Terroir Archives

Pinot Noir: The Grape That Demands Respect

by Anne Kjellgren | Mar 31, 2026 | Expand Your Palate, France, Pinot Noir, Varietals, Wine, Wine Regions

Pinot Noir is the most difficult major red grape in the world to grow.

This is not a provocation. It is a well-established viticultural fact. Pinot Noir is thin-skinned and therefore vulnerable to frost, rot, and disease. It buds early, which exposes it to spring frost damage. It ripens unevenly. It demands specific soil and climate conditions to produce wine of quality — get those wrong and the result is either a thin, acidic disappointment or an overripe, jammy muddle. There is very little middle ground.

And yet when Pinot Noir is grown in the right place, by a skilled and patient producer, it produces wines of extraordinary delicacy, complexity, and longevity. It is the grape that makes Romanée-Conti. It is the red grape of Burgundy. It is the reason why some of the most sophisticated wine drinkers in the world spend decades drinking almost nothing else.

Understanding Pinot Noir — what it is, what shapes it, what Burgundy does with it, and how it expresses itself around the world — is one of the most useful things you can do as a wine lover.

What Pinot Noir Actually Is

Flavour profile. Red fruit dominates: strawberry, red cherry, raspberry, cranberry in cooler climates. Dark cherry, plum in warmer sites. With age, the fruit gives way to earthier, more complex notes: forest floor, mushroom, dried rose, leather, truffle. This evolution — from fruit-forward in youth to earth-driven in age — is one of Pinot Noir's most distinctive qualities.

Tannins. Fine, silky, and light. This is crucial. Where Cabernet Sauvignon builds structure through firm, grippy tannins, Pinot Noir achieves structure through acidity rather than tannin. The resulting texture is smooth, almost liquid — the quality described as 'silky' or 'satiny' in tasting notes is real, and it is what makes Pinot Noir so food-friendly.

Acidity. High. This is what gives Pinot Noir its freshness, its food affinity, and its ageing potential. Acidity is the backbone that allows great Burgundy to evolve for twenty, thirty, forty years in bottle.

Colour. Lighter than most red wines — translucent ruby, often with a garnet tint. Do not mistake lightness of colour for lightness of flavour. The finest Burgundies are pale in the glass and profound in the palate.

Why Burgundy Is the Benchmark

Pinot Noir is grown around the world — Oregon, California, New Zealand, Germany, Chile, South Africa. It makes excellent wine in many of these places. But Burgundy remains the benchmark because it is where the grape has been grown, studied, and refined for the longest time, on the specific soils and in the specific climate where it performs most expressively.

The Côte d'Or's limestone and clay soils, the continental climate's warm days and cool nights during the growing season, and centuries of accumulated winemaking knowledge combine to produce wines that, at their finest, achieve a degree of complexity and precision that no other region has consistently replicated.

This is not snobbery. It is the result of place, time, and obsessive attention. Understanding the Burgundy benchmark helps you evaluate every other Pinot Noir you drink — what it is reaching toward, where it diverges, what the terroir and climate of its origin are doing to the grape's fundamental character.

Pinot Noir Around the World

Willamette Valley, Oregon. The closest American approximation to Burgundy's elegance — cool climate, volcanic and sedimentary soils, restrained winemaking philosophy. Silky, aromatic, red-fruited. $20–80+.

Central Otago, New Zealand. High altitude, continental climate, intense UV. More concentrated and ripe than Burgundy, with darker fruit and more obvious structure. $25–60+.

Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley, California. Cooler coastal influence produces more restrained, elegant Pinot Noir than warmer inland California sites. $25–80+.

Baden and Pfalz, Germany. Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) produced in Germany can be remarkably Burgundian in character — restrained, earthy, silky. An underestimated source. $20–60+.

In all of these regions, the same principle applies: cool climate produces more restrained, aromatic, high-acid Pinot Noir. Warm climate produces riper, more generous, darker-fruited expressions. Neither is wrong. They are different conversations about the same grape.

Thursday: roast lamb and Burgundy Pinot Noir, timed for the Easter weekend. The pairing is a natural — see you then.

