The Mysteries of Burgundy

Every decent French restaurant has at least six to eight red wines by the glass, most of which cost between 4 and 5 euros ($5 to $6, cheaper than in New York). There will always be a Bordeaux or two, a high-end Beaujolais, one or two Loire wines and a few from the Rhone or elsewhere in the south.

I have never seen a red Burgundy for sale by the glass. And the only white Burgundies have been the cheap kinds from the Maconnais. (Better wines, both red and white, are usually available by the bottle.)

I asked a Frenchman about this; he said the French consider Burgundy to be overpriced.

I've personally always considered it frustrating -- seven of every 10 Burgundies I've tried in the United States have been thin, light and unsatisfying. But the other three have been stunning, with haunting, sublime aromas of flowers, mushrooms, and autumn leaves. The problem is that even at $50 a bottle or so, you really don't know what you're going to get.

Joey and I set off for Burgundy this past weekend to try to solve the mystery.

We saw plenty of typical wine-country scenes like this:


And this:


But one thing was unexpected:


This shows a "grand cru" vineyard in the Corton-Charlemagne area, one of the best in Burgundy (alas, on a foggy morning). Anywhere else in the world, a vineyard like this would be owned by a single winery, which would bottle and sell the wines, and you'd be able to know exactly what you were getting.

Here, because the vineyards are so old and because French inheritance laws require estates to be divided equally among all the heirs, the vineyards have been drastically subdivided over the years. That strip in the center that looks more brown than the green strips to either side? Each strip is owned by a different person, and each owner has different ideas about when to plow, when to prune, when to fertilize. So the wine from each strip can be completely different.

How do you know which are the good ones? It's the same as anywhere else: you have to drink them to find out. How can you do this affordably? Go to Burgundy -- the wines can be had there for about half the price in the United States.

And drink up -- sante!