We’re on a wine tour in Burgundy with our guide and new friend, Elo. It’s just the three of us. After meeting this morning at Place d’Arcy in central Dijon, we started driving south on D974. We turned off the main road, then drove down increasingly smaller roads. It wasn’t long before we got off roads altogether and drove into the vineyards. We stopped and got out at the edge of a vineyard, where we received our first lesson about how grapes are grown in this special part of the world.
Alongside the Route des Grands Crus
We started driving down a road known as the “Route des Grands Crus.” I’ve read that in any given year, at least five or six of the ten most expensive wines in the world will come from vineyards on this little stretch of road just south from Dijon. (I’m thinking to myself, “Don’t touch anything!”)
After tromping around in the dirt for while, we climbed back into the van and headed further away from the main road, up the side of a gentle slope. After spending just a short time with Elo, I already felt like I was looking at everything around us with new eyes. (See “Burgundy Wine Tour, Part 1).
We drove through a tiny village that looked like it had barely changed in the past few hundred years. Elo knew anyone and everyone who happened to come within sight of the van. We were a little ways up on the hillside now. The view was spectacular.
We pulled over to the side of the road and stopped by another vineyard. A hefty stone wall completely encircled it. Elo explained that this vineyard was a “clos,” (pronounced “kloh,” it rhymes with “no”). “Clos” is the French word for “enclosure.” As we looked out over the vineyards below, we could see that quite a few had similar stone walls at least partially around them.
Elo explained… “Whenever you see “clos” on ze label, it’s good. Any wine made from grapes grown in a clos are better zan zoze zat are not. Why? Because ze clos keeps in ze heat. Eet makes a beeg deeference. Higher temperatures make better grapes for wine.”
In Burgundy, they can’t put “clos” on the label unless the grapes were grown in a closed-in vineyard. Back home, wine makers can put “clos” on any wine, because to us, it doesn’t mean anything. It just sounds “frenchy.”
Burgundy Wine Labels
Back home, wine makers display their name and the name they’ve given to their wine prominently on the label. They’ll provide the location where the grapes were grown, and in smaller print, maybe the grape varieties used.
Wine labels in Burgundy are completely different. Burgundy wine is classified by quality, the highest generally being Grand Cru. Premier Cru is next, followed by Village(s), then Regional. Wine of high quality will undoubtedly display that rating prominently on the label.
After the quality grade, it’s location, location, location. Grand Cru labels might specify the location right down to the vineyard(!). The winemaker, which is often a negociant, is of secondary importance. Location requirements loosen up as one goes down the quality scale. For a “Village” appellation, for example, all of the grapes must be grown near a given village. Grapes from any vineyard in a particular region can be used in a wine with a “Regional” appellation.
Other details will appear in fine print, but quality and location pretty much tell the whole story. Well then, how are we non-Burgundians supposed to know what’s inside the bottle? We just have to do a little homework. It’s pretty simple, really. (See the Travel Notes, Burgundy Page for more information).
“It’s ze Monks!”
We came across a crew of people picking grapes. Elo told us in detail how they do it and how important it is. He said he had picked a lot of grapes in his time, and I’m sure that’s true. He explained that people who pick grapes have to be able to tell which ones are EXACTLY ready to pick. They’ll pick the ones that are ready, and leave the rest alone. In two or three days they’ll go over the same rows again to make another pass, picking only grapes that are ready, but not too ready.
We’re exploring a part of Burgundy known as Côte de Nuits. Côte de Nuits is almost exclusively pinot noir country. They grow other grape varieties north and south of where we are, but not here. Certain kinds of grapes are only grown in certain areas because that’s where they’re at their best.
So who figured out which types of grapes grow best where? Who decided all that? As Elo would say numerous times over the course of the morning, it was “ze monks.”
“Everything I ave told you today about grapes and making wine was completely figured out a thousand years ago by ze monks. Nothing has changed or been improved upon in a thousand years. We just copy what they had done the best that we can. It’s amazing, no?”
Yes!
Wine and Cheese Tasting
Our next stop was in one of the little towns along the main road, at a local cheese-making operation. I’d call it a factory, although a small one, but it was bigger than a mom-and-pop operation.
We walked with Elo down a hall where we could look through windows to see various steps in the cheese-making process. They had just installed the first of a group of new machines that would do one of the process steps that up until recently, had to be done by hand.
Well, I can tell you that our guide was not happy about that. VERY not happy. There is no way the cheese could be as good if a human didn’t perform this step. Elo was positive. And since Elo seemed to us to be very on-the-ball about a lot of things, our inclination was to believe him. After seeing the operation, we sat down and tasted cheeses along with some vino. They were excellent.
We drove from the cheese factory to Elo’s home town, where we spent some time at a winery. People there took us on a short tour through the place while explaining their process to us. We follow pretty much the same process at home, which figures, since we copied it from here.
Finally — Time to Taste Some Vino
Finally, it was time to taste some vino. After talking about wine all morning, we were more than ready. It was fun to taste the different wines after learning so much about what goes into them. Everything we tasted there was off-the-charts good.
After wine tasting, we drove back to Dijon. Elo let us off near Place D’Arcy, near where we had started. He had another group to take on a tour that afternoon. Poor Elo must have to tell people the same things over and over, but he made it seem like he was talking about this stuff for the first time. We were sure glad we had managed to find each other this morning. We lucked out when we found Elo.
But hey, it’s time for lunch, and we’re hungry. Let’s go find something to eat and wash it down with some vino!
To be continued…
Featured Image credit: Jeff Marquis/Wikimedia Commons
