yeah. So the way that the classification works is there was a classification in Bordeaux in 1855, which was the first growths, the second growths, which has broadly stayed the same with the exception of Mouton, which was upgraded in the 70s since that time. In Burgundy, the classification came much later and the Appellation Controllée came in in 1935. And that was put in place to set up and set out the quality structure of the vineyards. So Chablis is slightly different. So I'll leave that out. But in the Cote d 'Or, you have Grand Cruze.
19:55That is the very top. You have Premier Cruze, you have Village level, and you have a sort of generic regional level. There are, I think, 84. It does change occasionally, but I think there are 84 Appalessians. And the way it splits down is you have 33 Grand Cru's at the top. Villages, there are 44. And then Premier Cru came in slightly later, but there's over 600 Premier Cru's. So it's complicated because your village will often have a name that is related, funnily enough to the Grand Cru wine. So somewhere like Gervais became Gervais Chambartin because the most famous vineyard there was Chambartin, the Grand Cru was Chambartin.
20:45So it is quite complex. Because of the fragmentation through families, you often have similar names. I mean, maybe cousins. Someone once said to me that every family has an idiot cousin. And if you don't know who yours is, you need to look at yourself quite carefully. That probably applies in wine as well to a certain extent. So you need to get into the detail of it. But primarily remember, all of this applies to the potential of the land. So it's not necessarily what is being produced, the quality of the winemaker. It is the inherent quality of the land. And then the knowledge comes from whether a particular winemaker is doing particularly good things.
21:28I see. Does that make sense? Yes. So it's always like a sort of reverse Michelin star kind of, you know, because Michelin star... It's a pyramid.
21:40Each sort of producer has his own style. And it's an extraordinary thing. We're sitting here in March at the moment. And if you went to... There's a wonderful thing you can do if you drive from north to south in Burgundy. You actually pass through all the finest labels you've ever come across, because all the villages are actually called by the names of the proper fine wines. and there they are on the side of the road and it's a fantastic thing to watch. But also you'll see the vineyards themselves and at this time of the year where they're just beginning to show signs of early sort of budding and so on, all of them have been cropped and they've been cut to a different shape depending on which family.
22:21Each person who makes a wine has his own style of actually... Is it pruning? Doing all his end of season pruning and some let them stay fairly tall, some of them want them horizontally. And they're all different. They're extraordinary. And you can see, I wonder if that's a better wine than the one next door to it, just because it's entirely differently. It's been just presented differently. I suspect it probably does have some sort of a difference. I suspect the roots will have changed in the way that they respond to the way that they've been sort of set up upstairs as well. Because what a Burgundy wine producer is trying to do is get the absolute best out of the land.
23:08So it's not about significant intervention. It's working with the land, working with that very specific climat. There's over 1 ,200 climats in Burgundy. And what they want is the absolute best expression of that land. the other thing that's worth mentioning in terms of these appellations is the the hill itself is vitally important so what you tend to find is that the village wines the most generic wines are at the bottom so that wonderful road if you're driving from Dijon south they're actually making lesser wines yes exactly so so the RN74 I think it was called it may have been changed but the Rue de Grand Cru, all the way down.
23:50If you're standing on the road, the wines around you is the most fertile soil. Wine doesn't necessarily want the most fertile soil. It actually doesn't want it. It needs to struggle a little bit. So your village wines, your generic wines, tend to be there. You then see these villages with names that you recognize like Geoffrey Chambartan, Maurice Saint-Denis, Chambol, Moussigny, and places like that. And that's where your village wines are. your premier cruise are within that area as well but as you go to the mid-slope you've got your premier cruise and your grand cruise because typically that is the best land with the best aspect of the sun so the Côte d 'Henri is east facing the Côte d 'Abbogne is southeast facing best soil best drainage and then as you go further up the hill it gets a little bit thin again So you often have village wines at the top, but that's changing.
24:44We might come back to climate change and stuff like that. But that gives you a sort of a broad, slightly dumbed down 101 of what you're looking at. But it is complicated. Dad, we've mentioned before. Well, I've got a few there. Let's go left to right as to what they are and why you've bought them and what you think of them. Well, they're all wines which are very hard to find nowadays. I mean, the one on the left, which is from particularly good vintage 2002, is a Chambon Moussini made by Robert Arnaud, who is the Arnaud, again, absolutely top-quality winemaker with a really tightly controlled production.
