Judgment of Burgundy- It's Not Just Red
Being an almost exclusively California wine drinker, I have often been fascinated with the differences between the traditional European wines and the new world U.S. wines. When I was quite young I had the impression that only French wines were considered good. Perhaps my experience was informed by getting first tipsy at the age of 16, when my mom and I were staying with a French family in Paris who kept pouring wine in my glass. For a while, almost all my underage drinking experiences were sipping wine with the French (or Quebecois), who would continually refill wine in my never-empty glass, until I had no concept of how much I had been drinking.
But later I realized that U.S. wines, while not possessing quite the same culture, were not only respected, but regularly found among the world’s best. In the famous Judgment of Paris in 1976, a Californian wine was chosen over French wines in a blind taste test, providing the basis for the movie Bottle Shock and showing that American wines were underestimated. Now that I live in California, so close to Napa and Sonoma, I take great pride in drinking wine from vineyards I have visited or places close to me. And with the growing local food movement, which emphasizes buying food (and drinks) grown close to home, buying California wine is par for the course in our area.
Recently I have begun to rediscover French wines, though with a bit of trepidation. Many a French label has been completely uninformative about its contents, leaving me to stare at it for several minutes before realizing it does not, in fact, list the type of wine, only the vineyard. Like a lot of information in France, it is assumed to already be known. The region, the vineyard and the color should tell you everything you need to know.
This certainly seemed to hold true with Burgundy wines, which specialize in only two wine varietals — though we were a bit surprised to find out that one of them was not red. At a recent wine tasting event featuring the best of the Burgundy region, we tried wines from several vineyards and found out that in addition to specializing in the pinot noir for which it is known, the region is also known for producing truly excellent chardonnays. A sparkling chardonnay that we sampled may even have been the best sparkling wine I have yet tasted, but most other chardonnays seemed reasonably similar to those from California.
French pinot noirs and U.S. pinot noirs differ markedly in flavor, however. The American pinot noir is very bold and full. The French pinot noir is very light and balanced. I am an avid red wine drinker and for myself I tend to choose bolder wines so prefer the American pinot noirs. What I have found, however, is that many of my friends who prefer white wines will often enjoy French reds more than American ones.
Another surprise from the show was that Burgundy classifies their wine according to the potential of certain territories. “Premier cru” or “1er cru” and “grand cru” are the two levels you’re most likely to see in the U.S., with “grand cru” being the highest classification and “premier cru” being the second highest. We may rate our wines on a point scale, but never by the promise of the territory.
The actual method of growing grapes is different as well. In the U.S., there is really only one style of vineyard, the typical overhanging vineyard everyone knows about. Vineyards in Europe come in two types, one style that Americans use, the traditional (and rather romantic) overhanging and the other style, growing vertically on individual sticks. I asked our guide to Burgundy wines why they were so focused on pinot, and apparently cabernet, merlot and syrah/shiraz can be made anywhere. Pinot noir is a little pickier — an opinion asserted as well by the main character of the movie Sideways. Burgundy seems an ideal location because the terroir offers the right combination of soil and climate.
Perhaps the biggest divide, though, is cultural. I once asked one of my French friends how he felt about American wines. He said that American wines were fine, but that the experience of the winemakers was different. The French take a great pride in their wines, it is part of their identity. For Americans, he said, it is just a business. In that way, French people might feel that American wines will never be able to compare, even when the wines are better. Certainly, that mirrors comments made recently in response to California again winning against the French during a blind taste test of aged versions of the same wines used in the Judgment of Paris. The comment posited that taste tests miss the point, because France will always have the advantage of a long history of wine cultivation and culture.
In the U.S., I rarely buy wines under $15, because I have found so very few that are worthwhile under that price. If I am trying to test out a new and previously-untasted wine, I’m a little wary if it’s under that price. One of my European friends, by contrast, is a huge wine lover but refuses to buy wine over $10, because he just considers that too expensive. His price point is based on the experience of living in Europe, which, he tells me, included many trips to French vineyards where excellent wines were sold at dirt cheap prices like $2-$5 a bottle — though perhaps no longer. On a visit to Switzerland recently, this point was driven home- a bottle of sparkling water was around three Swiss Francs and a glass of wine was just one Swiss Franc more. Wine was more of an everyday drink that was not subjected to a sin tax, was open to ages 18 and older at restaurants, and wasn’t exorbitantly priced.
Burgundy turned out to have plenty to offer wine fans of any budget or preference- great chardonnays, reasonable prices, and pinots that can stack up against the best from California- cultural heritage or no. We just wish we could drive up to Napa and get a $5 bottle of wine, and have more chances to use our nifty wine gadgets!
