🗓️ Day 90 - Burgundy...it's been too long 👀
+ Small things, big impacts
💪 Warm up time
It’s the Sunday before your exams. Let’s do an exam technique check-in for the last time. The following is a list of best practices to maximise your chance to pass your D3 exams. How many have you been doing?
Highlight the command verbs (eg. explain, comment, describe).
Pay attention to the mark allocation.
Use 3-5 minutes to plan your answer on another sheet of paper.
Use sub-headings.
Write in short, concise sentences.
Breathe when you get stuck.
Check your answer against your essay plans.
Number your pages.
⏳ Mock exam question
40 minutes. Answer by hand. Let’s go ✍️⏱️
Explain how Burgundy producers are able to produce WHITE wines at different quality levels. (50%)
Identify the different types of actors involved in distributing them. (30%)
Comment on the threats this category faces. (20% weighting)
🤖 AI sample answer
By Claude.ai. Note that AI can make mistakes. Please read the following answer with a healthy dose of skeptism.
Production Factors Determining Quality Levels
In Burgundy, white wine production (predominantly Chardonnay) spans multiple quality tiers, from regional appellations to grand cru. This hierarchy is influenced by key environmental and viticultural factors.
The vineyard location significantly impacts quality. Grand cru vineyards like Le Montrachet are typically positioned mid-slope (200-400m elevation) with optimal southeast-facing aspects, providing perfect sunlight interception while maintaining good drainage. These sites benefit from shallow limestone and clay soils with good drainage yet sufficient water retention. By contrast, regional appellations like Bourgogne or Hautes Côtes de Beaune occupy either flat valley bottoms with deeper, more fertile soils or higher elevations (above 400m) with poorer ripening conditions and exposure to cooling winds.
Climate varies subtly across Burgundy's white wine regions. Chablis, 110km northwest of Dijon, has a continental climate with 670mm annual rainfall and significant spring frost risk. Moving south, the Côte de Beaune enjoys greater protection from the Morvan hills, while the Mâconnais has a noticeably warmer, drier climate. These variations significantly affect ripening patterns in Chardonnay.
Vineyard management practices differ by quality level. Higher-end vineyards typically maintain greater planting density (8,000-10,000 vines/ha) to encourage root competition and produce more concentrated fruit. Premier and grand cru vineyards more commonly practice organic or biodynamic viticulture. Yields are strictly controlled: regional appellations permit up to 75 hl/ha for whites, village appellations 45-47 hl/ha, and grand crus as low as 40 hl/ha. At premium levels, producers like Domaine Raveneau in Chablis employ careful canopy management and de-budding rather than green harvesting to maintain balance.
Winemaking techniques vary significantly by quality tier. For regional whites, fermentation typically occurs in stainless steel or concrete at 16-18°C, while premier and grand cru wines are often barrel-fermented at slightly warmer temperatures (up to 20°C). Oak usage increases dramatically up the hierarchy: little to none at regional level, 20-25% new oak for village wines, 30-50% for premier cru, and 50% or more for grand cru. The standard vessel is the 228-liter pièce, though some producers experiment with larger 500-600 liter barrels to reduce oak influence.
Lees contact and bâtonnage practices also differ by quality level. Premium producers age wines on fine lees for 8-12 months, often with periodic stirring to enhance texture and complexity. Malolactic conversion is almost universal in Côte d'Or whites but may be partially blocked in fresher styles. Higher-end wines typically undergo longer maturation (12-20 months) compared to simpler whites (a few months).
Distribution Actors in Burgundy
Burgundy's distribution system involves multiple actors:
Domaines own vineyards and produce estate-bottled wines, a trend that has increased since the 1980s. They represent the direct vine-to-bottle model that has gained prominence.
Négociants remain crucial, with historic houses like Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin, and Bouchard Père et Fils purchasing grapes, must, or finished wines from growers. They account for a significant portion of production and often own prime vineyard sites themselves.
Micro-négociants like Benjamin Leroux operate on smaller scales, sourcing top-quality grapes to produce limited-production wines under their own labels.
Growers with small vineyard holdings often sell their grapes or unfinished wines to négociants rather than bottling themselves. This is common in the fragmented vineyard ownership structure resulting from Napoleonic inheritance laws.
Co-operatives play an important role, particularly in Chablis (La Chablisienne vinifies one-third of all Chablis) and the Mâconnais (Cave de Lugny).
Approximately 50% of Burgundy is sold within France, while export markets account for the other half, with the USA, UK, and Japan being the most significant by value.
Threats to Burgundy White Wines
Several challenges face Burgundy's white wine sector:
Climate change has increased extreme weather events in the region. Spring frosts severely damaged crops in recent years, while hailstorms (particularly in the Côte de Beaune between 2012-2015) have devastated harvests. More recently, drought stress has affected vineyards in hot, dry summers, causing vines to shut down and interrupting ripening.
Premature oxidation ("premox") emerged as a significant issue in the early 2000s, particularly affecting white wines from 1996 onwards. This problem has been attributed to various factors including changes in pressing technology, lower sulfur dioxide levels at bottling, and cork quality issues. While less prevalent now, it remains a concern.
Disease pressure continues to challenge growers, with powdery mildew, downy mildew, and botrytis requiring constant vigilance. The humid climate (700mm annual rainfall) creates favorable conditions for fungal diseases, while new threats like grapevine yellows and Esca trunk disease have become more prevalent.
Competition from copycat styles poses a growing commercial threat as high-quality Chardonnay production has expanded globally. New World producers in cooler regions like Sonoma Coast, Oregon, and Australia's Mornington Peninsula increasingly emulate Burgundian techniques—including barrel fermentation, indigenous yeast fermentation, minimal intervention, and restrained oak usage—often at more competitive price points. Even within France, areas like Limoux and the Jura are producing mineral-driven, structured whites that appeal to traditional Burgundy consumers, potentially eroding market share as Burgundy prices continue to climb.
Counterfeit and fraud have increasingly targeted high-value Burgundy whites as prices have soared. Unlike Bordeaux's larger production volumes, Burgundy's limited output—with some grand cru producers making fewer than 500 cases annually—makes authentication challenging. Prestigious domaines like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Coche-Dury have been particularly targeted by sophisticated counterfeiters who replicate labels, capsules, and even bottle aging patterns. This threatens both consumer confidence and producer reputation, particularly in key Asian markets where authentication systems may be less developed.
Tariffs and trade barriers have created significant market disruption. The 25% tariffs imposed by the US on certain European wines in 2019 severely impacted Burgundy exports to its largest market. While some tariffs have since been suspended, the uncertainty of international trade policy continues to threaten market stability. Brexit has similarly complicated exports to the UK (Burgundy's second-largest export market), adding administrative complexity, delays, and costs. These trade challenges particularly affect smaller domaines that lack resources to navigate shifting regulatory environments across multiple export markets.
Market pressure from soaring land prices (driven by limited supply and foreign investment) has made it increasingly difficult for small family domaines to expand or for new entrants to establish themselves. Combined with weather-related yield variations, this has pushed prices upward substantially, with the Liv-ex Burgundy 150 Index showing a 200% increase between 2003 and 2016.
Pretty solid answer. For the actual exam, please remember to write to the given mark allocation. The AI wrote way too much on threats. One line each point is more than enough ✅
That’s for the last regular post of this run. Try to go outside a bit and sleep well, even if you haven’t finished studying.
Believe in yourself. You’ve got what’s need to pass 💯