25:25And that wine there is fabulous to drink, but it's not a Grand Cru, but it's a top-end Premier Cru. The one next to it, which is probably as good a bottle as there is out there, maybe the one next to it is slightly better, but it's the 1990 Claude La Roche from Domaine Ponceau, and Ponceau is another name in Burgundy, which if you can get any of their wines, they will always make something of a very high end. That is a Grand Cru, that's an outstanding wine. The one next to it goes right up to the very top end of the quality which is available, which is the Domaine de Romney-Conti. Which is a famous...
26:11It is. They make Romney-Conti wine, they make La Tache, they make...
26:21This particular one is a very unusual one because they don't normally make a Verne-Romney. but in 1998 they had this, or 1999, they made this exceptional wine and it was only released as a reserve label because they had a quality, or the quantity that they wanted to make and the other grapes they had, they could actually release enough to make that particular label, so they produced it then. And that one is, they had only made two labels of that particular name. up to the 1999. And since then, I think they made two, maybe three more. I can't remember how many. But it very rarely comes out. It's a lovely wine.
27:04And again, very hard to find. The next one is very interesting because it's known as Hospice de Beaune. Now, Beaune every year has this auction. In the central of Beaune, you've got a big square with sort of cobbled square and it's wonderful old. It's a lovely town. Well, it is. The roof of the hospice, which is an old hospital, really. And it's now a center of a big auction every year. And the way it's operated is that chosen wine producers will be asked to present a wine to the auction, which will then go forward and people will buy that particular barrel or whatever it is they're selling. and they get good money for it normally.
27:55And the great thing is that if you're invited to make a wine with that label on it, and they all look the same, they've got the little sort of shield on one side and it says Auspice de Bonne on the top and so on. This particular one was a 2011, and it was a Puy Fouissé, which is a very nice wine. And did you go to the auction for that or did you pick it up? I didn't go to that one. No, I picked that one up somewhere else. But I did actually, years and years ago, go to the auction. I used to know the Faveley family, which were the people who actually own the majority of the Centre of Bone, because the underside of the square is one big seller, to be honest.
28:29And I went there one year. I can't remember which. It was in the 80s, I think, maybe earlier.
28:38And it's a wonderful experience. Before I came along and ruined things. Yes, you ruined everything. It's a little bit of a diary with busyness. As one might have expected. Fatherhood. It's been very hard to drink ever since then. or it incentivizes you to drink more all I can tell you is that it's the people invited to make that wine will always make something at the very very best top end that they can so it's worth looking at that so you're always going to get a good product now the one on the other side of that is we're going on to the white burgundy that's the Chardonnay which is it's called Creo Baton Morache now Baton Morache is the top name for Grand Cru in white burgundy.
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29:20And Bataille is fantastic. Actually, Le Montrachet is the very top end. And funnily enough, the Domaine de Romani-Conti do make a Le Montrachet, and two or three other producers do. But underneath that, you've got the Bataille Montrachet. And this particular one is called Crio Bataille Montrachet. And that is the smallest Grand Cru vineyard in the world. I mean, it's absolutely tiny. It's the size of this room, almost. and I think they've got three people who plant their vines there and make a particularly fine wine every year. It's absolutely delicious. But clearly very limited. Very, very limited and very hard to find.
30:00And then there's a Favelli wine there which is the Mercury at the end. I can't remember what it was. It was 2014. I brought that along just as a bottle which is, that's an affordable bottle I would say. Yeah, so that's I think really interesting on the Wichita Guelant because where you both have basically set this up so far through the conversation is that Burgundy is very rare, very special, very hard to get your head around, which makes it sound like it's not going to be accessible both in terms of knowledge and price. But, Jordi, can I just ask you what you've bought in from left to right? So I bought full bottles rather than empty ones, which is why they're a little bit cleaner.
30:41They're at the less dusty end of the cellar. but the reason I brought them is not because I've drunk them and have wonderful memories of them but more because they are interesting examples of those quality levels that we spoke about so the one on the left the Coton is a Grand Cru the one next to it the Popard is a Premier Cru and the final one the Oxydresse is the Village level so it's just an indication now the problem is, Tom, as you're looking at them, is they all, to the uninitiated, look quite similar. Yep. So in terms of the cost per bottle, or indeed what the words would be on a menu, it is a little bit complicated.
