Burgundy

What Burgundy teaches: terroir

Burgundy is built mainly around Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and nearby vineyards can still taste strikingly different. Plots separated by a farm track can sell for wildly different prices because drinkers believe the place changes the wine. This is terroir: the idea that where a vine grows matters as much as what it grows. Burgundy is where many drinkers first understand it.

The wines

Reds of perfume and silk rather than power; whites that run from steely Chablis to golden Meursault. The label names the place, not the grape, by design. The place is the point.

Where to go

Beaune is the capital of the Côte d'Or and the natural base. Walk the multicoloured roof tiles of the Hospices de Beaune, then drive the Route des Grands Crus past Clos de Vougeot, the medieval walled vineyard where Burgundy's monks gave terroir a practical shape long before anyone put lab language around it. The big négociant cellars in Beaune (Patriarche, Bouchard) offer tastings without appointments; the famous domaines mostly don't, which is part of the region's charm and its frustration.

Eat

Ma Cuisine in Beaune is the wine trade's canteen: a short menu, a legendary cellar. Book ahead.

Getting there

TGV from Paris to Dijon or direct to Beaune, around two hours. A car helps; the famous vineyards are a slow, glorious twenty-minute drive apart.