History is Present in Bourgogne Wine Country
Pinot noir grapes, Santenay, Bourgogne, France. Image credit: PRA, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
While it is believed that the Celts brought elements of wine culture from Italy to the region now known as Burgundy, France, the unearthing of amphorae dating to the first century BCE provide concrete evidence that wines from Burgundy have been part of local life for over two millennia. Greek traders and soldiers and settlers from the Roman Republic moved westward across the Mediterranean to southern Gaul and subsequently progressed north through the Rhône Valley whose rivers facilitated the transport of goods and people. The Roman Republic under Julius Caesar waged the Gallic Wars in 58-50 BCE to conquer the entirety of Gaul, eventually bringing more Roman settlers with vines to plant in eastern Gaul.
Starting around the 5th century CE, winemaking in Burgundy took on a greater degree of professionalism as the rise of Christianity led to the establishment of monasteries where monks lived and prayed. The inclusion of wine in religious services made viniculture a natural extension of monastic farming. Cistercian monks centered at the Abbey of Cîteaux and monks at the Abbey of Cluny received donations of land that they used to make wine, experimenting to perfect their products and improve their yields. The monks documented their experiences and findings and laid the groundwork for several elements that have since been associated with Burgundy wines.
Château Vougeot, Bourgogne, France. Image credit: Urban, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For one, they noticed that the quality and character of grapes and the wines they produced varied from one plot to another, even within a single vineyard. The consistency of these characteristics informed the notion of terroir that is of great import in the French wine industry and even more so in Burgundy. The monks delineated specific plots, called climats, noting their characteristics as well as the medieval version of tasting notes for the grapes and wines that the plots produced, and classified them by quality. This set the stage for today’s appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) system. Winemakers also built ‘clos’, or stone walls, around their plots to ward off animals and mark the delineations. One of the oldest and largest is the Clos de Veugeot built in 1336.
Monks were not the only ones to notice the appeal of the wines of Bourgogne. During the Middle Ages, the Duchy of Burgundy played a large part in promoting Burgundy wines. Philip the Bold and his successors ruled a large part of modern-day eastern France and parts of today’s Belgium and the Netherlands in the 14th and 15th centuries, achieving great wealth and prominence. Wine from their vineyards signified their elevated position and taste, leading Philip to issue an edict in 1395 that promoted Pinot Noir while banning the Gamay grape. The latter was used to make everyday wine and potentially compromised the image of Bourgogne wine, particularly Philip’s preferred Pinot Noir. Burgundian rulers also prohibited the import of wines from other regions while distributing their wines broadly, including to the Papal Court at Avignon and the King of France. Unsurprisingly, royalty and the upper classes across Europe followed suit, further boosting the reputation and sales of wines from Burgundy.
For the Dukes of Burgundy, all good things did come to an end, but the Burgundy wine industry continued to weather changes in politics, society, and environment. The Duchy began to crumble after the death of the last Duke in the Burgundian Wars and was ultimately folded into the Kingdom of France. The 16th century Wars of Religion weakened the standing of both the king and Catholic church, leading to the gradual transfer of vineyards from the church to private purchasers. This trend continued after the French Revolution, when property of the royalty and nobility was appropriated and then sold. Vineyard ownership became even more dispersed once Napeoleonic inheritance laws required that equal shares be distributed among children.
The town of Meursault, on the Côte de Beaune, May 2005. Image credit: Gavin Sherry (talk); uploaded to the French language Wikipedia by BoLingua., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Alongside political and societal changes, industry practices also evolved. Improved roads and the move from barrels to glass bottles helped facilitate the transportation and distribution of wine. The role of négociants developed to combine output from smaller growers and bottle wines under their own label. Burgundy wine growers later faced significant disruptions from the phylloxera epidemic that attacked vines in the latter half of the 19th century and two wars that displaced necessary resources in the first half of the 20th. The industry continued to adapt by grafting pest-resistant vines to confront the former issue and experimenting with fertilizers to revitalize vineyards affected by neglect and scarcity during times of war.
And the Burgundy wine industry prevailed as it has over the centuries, rooted in deep reserves of experience and tradition. Both the 2022 and 2023 harvests were plentiful relative to the average over the five years prior thanks to favorable growing conditions. The continued appeal and success of Burgundy wines is to due the people involved, from winemakers who descend from generations of family members cultivating the same land to négociants who support the smallest of growers, enabling them to carry on the cycle of planting, harvesting, and winemaking that has endured for over two thousand years. Approximately two-thirds of the wine-growing land in Burgundy is in the hands of individual producers who make their own decisions about nearly every aspect of winemaking rather than relying on input from consultants or marketing firms. Few (if any) are Cistercian monks and few of their customers are royalty or nobility, but the dedication and expertise of those in the Burgundy wine industry pay homage to the traditions and sense of local terroir that their predecessors established.
Activité de français
Discover the Côte d’Or, or northern part of Bourgogne wine country, in the French-language video below. Join the narrators on their ‘Bourgogne Road Trip’ to hear from winemakers, see the vineyards and part of the winemaking process, and learn more about the wonders of Burgundy wine.
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