Share your Pinot Noir experiences in the community. 👉 Click here → https://www.facebook.com/groups/expandyourpalate

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Post Created: Mar 31, 2026

Burgundy Pinot Noir: The Red Side of the Greatest Wine Region on Earth

by Anne Kjellgren | Mar 29, 2026 | Burgundy, Expand Your Palate, France, Wine, Wine Regions

We are spending three weeks in Burgundy — the region, the white wines, the Chardonnay map from Chablis to Côte de Beaune. This week we turn to the red side.

One grape. One region. A range that extends from approachable, honest, genuinely affordable wines to some of the most studied and most expensive bottles in the world. The same classification system — Régionale, Villages, Premier Cru, Grand Cru — applied now to Pinot Noir, and the same fundamental principle: the ground is what is classified, not the producer.

Burgundy's red wine map has two primary territories. The Côte de Nuits in the north, where Pinot Noir reaches its most complex and prestigious expression. And the Côte de Chalonnaise in the south, where the same grape produces honest, food-friendly wines at prices that make Burgundy actually accessible. Understanding both — the aspiration and the entry point — gives you the complete picture.

The Côte de Chalonnaise — Where Burgundy Becomes Accessible

The Côte de Chalonnaise (shown in purple below) sits south of the Côte d'Or, its vineyards less celebrated and its prices considerably more reasonable. This is not a consolation prize. These are genuine Burgundy Pinot Noirs — the same grape, similar limestone and clay soils, made by producers who take their work seriously — at prices that allow you to drink them regularly rather than treating them as special occasions.

The four main appellations worth knowing (these areas in shown in gold):

Mercurey. The largest and most important Côte de Chalonnaise appellation. Structured, age-worthy Pinot Noir with genuine Burgundian character — red fruit, earthiness, the quiet elegance that defines the region's red wines. Has its own Premier Cru vineyards. Excellent value at $20–45.

Givry. Historically associated with Henri IV, who is said to have favoured it. Lighter, more immediately charming than Mercurey, with bright red fruit and a silky texture that makes it excellent for everyday drinking. $18–35.

Rully. Primarily known for white wine (Chardonnay) but produces red Pinot Noir of genuine quality. Lighter style, aromatic, worth knowing. $18–30.

Montagny. Almost exclusively white wine — mentioned for completeness. For red Chalonnaise, focus on Mercurey and Givry.

The Côte de Chalonnaise is where your audience should start with Burgundy Pinot Noir. Not because it is inferior, but because it is honest and accessible and genuinely representative of what Burgundy red wine is and how it behaves at the table.

The Côte de Nuits — Where Pinot Noir Gets Serious

The Côte de Nuits (shown in red below) is a narrow strip of limestone and clay hillside running from Marsannay in the north to Nuits-Saint-Georges in the south. It contains more Grand Cru vineyards than anywhere else on earth. The village names on its labels — Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges — are among the most recognised in wine.

What distinguishes the Côte de Nuits from everything else Pinot Noir can do anywhere in the world is precision. These wines are not loud. They do not announce themselves with exuberant fruit or obvious oak. What they offer instead is a kind of concentrated quietness — layers of red and dark fruit, floral notes (violet, rose), earthiness that deepens into forest floor and truffle with age, and a silky, impossibly fine tannin structure that allows the wine to age for decades while remaining recognisably itself.

Côte de Nuits Vineyard

Gevrey-Chambertin. The largest and most robust of the Côte de Nuits villages. Structured, firm, needs time. The Chambertin Grand Cru was Napoleon's preferred wine. Village level: $45–80. Grand Cru: $300–1,000+.

Chambolle-Musigny. The most elegant and perfumed of the Côte de Nuits villages. Lighter in colour and body than Gevrey, with extraordinary floral aromatics — violet, rose, delicate red fruit. Musigny Grand Cru is among the most delicate and complex red wines in the world. Village level: $55–90.