31:29The important thing to say, though, when we're looking for value is Burgundy getting really expensive is actually relatively recent. so it hasn't always been incredibly expensive it's always been revered in terms of its quality but you only have to go back sort of 40 years you know 85 was a tremendous vintage when these wines would have been really quite accessible so you hear about people as students buying sort of Grand Cru wines for what today would be considered pittance for a case and the case would have been 12 bottles in those days these days cases have got smaller because the wines have got more expensive so six bottles or three bottles.
32:122005, things started getting a bit silly and getting really expensive because the point of these particular vineyards is they're not getting any bigger. You can't change the size of it. Some of them are literally walled in. The Clos, like Clos Saint-Jacques or Clos de Bouchot, means the wall, the stone wall around it, which was originally to keep out animals. But the size is the size. Therefore, as demand goes up, price goes up, and we can come back to that. Do people ever amalgamate? In what sense? Two different producers. Well, only if you've got what's called the spare wines that they're actually picking will go centrally to someone who will make, they won't necessarily have their own house.
32:56Is that an equivalent to, remember you were talking about Poyac and things like that, you know, they kind of sell in bottles. It's sort of generic, exactly. It would be the region, But I don't think you'd find many. I mean, the lower end of the Burgundy wines are probably made by more of a commune than they are of an individual house. There is value in Burgundy, though. And there are some good hints and tips in terms of where to find it. But value is often found on the peripheries. So Chablis, for example, top Chablis and more generic Chablis don't have a huge price spread. So you can often find some great value in Chablis.
33:44You can find some very expensive top-end Chablis as well, but there's good value there. There are also places which are quite close to some of the very well-known villages. So if you go down to Merceau, which is a very famous village in the Côte d 'Ivoire, famous for these rather rich Chardonnay wines. Not far away up the valley, slightly off the slope, you have villages like Saint-Romain or Oxyduress. The wine I brought there is an Oxyduress. They are a better value because previously, historically, they would have been slightly further away, slightly higher up, and perhaps not able to make the wines of the quality.
34:30so that has changed then when you go further south and you get to places like the Makone Makone Village at the top of the Makone you'll often find fantastic wines at good value so so the the hint that I've heard a number of times is that if you if you know what your budget is go for the best wines of a lesser known village appellation rather than necessarily a lesser wine from a very well-known place because there is value there. I mean, they do get up to, you know, something like DRC, De Min Romani-Kanti, will get up to tens of thousands of pounds of bottles. So that is at a particular end of the scale, but they produce a tiny amount.
35:12You know, their top vineyard produces probably 5 ,000 bottles a year, whereas a Chateau Lafitte will produce 20 ,000 cases a year. Okay. So there is a scale thing here. With that in mind, Dad, you brought that along. Does that sort, Is this bottle here, is that sort of a good example of what you were just talking about? Well, it's probably not a good bottle to refer to, because that's actually a little bit further south. It's from Beaujolais, and it's a Morgon. So it's not actually... Well, it is a Pinot Noir. So, I mean, when I was bringing bottles, I thought it's basically a bottle shape that identifies the burgundy aspect of it.
35:55So all those bottles you can see are pretty well the same shape. Whereas if you went to any of the Bordeaux bottles, they have their own particular shape as well, which is very different from those. The reason for the shape is about the sediment that wines throw off. So the shoulders of a Bordeaux bottle, if you can picture it, are square. Yes. Not square, but more square. Because the grapes used in Bordeaux, the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Merlot and so on, they throw off sediment over time. So when you're pouring, the shoulder catches some of that sediment in there. That's the theory. You still get it out of these as well.
36:34I mean, some of the burgundies, the unstrained burgundy, as it were, it can throw quite a decent deposit. Yeah, but not as much. Okay, but Gunders like it. They like to chew it.
