Drink - Victoria Moore overcomes her fear of Burgundy
Published 24 February 2003
Despite its reputation, Burgundy isn't that frightening if you give it a shot
One reason I love learning about wine is that it allows you to fine-tune the act of drinking. Via the taste buds, you begin to sketch a map of rivers and cities, grapes and climate, overlaid with your relationship to those wines. But there's one region where I've been afraid to step on anything but the most well-worn highways: Burgundy. It's embarrassing to admit, because for many old-school types Bordeaux and Burgundy are wine. But I've always felt too ignorant to venture into the complex patchwork of producers that makes up this sophisticated region. The longer this goes on, the more sheepish I feel about confessing that, like most wine drinkers in this country, I have little experience outside the shires of Chablis, the Macon and Beaujolais. So I took myself to the annual Burgundy tasting organised by Sopexa, which promotes French wine and food abroad. Such tastings are smart affairs attended mostly by wolfish-looking men in uptight suits. I rattled around in an Anna Karenina coat that looks like I've strapped a live cat to my shoulders, because I couldn't find the cloakroom.
Eventually, I ground to a halt by stand 15, for an association of vignerons called Bourgogne de Vigne en Verre. The stallholders took pity on my obvious cluelessness and I tasted my way through all their wines. And I realised: it's not that frightening; you just have to give it a shot. Burgundy is actually much more of a problem for those who need to work out how to sell weird French names to Brits who think that Chablis is a grape variety.
The third white I tried was delicious. I felt my face illuminate with pleasure as I sipped. As I scribbled in my notebook, "The nose zests up, bouncy and very fresh. Apple-fresh on the palate. It dances delightfully in the mouth," someone leaned over my shoulder and I covered my notes up like a schoolgirl worried she's got the answers wrong. The man said he worked for Oddbins and, when he tried the Rully, Domaine Michel Briday 2001, he was just as enthusiastic as I'd been. "Ah yes! It's got everything there," he cried, sticking his nose inside the glass.
You can find it soon (for around £12.50) at the Haslemere Cellar, Surrey (01428 645 081) and Uncorked, London EC2 (020 7638 5998). Incidentally, curious about what twentysomething wine drinkers who usually buy varietally labelled wines would make of Burgundy, I recently gave a group of friends four wines blind. Three were white burgundies; the last - and the one I reckoned they'd buy if left alone in a shop - was a Chardonnay from Sicily. The Sicilian Chardonnay came out bottom of everyone's list. Everyone loved the freshness of the Saint-Veran, Blason de Bourgogne 2001 (Tesco, £6.99) and they also liked the mineral subtlety of Majestic's Macon-Prisse (£5.99, 2001). Perhaps now they'll buy them, too.
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