A Look At Bordeaux And Burgundy Wines

The regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy in France are world renowned for producing some of the best wines available anywhere. Let’s take a look at them individually.

First we have Bordeaux, this world famous region in France near the Southeast coast makes some of the best and most famous red wines as well as white wines and dessert wines. Of these, the most notable of the red wines come form Medoc, Saint-Emilion, and Pomerol. Most of the high quality white wines hail from the area called Graves while the best dessert wines are found in Sauternes and Saint-Croix-du-Mont.

With the red wines of Bordeaux we usually see blends including Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and occasionally a little of Petit Verdot. The dessert wines and white wines from the Bordeaux region are mainly of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillion. Some of the most expensive and in demand wines come from the Bordeaux region including the world famous Chateaux Lafite-Rothschild.

The Bordeaux region is a diversified wine growing area with nearly ten thousand wine making chateaux, and over thirteen thousand wine growers. Due to the sheer numbers you will find a variety of wines from old and established aged Bordeaux wines to young wines. Bordeaux wines offer everything from the top quality wines like the Rothschild mentioned above which deserves the price it brings, to even the more common table wines that are much less expensive but still of superior quality. You can’t go wrong with a wine from this region.

The Burgundy Region is located in North Central France reaching from Dijon south to Beaujolais. It is said that the farther north you go in Burgundy the better the wine. The far northern area of Burgundy called Cote d’Or means hills of gold and probably for this reason! It is here that we find the Pinot Noir grape that is responsible for some of the world’s most delicious and complex wines. Some of the very best vineyards in Burgundy are right here in the hills, sitting in the actual hillsides.

Beaujolais is located in the southern area of the Burgundy region and instead of the Pinot Noir grape, the wine producers here choose the Gamay which is known to be fruitier. These wines are made to be consumed while they are young and it is recommended that they be chilled to even further enhance the berry taste. A good Beaujolais wine will be fruity and yet still be dry.

Many of the Burgundy vineyards are ranked “Grand Cru” which indicates the very best vineyards and quite a few others are labeled “Premier Cru” which means exceptional. When looking at the label of a wine from the Burgundy Region you will find the exact location the grapes come from and that is usually all the information given.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions and their famous wines, now go out and get some and try it for yourself!