36:50It's almost like the Parsons' nose. you know they want a little bit oh they they and they have this sort of wonderful their their their palate as such they just no i know they come out okay purple teeth yeah great so um in terms of drinking it because these are um burgundy glasses what do you think that obviously these are much bigger rounder they're like bowls ultimately why why does that make a difference why is that important for burgundy or is it just frankly for sure no i mean i think i think that glass makers started making lots of different glass sizes um in the last uh 50 years or so probably yeah um and there is a slightly different uh shape the uh burgundy glasses are more of a glow yeah um sometimes people drink things like barolo from italy after of this as well they in theories have captured the the fragrance of the of the wine um and i've never i've never thought to myself drinking out of burgundy glass i wish this was a different shaped glass so i think i think there is a there is a science there as well i mean also if you're a wine glass maker and you can convince your customers that they need one of each then there's probably a commercial decision there as well but but i think there is a bit of science there because these wines are light and bright.
38:12And in youth, they get more complex with age where they get a bit more vegetal and surbois, which is a sort of mulchiness in time, which a lot of Burgundy collectors love. But they are wonderfully fragrant wines. So that's why the glasses would be entirely appropriate. You can often pour a Grand Cru Burgundy and you put it in the glass and it looks almost transparent. It doesn't have any of the sort of body that you see in a Bordeaux wine, for example. And they look through it and you think, how can that have anything? And then you put it to your nose and then you taste it. And it absolutely explodes.
38:50It's a wonderful, wonderful experience. Very hard to find it. It's very hard to find a good Pinot Noir. I was saying to you, Jordi, earlier on, I have a little role with one of the London clubs that I've been working with for a long time. and we've been producing extremely good wine lists. But the hardest wine for us to establish, which people would give you a good report on, is the Pinot Noir. So the club Pinot Noir is always a hard thing to find because they tend to be rather more expensive than they should be against the quality that they can throw. So you've got to find one which balances between the two.
39:32So you've got something, it's quite clearly the Pinot Noir knows and tastes and everything else, without it actually costing unnecessarily high prices on the list. And do you ever go outside of Burgundy for that? Or is the demand for Burgundy there? Yes, I mean, there are alternatives. We have Chilean Pinot Noir, which actually is not bad. but I think you made a point earlier that in a funny way Burgundy Pinot Noir has a character all of its own the nose is different it is the same grape but I think that the way that the roots have to work very hard to get the flavour out Burgundy is the ones because they're ancient roots and they go down an awful long way and I think they probably put more style and and time and effort behind the actual making of the wine than they do in other places, which is not a benefactor.
40:30Pinot Noir is a great reflector of terroir. So you often hear in far-flung wine-producing countries around the world that they're making wine in a Burgundy style, which is, I understand what they mean by that, but actually it's a difficult thing to get your head around because actually Burgundy style can only really come from Burgundy. So you can make wonderful wines in Central Otago in New Zealand or Oregon in California, but they are of their own place. So that's the wonderful thing about Pinot Noir is that it's a true reflector of place. So with regards to exactly what you were just talking about, someone goes to a restaurant, they're looking at the menu.
41:15Some menus can be pretty intimidating. because there's a lot of names on there, there's a lot of years on there, a lot of price tags on there. So identifying a Burgundy that isn't this, because obviously we know, especially just from this conversation, that if they pick the Romani Conti, they're going to get a nice wine. But that's not going to be the case for a lot of people. Yeah, that's the thing. So is there a hack? Is there a secret for people? Well, I think my answer to that is that you're probably starting with a white wine. And the white ones are much easier to buy, because as we go, we've got the Macon wines, which are always quite good value.
41:52They're not going to be exceptionally high value. And you're probably not going to go to a restaurant unless it's a particularly fine place to select a Grand Cru white wine because it's going to be out of most people's range anyway. And you've got the Macon Uchisi, you've got the Macon Vire, you've got all sorts of Macon wines. and they're very drinkable. You know, they have a flavor and, you know, they're good, fresh. You drink them young. You don't have to wait particularly long time for these things. One of the other subjects, if you're talking about the Grand Cru end, you don't want to open a Grand Cru bottle of Burgundy unless it's probably 10 years old and then it will carry on as well for some time.
