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No matter if you are a perfumed or chiseled woman Pinot NoirChambolle-Musigny or the steely ChardonnayThis is Chablis, Burgundy’s classic wines are icons of typicity. These wines are unique and could only have come from one source. Burgundy.
Consider these suggestions terroir—the unique soil, topography and climate of each vineyard—and a wine’s typicity, or how faithfully it reflects its origin and grape variety, are central to Burgundy’s identity. So much so, that terroir is fundamental to the development of Burgundy’s hierarchy of wines. CrusadesAlso known as Climate, based on centuries worth of winegrowing history.
Climate is a large part of what defines terroir, and Burgundy is one of the world’s great archetypes for cool-climate viticulture. Burgundy wines are red or white. Their finesse, raciness, and pristine fruit profiles make them stand out. This is because they were cultivated in cool climates.
With warming climates, however, the expression of Burgundy’s classic wines has changed significantly, challenging core notions of typicity and terroir, and perhaps even the sustainability of Burgundy’s historic hierarchy.
A Riper Shade
While climate change has introduced catastrophic flooding, frost and drought around the globe, it’s also introduced a pattern of extraordinarily dry, sunny vintages that have been commercial blockbusters for Burgundy.
This pattern is evident as historians and scientists have dated grape harvest dates back to 1354 with near-annual records. Research has shown that the climate has changed significantly since the late 1980s. Modern harvest dates are two week earlier than in the past six centuries.
“The greatest problem of our ancestors was to reach [grape] ripeness,” says Frédéric Drouhin, the president of the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB).President of the executive board Joseph DrouhinA leading winery in the region,.
Burgundy is now more comfortable with hot and dry vintages than ever before. “We now produce more often good vintages than bad,” says Drouhin. Drouhin says that grape growers are now harvesting grapes more ripely than 20 years ago. This is due to higher sugar accumulation, physiological ripeness, and a greater variety of grape varieties. TansGrape skins
Historically, Burgundy’s best climats, its storied premier cru or grand cru vineyards, were demarcated based on outperforming terroir known for consistent grape ripening and resulting typicity. With warmer growing seasons in Burgundy, grape yields have improved across the board, even at the most remote regions. BourgogneApplicable to village-level, premier and grand cru designations
Burgundy wines today, red and white, are more fruity and richer than ever. They are bolder in fruit concentration, higher in alcohol, but also softer. Aciditytannins. Winegrowers have taken many of these changes into account.
In Chablis, Chardonnay has become “much more expressive,” says Anne Moreau, co-owner with her husband, Louis, of Domaine Louis Moreau. “[There’s] more roundness and fruitiness,” she says, with “much more grapefruit notes or tropical fruit, very ripe lime and apricot.”
Similarly, Drouhin suggests that Pinot Noir throughout Burgundy “has gained a ripeness and [a perception of] sweetness” and compared to wines from 20 years ago, “we rarely have green, unpleasant tannins that don’t soften or ripen with age.” Contemporary Burgundy is more seductive and charming young, but also likely to age well, he says.
Defining Typicity, Past & Present
While welcomed by many, the new normal of a riper, more potent Burgundy challenges notions of typicity central to Burgundy’s identity.
“With climate change, we produce wines [with alcohol levels] closer to 13.5% abv than 12.5% abv,” says Drouhin.
Burgundy has a lot of tropical and jammy expressions of wine, so winemakers worry that Burgundy will one day taste more like tropical wine. Châteauneuf-du-PapeOr other southerly, Mediterranean wines.
Burgundy’s first formal wine classification was developed in 1861. However, winegrowers in Burgundy had already associated typicity with a vineyard’s quality long before that.
In 1936, this classification became the basis for Burgundy’s Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC). Typicity is still an important characteristic when determining whether a climate is considered generically Burgundy-level or village-level wine.
However, there are obvious pitfalls to defining typicity after centuries of winegrowing. Climate conditions are vastly different today than they were in the 19th or early 20th centuries. While the terroir envisioned by Burgundy’s classification system is frozen in time, the typicity of wines produced there have arguably changed.
Most winemakers insist that while climate is variable to terroir, Burgundy’s typicity is still very much intact. “Even with riper vintages, we haven’t lost the typicity of our appellations,” says Drouhin, because the links between Burgundy’s historic grapes and soil are still intact. “VolnayIt still tastes like a Volnay. Pommard still tastes like a Pommard.”
