Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor Part 2: Floral Reds, Full-Bodied Whites
Discover Full Bodied Whites and Juicy Floral Reds With The Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor Tool
In this second part of our exploration of our new Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor tool, we look at Juicy, floral reds and Full-bodied Chardonnays. These are just two of the categories you can select on BurgundyWine.com to instantly view a range of superb Burgundy wines, expertly matched according to your tastes. These are not just labels to fit a wine into a category though; these tasting notes are the result of thirty years of living and loving Burgundy. The Domaine de Cromey— home of BurgundyWine.com by Elden Selections—is imbued with that spirit. It’s an organic, uncompromising, passionate pursuit of excellence in the simplest things. The wines that the Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor recommends for you are from masterful winemakers—their best wines, that we’ve followed from vineyard to bottle, vintage to vintage.
Finding Juicy, Floral Red Burgundy wine
It is the world-famous terroir that accounts for the many different types of red wine produced in Burgundy, almost entirely from just a single grape variety. Some are earthy, leathery and powerful—others are softer, floral and distinctly juicy. For these more flowery wines, you can’t do better than look for wines from Volnay, Beaune or Givry. They are also easily matched with great foods such as dishes like Oeufs en Muerette or Goats Cheese Espuma, both of which appear in our very own Ellie’s cookbook.
The beauty of Pinot Noir as a grape is that it can be subtly different in every wine—same grape, but different expression. You could say there are as many expressions as there are winemakers, and Elden Selections works with the best of them.
If you know a little French, you might be aware that Pinot Noir’s name literally means Black Pine grape it gets its name from the cone-shaped clusters it forms while ripening on the vine. Pinot Noir is considered to have originated in France, particularly in Burgundy where it was first cultivated by 14th century French monks. Even today, some of the finest examples of Pinot Noir are grown in this region. Enthusiasts hold this grape variety in high regard and celebrate it with its own appreciation day on August 18th. However, to fully appreciate its true character and personality, one needs to explore it further, which is where our Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor tool comes in handy.
Domaine Pierre Thibert, for example, has already achieved more than most people will in a lifetime: he and his family have created a capable family domain, an impressive reputation and a high-quality style in just one generation. It’s allowed him to produce wines like his ripe and juicy Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru 'Rue de Chaux'. Another producer doing great things in the juicy, floral style is Pierre Naigeon. His Domaine is now more than 11.5 hectares (almost 28 acres), with an incredible 50 different plots in the Côte de Nuits. Wines of his to look out for in this style include his Gevrey-Chambertin 'En Sylvie' – think flowers and lace, but also opulence and richness.
Discover Full-bodied Burgundy White Wines
Chardonnay is a type of grape that was created by crossing Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc, a grape variety brought to France by the Romans from Croatia. Today, there are more than thirty different varieties of Chardonnay grown in France alone. This grape is now grown all over the world in both the 'new' and 'old' worlds, including in California (which has over 100,000 acres of Chardonnay), Chile, Australia, and of course, in Burgundy, France its spiritual home.
Chardonnay used to have a bad reputation among wine drinkers, and folks jokingly referred to the ABC movement, which stood for "Anything But Chardonnay". This was due to the abundance of poor-quality Chardonnays on the market, and many people didn't take the time to choose a good one. However, you won't find any poor quality Chardonnays in the cellars of Elden Selections or their producers. Today, the acronym ABC is more likely to mean "Amazingly Buttery Chardonnay" or "Absolutely Brilliant Chardonnay".
When we talk of white Burgundy wines, again the same variety of expression is found as in the reds. Fresh, mineral and floral happily sit side-by-side amongst more complex, full-bodied Chardonnays. But Burgundy also has one advantage over wines from hotter climates like those Californian Chardonnays which can tend to be on the ‘flabby’ side and lack acidity. The climate in Burgundy means producers here can keep the acidity and still produce full-bodied whites, which also have great aging potential.
To understand what we mean, you need to try some of the producers we work with. Jean Dauvissat Pere et Fils (the ‘fils’ being his son Fabien), for example, produces great Chablis which is both round and mature but also has wonderful lemony acidity. Their vineyard receives plenty of exposure to the sun, lending it higher sugar content and thus extra ripeness at harvest time. That ripeness means higher alcohol levels, and hence greater 'body'. If big ‘fat’ Chardonnays are your thing, then try a Chablis Fourchaume.
Other notable winemakers in this style include Domaine Gilles Bouton and Jean-Baptiste Ponsot whose 1er Cru Rully is ripe, elegant and complex, with an extremely long finish.
Other Categories On Our Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor
Other categories of red Burgundy wines that you can instantly view using the Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor are Earthy-wood reds from such esteemed producers as Domaine Marchand Freres, Pierre Naigeon, and also bottles that we have picked up from the Hospices de Beaune. These reds have absorbed the oak of the barrels they have been aged in. In fact, one of the principle decisions to be made when ‘raising’ a new wine is when to remove the wine from new oak barrels which impart their flavor quickly, and put it into more neutral barrels. The advisor also lists complex, structured reds - a characteristic that can be found right throughout the quality pyramid from regional appellations right up to Grand Cru wines. Why not discover them today for yourself?
Explore Your Palate in Our Tasting Room at Domaine de Cromey
When you’ve selected your wines using the Burgundy Wine Palate Advisor, you need somewhere to sample them— in luxury Burgundian surroundings and with other likeminded folk. Where better than the brand-new Domaine de Cromey tasting room? They say that there’s nothing quite like tasting wine on the ground it was grown on – there’s something about captured in the wine of the air and the sun – the spirit the wine that you just can’t recreate elsewhere. When you add in local food, that closeness to Burgundy reaches another level. Many of Elden Selection’s customers make their own pilgrimage to stay with us at Domaine de Cromey so that they can make that local connection. They find there’s an appreciable difference between the Burgundy wines they enjoy back at home in the States, and the ones they drink here.
We offer full tasting notes for all of our wines as part of our membership deal for our Burgundy Wine Club. You’ll also get exclusive handselected wines from our best producers, plus free entry into a prize draw for a 4 day stay at Domaine de Cromey, our Burgundian home amongst the vines. Don’t forget to have a look at our Cromey blog too here.