42:45It will flatten out at some stage, but it'll still retain its quality for a very long time if it's cellared properly. And the whites are much fresher and earlier drinking. But they're also making, I would say, the village wines, the commune wines of a Pinot Noir, are also to be drunk reasonably young. I mean, obviously, it's in the interest of the producers to sell as much of the vintage that they produced as quickly as possible. um it's only to say the very top end wines they're making that will go on for much longer and we say that they've been barrels for longer and so on but um on a list i mean it depends what you're drinking or what you're eating i mean if you're going to choose a meat um and there are certain meats where pinot noir is actually the i mean if you're going to have game for example in in say it's it's a grouse season or something yeah um well it's the the best choice you can make is to have a pinoa wine so you go to burgundy at once i think that i've probably got a a couple of additional hacks and i agree entirely make in terms of the the regions that have particular uh quality and value built in but the the first thing is if you if you're going to go and drink burgundy in a restaurant um go to a restaurant that really understands burgundy uh first of all So there are fantastic restaurants in London like Noble Rot or Cabot in the city where they take great pride in Burgundy.
44:21And therefore, you're in the right spot. The second thing is, and I think I've probably mentioned this to you before, Tom, is the sommelier is there to be your friend. So if you are in a restaurant, the most important thing to point out, let's say you want a white Burgundy. I would come in very open-minded and I would say to the sommelier, I'm going to point at the list and you can do this discreetly. You don't need to do this in front of all your guests. And I personally point to the price first and I say, I want something roundabout here. This is what we're all eating. We would love a white burgundy or something similar.
45:05What would you recommend? At that point, you are taking the knowledge and the information that they are paid to provide, people can find sommeliers very daunting. And I think that there's the old sort of trope of the rather pompous sommelier looking down their nose at you and dismissing you because you're pronouncing words wrong and so on. Today, you know, you've got these passionate young people working in the wine hospitality industry who can't wait to tell you about their most recent find. So if you know what your price point is, that's a great starting point. If you know what you're eating, that's a great starting point.
45:39You don't have to do the heavy lifting yourself you don't have to match them yourself um you know there are certain um ways of thinking about food you know if it um if it grows together it goes together people often say so you know food from a particular region you know burgundy would be known for things like jamon persil which would be fantastic with a white burgundy or uh for morette which would be brilliant with red um you might have sort of mushroom dishes which go very well with pinot noir and things like that as well. But put the hard work onto the sommelier and put a bit of trust into them as well.
46:15I entirely agree. And I think you made a big point. And that is the restaurant itself has gone to have somebody running their wine list who sort of understands what they're doing. And there are, as you say, I mean, Bellamy's is a good example because it always, I mean, the Rui there, for example, is fantastic. It's very good value. Now, that's an outstanding Chardonnay. Wasn't that A.A. Gill's kind of note on his review of Bellamy's, basically just saying he can't quite get his head around how amazing the wine list was? Well, the other thing is that Gavin, who runs it, actually has his own little sort of corner of the wine list, which is his selection.
46:56His pan-written himself. And he will always have a burgundy on that. and they're presented so that they're good value as well as quality because, I mean, that restaurant knows its wines. But I think more broadly we're talking about the Burgundy. We should think about the average man who goes into a supermarket will see a great array of bottles, a lot of which are Burgundy's and a lot of which are actually pretty good. And then some of them are quite good value. And the reason is that the top supermarkets actually engage people to work for them who are very knowledgeable. And they buy a big quantity from various manufacturers or producers.
47:41And when they do that, they're not going to settle for something which is second rate against what they're looking for. And the pricing of them is pretty good. it's probably the best way to bring drink burgundy if you want to feel slightly less hit in the wallet on it is to go to either a wine merchant or some of the good... Yes, thanks to yourself. Exactly. Or some of the good supermarkets because they have chosen decent wines and they are pretty good value. You have brilliant wine buyers at supermarkets now. the one thing I would say and the reason I would always fight for the independent merchants is that if you go into a supermarket regardless to how good it is as a supermarket it's pretty unlikely you're going to find someone who's going to be able to help you on the wine well that's true because the wine buyers are just floating around like some areas it's the funny thing that if you know a lot about wine as you do Nick, a supermarket is quite a good place to shop well you can recognise labels which you can sort of get an instance.
48:51But you can recognise labels. I think probably that's probably rare rather than everybody. Yes, no, but that's my point. Is there a way of educating people? Are people finding themselves getting more familiar with these? Well, I think, I mean, my advice would be, until you have that level of knowledge where you can spot villages or Jesus' names you might know, if you go into an independent merchant, that could be Barry Brothers, as it could be a number of other brilliant, there are other merchants are available. But you get to go into a shop or online, but let's just talk about shops for a moment.
