Best Resources
I taught three Burgundy classes in the space of eight days last week, one in LA, one in Portland and one here at the winery. A great question that came up a couple of times was from attendees wanting to know where to find the best resource material to study and learn more about this complex and endlessly fascinating thing we call Burgundy.
First and foremost, the most valuable tool to help you navigate through the Burgundian maze is a subscription to Allen Meadows’ Burghound.com – which is billed as the Ultimate Burgundy Reference, and it indeed is. It comes out four times each year, covers many hundreds of producers and thousands of wines annually, and is undoubtedly the most in-depth, thorough, and informed coverage of the wines of Burgundy on the planet. Allen knows and understands Burgundy more completely than many if not most of the Burgundians themselves, and arguably has tasted more great old vintages of Burgundy than anyone alive. He is an exceptionally talented and experienced taster, and an intensely passionate student/scholar of the genre. I’ve been studying the region for nearly 40 years, and continue to learn from Allen with every new issue. (He also has a great book scheduled for publication later this year – an in-depth study of the terroir and wines of Burgundy’s greatest village, Vosne-Romanée).
For a good, basic reference book there are a few good choices, though none of them are either entirely current or totally accurate. Your best bet right now is “The Wines of Burgundy’ by Clive Coates, as it is the most recent one of the bunch, having been published in May 2008. It is a good update from Coates’ 1997 book Côte d’Or, with new maps, tons of older vintage tasting notes, and good basic information on each of the villages and top domaines. You may or may not find yourself in tune with his palate, and I enjoy this book much more for the fairly solid reference information than for the tasting notes.
“The Great Domaines of Burgundy” by Remington Norman is another good bet – it was originally published in 1996, but will soon be replaced by a new version now slated for release at the end of August. The original version is now quite out of date, but I will certainly be lining up to grab a copy of the new edition this fall.
Other top books include Anthony Hanson’s “Burgundy”, which has been revised multiple times, most recently in 2006. Matt Kramer’s “Making Sense of Burgundy” is an excellent book from 1993, and is surely due for an update in the near future. If you pick up any of these older books, just know that much of the producer information is likely out of date. That said, the appellations and the terroir of course remain essentially unchanged, so there’s still a lot of good information to be had in these pages.
If you read and understand French, there are all sorts of additional options to pursue, depending on how far you want to go go down the “rabbit hole”. A tremendous resource for all things Burgundy – books and publications in all languages – is the wonderful shop Athenaeum in Beaune – a virtual treasure-trove of wine books and magazines from all over the planet. Their vast stock is available on the internet, and they ship anywhere on the globe. After all these years, I never walk out of Athenauem without having found something new I simply must have. (They are also your best source for those famous vineyard maps of the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits you see everywhere – they come as a set rolled in a tube at 39 Euros and ready to ship. These are simply a must-have for any student of the game, imho…)
Another tip for French-speakers is the excellent magazine Bourgogne Aujourd’hui, which is published every other month and does a great job of keeping you up to date on all the happenings in the region, along with a good set of reviews, producer profiles, restaurant reviews, and terroir-focused articles. A foreign-delivery subscription will run you 42 Euros a year, and it comes with four free issues of Bordeaux magazine (which I hear makes excellent bird-cage liner or puppy-training paper…)
Nothing makes a better teacher than experience, of course. Tasting and comparing as many different wines and producers as you can is the activity that will ultimately teach you the most. That and a visit to Burgundy to see it for yourself – you truly need to see it with your own eyes to fully understand how it all fits together. You can drink and study the wines for years, but it takes the on-site experience for that last puzzle-piece to fall into place. Here’s to a lifetime of discovering the glories of Burgundy!
