EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALSeptember
14, 1999
Beaune, Burgundy
Try the Richebourg Grand Cru 1985
Burgundy’s Cote d’Or is a nearly unbroken strip of vines from Dijon in the
north, to the village of Santenay, just south of Beaune. It’s a narrow, 50
kilometre-long escarpment squeezed between the flat planes of the Saone river valley to
the southeast, and a plateau of rough woodland to the northwest. The Cote d’Or is the
golden-reddish soil (hence the name – the Gold Coast, though there is no sea) that
grows the greatest grapes in France –the converging Cote de Beaune and the Cote de
Nuits. Ninety-five percent of the region’s best vines are on the uphill slope of the
main thoroughfare between Beaune to Dijon. Between these two cities are the signposts and
villages of the succulent dreams of wine lovers: Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot,
Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanee, Nuits-St-Georges, Aloxe-Corton, Meursault and Chassagne
Montrachet. The fame of these tiny appellations spread throughout Europe in the 14th
century under the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. After the French Revolution, Napoleonic laws
of equal inheritance split vineyards into the tiniest of fractions, making an even greater
number of appellations and a fabulously technical classification system.
Under the Dukes of Valois, Burgundy was France’s most powerful rival, with its
territory spreading through northeastern France, Flanders and Holland. By the 16th
century, however, the duchy was ruled by governors appointed by the French crown.
Nevertheless, Burgundy managed to retain its privileges and traditions. Burgundy today
considers itself the gastronomic and cultural heart of France – a still
prosperous region with world-renowned wine, cuisine and the architectural legacy of the
Burgundian nobility.