49:31And you can ask someone very simple questions. Now those questions could be, I have a particular interest in a wine from this particular clemat in Burgundy. More likely it's, we're having fish pie for supper tonight. What would you recommend? so so the joy of being in a in a independent merchant and asking for their advice is these people are they're available passionate uh knowledgeable and will take your situation as well as your taste profile you know if you're trying to impress your father-in-law on a thursday that may be a different type of wine than you would have if you're drinking something in front of eastenders on a tuesday if somebody's in a place where you're allowed to get your phone out anyway yeah could they take a picture of and our people sort of take a picture of the many running all the time gpt and saying all the time which one should i be getting because so so if yeah i mean if you were to take a photo of a wine list these days and uh and you said it to you know any ai chat gpt uh whatever it might be i'm sure if you were to say that you had a particular budget in place you'd be able to get a recommendation back so yeah i mean ai is going to change the wine world as much as everything else.
50:42What do you think is going to change more, AI or climate change? Oh, so climate change is an interesting one because climate change in Burgundy, the Burgundy region has gone up in temperature by about a degree, maybe a degree and a half since the 80s. So it is getting warmer. What that has done in the short term is that there are certain regions, particularly regions that might have been slightly higher up the slope, which actually might be seeing an improvement in quality. So the Oat Cote de Beaune, Oat Cote de Nuit, higher up the slopes, you might see some really interesting wines coming from there.
51:22There are other particular regions, funnily enough, the Pommard, which I brought in, which is a little bit humid in Pommard, may see certain benefits. However, it is clearly not a good thing. And what climate change also brings is very tempestuous weather. And remember, the weather in Burgundy is actually bloody hard weather for making wine in. Rains a lot, does it? It's just not particularly consistent. I think the problem is also that you can get some very warm spells at this time of the year. Yeah. And then in three weeks' time, you'll get a hard frost and suddenly... Or hail increasingly. And the blossom or the flowering that's taking place...
52:05Can be desolated. They're just wiped off. And if that happens, then it just doesn't produce the quantities. But if you've got one of those vineyards that's the size of a tennis court, you're stuffed. Well, if you think that the quality of Burgundy wines produced really from the mid-'80s has been consistently very good. So you don't have really appalling vintages anymore. And some of that is to do with what happens in the winery as well, of course. And you've got winemakers, a generation of winemakers who've gone to school to study wine at places like Bowen and Dijon. However, if you think, therefore, that quality levels are good, you can have a more modern style of vintage, you can have a more traditional style of vintage, some are lighter, fresher, some are, you know, we could refer to as restaurant vintages, i.e.
52:55they're made for quite early drinking. However, if the quantity is diminished significantly, Let's say a vineyard is producing X amount of bottles and 75 % of that is knocked out by hail, it comes back to that idea of supply, demand and allocations to customers and stuff like that. So climate change is, yeah, we don't want to see climate change ruining wine. And it's both end of the season as well. I mean, you can have a hot summer and then suddenly it comes up picking time and coming down sort of September or October. and and and they're more interested in the weather forecasts and they are in fact of the exact day to do it because you don't want to pick in pouring rain if you have a terrible storm coming through or something like that and so they try to avoid class why well because it well it dilutes the um the the quality because all the water and everything else in it it gets muddy and yeah oh i see it's it's not very nice um and and when the grapes go into the vats to be sort pressed and everything else they're bringing with it um you know water water and it's not growth as well and you have you have sorting tables now which which one wouldn't have had a generation ago maybe two generations ago which is when you are purposely taking out things that are not looking good so if there's a bit of rot or mold or or whatever it might be you can you can pull it from the from the sorting table which means that you get the best possible quality but um yeah when you pick as important historically that would have been september increasingly that's coming forward a little bit to august so so it is it is having an impact um and you know we're seeing the benefit of that in places like the south downs in in england where we're seeing increasingly uh quality wine produced um sparkling primarily but also you're now seeing Pinot Noir grown in the UK as well.
54:53So it is going to be dangerous for regions like Burgundy that are so small and so impacted by climate. So, so far, okay. Some minor improvements, however uncomfortable that might be, but in the future may not be a good thing. I think in recent years, of course, what's happened is that in the old days, you were very much in the hands of hope rather than anything else. But nowadays they've more or less debugged bad vintages because throughout they've got this technology which is actually telling you how each vine is operating. And you can, if you've got a really dry spell and so on, you can actually make it so that it's survivable.