Similarly, in Chablis, despite the rounder, richer fruit profiles of recent vintages, Moreau remains confident that her wines “still have this precision and limestone note so characteristic of Chablis.” Still, winemakers in Burgundy have responded proactively to the effects of warming climates as a matter of sustainability and the pursuit of balance. Winegrowers have changed their vineyard management over the years. They now plant later-ripening grapes clones and experiment with rootstocks that can withstand heat and hydric stress. To reduce excess alcohol and sugar ripeness, harvesting times and canopy management have changed.
Many winemakers have reduced the amount of techniques that increase the richness and complexity of white wines in the cellar. These include lees stirring and maturation in new wood. To preserve freshness in riper red wines, fermentation methods that include stems and whole bunches are back in fashion.
Some acknowledge that typicity is not static. Due to global warming, “it’s likely that the definition of typicity [in Burgundy] will be recalibrated in the future,” says Kyungmoon Kim, MS, founder of KMS Imports LLCA wine educator. “We don’t know how these wines are going to change in the next 10 or 20 years, and they might end up being even better than what we expected.”
Burgundy’s New “Classic” Regions
Warmer climates have had an democratizing effect, increasing grape ripening across Burgundy and shining new light on historically undervalued areas. As the heartland of Burgundy’s Côte de BeauneAnd Côte de NuitsRecovering balance is possible with the help of vineyards at higher elevations and northerly latitudes.
Hautes Côtes de Beaune and Hautes Côtes de Nuits, two appellations that extend to the west above the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, produce some of Burgundy’s most interesting wines today. While credit is due partly to the skill of modern winegrowers, warming climates have played a large role in the increase in quality wines from these regions, says Danièle Bonnardot, the third-generation proprietor of Domaine Bonnardot in the Hautes Côtes de Nuits.
“It’s difficult now to keep acidity [in wine] in the Côte de Beaune or Côte de Nuits,” says Bonnardot, but in the Hautes Côtes, higher altitudes and cooler nighttime temperatures maintain acidity, balance and a “classic Burgundian character” that’s increasingly rare.
The Burgundy northern outskirts are home to the Grand AuxerroisSimilar attention has been given to, which is a scattered collection of vineyards that are centered around Chablis. Irancy, an appellation that was granted village-level status by the Auxerrois in 1998, is one the few appellations that boasts a Kimmeridgian-based foundation.limestoneChablis.
As in the Hautes Côtes, global warming has blurred climate distinctions between once-marginal regions like Irancy and more prestigious appellations in the heart of Burgundy. “Twenty years ago, the harvest in the Côte d’Or [the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits combined] took place 10 days earlier than in Irancy,” says Marie Ferrari, co-owner of Domaine Christophe FerrariIrancy. “Today, the harvest starts [almost] at the same time.”
Paradis in Irancy, Les Mazelots, and La Palotte have been praised for their unique, concentrated expressions of Pinot Noir in recent decades.
A Threat to Burgundy’s Hierarchy?
As notions of terroir and typicity are challenged, it’s debatable whether Burgundy’s quality classification will evolve, too. Modern precedent suggests that reclassification is a complicated and lengthy administrative process. In 2018, the most recent instance, Pouilly-FuisséAfter a decade-long application process, 22 premier cru climats were awarded to the vineyard. Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO)The governing body responsible for AOCs is.
“I can’t tell you that the Hautes Côtes will be like Chambolle-Musigny in five or 10 years,” says Bonnardot. But there is still great potential for winemaking in certain vineyards, and warmer climates as well as a sophisticated generation winegrowers has only increased prospects, she says.
Besides, even without a reclassification, “there’s already [been] a promotion of sorts because the price of land has been increasing in the last five years,” says Bonnardot. In recent years, the Hautes Côtes has welcomed an influx of producers from outside the region, including luminaries like Jean-Nicolas Méo, Domaine Leflaive, Thibault-BelairOthers. She says there is recognition that exciting, complex wines can be produced there.
But it’s important for winegrowers to understand that “not all vines can be classified as premier cru,” says Ferrari, who is part of a group of winegrowers in Irancy contemplating potential reclassifications. Drouhin, a producer from Drouhin, insists that terroir is more than climate shifts.
“The reputations of appellations like Chambolle Musigny, Pommard or Meursault have been built over centuries,” he says. “They still deliver a weight and complexity that, honestly, I don’t believe will change.”
This article appeared in the April 20,22 issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Click Here to subscribe today!
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