55:40I know it's not burgundy, but didn't you have quite an interesting story about, was it like a 99 Petrus or something, where he put tarpaulin. Oh, no, that was the 1992 vintage in Petras. It was, you're absolutely right. Tell us what happened with that, because it's quite funny. Well, this is your Bordeaux story. Yeah, it's a Bordeaux story. It's not really a... But they knew that the picking week was going to be serious storms, and they put plastic cover over the entire estate because the year, I mean, vintage itself was fine. But if they'd picked in those conditions, They would have completely ruined the quality that they expected to get out of it.
56:19And I think there was two estates. It was Petrus and Lafleur. And, of course, then what happened was the water came on. They picked dry and they were very happy with all that. But what happens to that water? It then runs off onto the neighboring estates. And they all had some legal challenges about the fact that they'd been ruined by the place. And it would never happen again. I mean, they won't be allowed to do it again. So if you find the 92 Petras, it's a one-off. It is a bit, yes. That's great. Ultimately, we've got a huge amount of factors that come into Burgundy. What do you think is the main reason of why it's so revered?
57:03So whilst it's just agricultural produce, you know, we're talking about grapes here, I think it is undeniable that Burgundy produces the greatest expression of wine from the Pinot Noir grape in the world. The challenges around temperatures and so on, it's sort of marginal temperatures, but that is something that allows the Pinot Noir to ripen at the right time. So So when I say that the conditions are difficult, it doesn't mean they're impossible. You still get these brilliant wines. And you're saying difficult is good. And difficult can be good. The quantity produced and this fragmentation of vineyards means that it's got this wonderful complexity which feeds into, I suppose, the mind of the collector and the desire for knowledge around collecting wine as well.
58:01And the market has also been growing. So from 2005, let's say, but certainly by 2008, 2009, the US has always been a big importer of Burgundy, probably the biggest importer in the world. Hong Kong, Singapore, China came on board. The wines, a colleague of mine, ex-colleague of mine, Jasper Morris, who's one of the masters of wine, who in my mind is the most knowledgeable person in the world on the subject of Burgundy. So my father. um apart from your father the most knowledgeable person i've ever met on the subject of burgundy pleasure the he um he was um someone who can i frame that you can certainly he was he was jasper wrote and if if um if you ever want to read a brilliant brilliant book on burgundy jasper wrote the seminal book on burgundy called inside burgundy and he has a wonderful website as well.
59:01Dad's too busy being clever to write a book. No, no, no. I read John Arlott. I mean, he was amazing. Yes. Fantastic. Great cricket commentator. And at the same time, he was an exceptional artist of Burgundy wines. He loved them. Great. And we know how much. When Jasper released his book first time around in Hong Kong, we released it in Hong Kong, actually, I remember the discussion around Burgundy at the time was that there was this phrase that I remember being used, which was Burgundy was the connoisseur's wine. And there was this sense that there was a mastery involved in Burgundy that perhaps didn't come with Bordeaux.
59:42Do you agree with that, Dad? Well, I think so. I think it is mastery because I think they actually really put their minds to making the very best they possibly can. And I always get the feeling that when you go into more, what you call the quantity product, you're never going to get that light touch that you get from the small houses who are going to make sure that every single bottle is going to be presented at the very best they possibly can. I mean, the other is based on, you know, is it a good vintage? Yes, it is. Oh, we've got a good market, yes. Of course, a lot of what you were talking about, the international markets have changed a lot because the Chinese have now more or less given up sort of ordering whatever they can all the time.
1:00:28So that market's not collapsed, but it's nothing like what it was. And, of course, the Americans have put these extraordinary tariffs on everything. So buying in, there was a time when I used to go regularly over to Long Island and the places I went to would have wonderful wine lists and a huge number of wonderful both Burgundy and Bordeaux wines on them. The Burgundies there were considerably cheaper than their own wines from the West Coast. It was extraordinary. But now they aren't because it costs them so much to bring them into the country. They're actually not buying them in so much either.
1:01:11So that's a change in the demand. They say it takes 10 years to learn about Bordeaux and the rest of your life to learn about Burgundy. very good if you were to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party what would be the first thing you go to as a sort of you know because bottles of wine that you bring to a dinner party they're not meant to be drunk really at the dinner party so it's i don't think so i mean dad what do you bring well it depends who's invited to dinner is the answer but i mean some some day some i will have made an offer in advance can i bring the wine in which case i'd find something yeah of course That's a different sort of thing.
1:01:47But it's a nice gift to give people when you actually arrive. And I think you can, again, you do it by price. I mean, I think you probably bring a bottle, which is going to cost somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds, probably, for the average London gathering. If you know the person very well, you might get something very special out. And that's an entirely different thing. But for a birthday present, you probably give up a list a bit, but for just an ordinary dinner party, then there are lots of good burgundies. If you were to throw out one burgundy that was in that, what do you think? Well, I'm a great fan of white burgundies as well.
1:02:32So would you say Mercury? Lovely. It would be nice. Okay. So my simple answer to that is, firstly, I quite often don't take wine. I take a bottle of olive oil. That's a very good answer. I think that's a very nice thing to do. I would extend that, that you can actually fine-tune that by having a little truffle olive oil, a little truffle oil, small bottle. No, it doesn't matter, but somebody else is not going to be asked to eat it. It's being given to somebody else. So yeah, I think olive oil is a lovely present. The other hint I had from a colleague of mine was that if you want the wine to be drunk at dinner, because most of the time wine is not being brought to drink then and there, unless there's been a specific request, is if you open it and double decant it back into the bottle and say, I've decanted this for you, then they are somewhat obligated to open it.
1:03:33But that's a very mean thing to do. I think it's a bit mean personally. I think if you're invited, it's up to them what they want to say of you. Quite right. And that's why you wouldn't, unless you've spoken in advance, that's why you wouldn't bring something from the very end of your stock, as it were, because you know the top end. If you know the chap properly or whoever it is, then you will know what level to come in at. But it's just, it's really, I mean, a box of chocolates just as nice, you know what I mean, in many ways for a dinner party. Yeah. And another question that was sent to you was about wine glass makers.
1:04:10Who would be, to keep it quick, your number one? So we made our own for some time, so I'm going to put that there. But also I think Zalto make extraordinary good wine glasses. Yes, Riedel's very good. Riedel's very good as well. Just for the, while we're doing this Q &A, a really good, affordable Burgundy that people should... Well, Volnais is very consistent. That's right in the centre of the Burgundy district. Very good red Pinot Noir, and it's good value. It's not the cheapest, but it's pretty good. And I would say that if you're going to give yourself a bit of a treat, that's a nice thing to have.
1:04:49And I'd probably go up into Saint-Romain or to Oxideuresse, perhaps Macon Village. But don't be afraid to go out and experiment. Part of the fun of Burgundy is not having the same wine every time. Go and explore some of these lesser-known regions across the entire district. Super. Well, look, I'm really excited to dig into all the other regions and wines and things. Thank you so much for coming in. And happy drinking, everybody. Well, we hope. Very good.
From the publisher
Burgundy wine is legendary – but why is it so expensive, so complex, and so hard to understand?
In this episode of The Luxury Dispatch, Tom Chamberlin is joined by his father Nick Chamberlin and wine expert Geordie Willis to unpack one of the most fascinating (and intimidating) regions in the world of wine.
From ancient monks mapping vineyards to the impact of the Napoleonic Code, Burgundy’s story is unlike anywhere else. Tiny plots of land, family-run vineyards, and centuries of tradition have created a region where two wines made next door to each other can vary wildly in price – from £20 to tens of thousands.
They break down:
- What “terroir” really means – and why it matters so much
- Why Burgundy only focuses on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
- The difference between Grand Cru, Premier Cru, and village wines
- Why Burgundy is more complex than Bordeaux
- How climate, soil, and even inheritance laws shaped the region
- Practical tips on how to actually buy and order Burgundy
They share stories of rare bottles, family cellars, and the reality behind the world’s most sought-after wines.
Whether you’re new to wine or looking to deepen your understanding, this episode reveals why Burgundy remains the ultimate obsession for collectors – and one of the greatest expressions of place in the world.
Music by Alex Mendham & His Orchestra
https://www.alexmendham.com/
The Luxury Dispatch is produced by Platform Media in partnership with The Rake
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