Vosne-Romanée. Home to Romanée-Conti — one of the most expensive wines on earth (a single bottle can exceed $20,000). But even village-level Vosne-Romanée shows the extraordinary perfume, silkiness, and depth that makes this the most celebrated Pinot Noir address in the world. Village level: $65–100+.

Nuits-Saint-Georges. No Grand Cru vineyards, but excellent Premier Cru wines with more structure and rusticity than Vosne. A more accessible entry point to Côte de Nuits character. Village level: $40–70.

The Côte de Nuits is not an everyday proposition for most wine lovers. It is a destination — the aspiration that explains why Burgundy Pinot Noir commands the attention it does globally. Knowing where it sits in relation to the Chalonnaise gives you the complete map.

The Côte de Beaune — Where Pinot Noir Shares the Stage

The Côte de Beaune runs south from Beaune itself to Santenay, and it is Burgundy’s other major red wine territory — less celebrated for Pinot Noir than the Côte de Nuits, but genuinely important and, for most wine lovers, considerably more approachable in price. The same limestone hillsides, the same classification system, the same grape.

What differs is character: Côte de Beaune Pinot Noirs tend toward elegance and early drinkability rather than the concentrated power and longevity of the north.

Volnay. The most elegant red wine village in the Côte de Beaune. Silky, perfumed, floral — the character here leans toward the delicacy of Chambolle-Musigny rather than the structure of Gevrey. Excellent Premier Cru vineyards. Village level: $45–75.

Pommard. The more structured counterpart to Volnay, just to its north. Darker fruit, firmer tannins, more grip — the most robust red wine in the Côte de Beaune. Needs time more than most village-level wines from this part of Burgundy. Village level: $45–80.

Beaune. The commercial heart of Burgundy and a significant red wine appellation in its own right, with an extensive Premier Cru portfolio owned largely by the region’s great négociant houses. Accessible, consistently well-made, a reliable entry point to Côte de Beaune red wine character. Village level: $35–65.

The Côte de Beaune completes the red wine picture of Burgundy. This is where I spent time on my trip — the villages, the Premier Cru vineyards, the négociant cellars of Beaune itself. I’ll be sharing those specific experiences and bottles in the coming weeks. For now: know that this part of Burgundy gives you genuine Pinot Noir at prices slightly below the Côte de Nuits prestige premium, in a style that is approachable, food-friendly, and very much worth your attention.

We held a side-by-side tasting on the River Cruise the night we floated down through the Côte de Beaune...

Tasting This Week

For those who really want to get a feel for a quintessential Red Burgundy, a Mercurey or Givry is the right bottle to open this week — honest, representative, at a price that allows you to open it without ceremony. If you have access to a village-level Côte de Nuits, tasting them side by side is one of the most instructive exercises in wine education.

Thursday: roast lamb and Burgundy Pinot Noir — a pairing that arrives just in time for the Easter weekend. Share what you find in our community. 👉 Click here → Expand Your Palate

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Mâcon: Where Chardonnay Becomes Generous

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Post Created: Mar 29, 2026

Chardonnay’s Full Range: From Chablis to Côte de Beaune

by Anne Kjellgren | Mar 24, 2026 | Chardonnay, Expand Your Palate, France, Varietals, Wine

Last week, Chablis. Last Sunday, Mâcon. The same grape. The same region, technically. Almost nothing else in common.

This is the Chardonnay education — and it is one of the most useful frameworks in wine. Once you understand what makes these two expressions so different, you have a lens for reading any Chardonnay you encounter anywhere in the world. New Zealand, California, Australia, northern Italy — the same forces are at work. Climate, soil, oak, winemaking philosophy. The variables are consistent even when the wines are not.

Today we map the full White Burgundy range. Three points on the compass. One grape.

Point One: Chablis — The Cool, Mineral Extreme

Chablis sits at Burgundy's northern limit, on Kimmeridgian limestone studded with ancient fossilised oyster shells. The climate is cool — close to Champagne's latitude — and the growing season is short. Chardonnay here ripens slowly, retaining high acidity and producing restrained fruit: green apple, lemon, chalk. Made without oak, or with very old neutral barrels that contribute nothing to flavour, Chablis expresses the ground rather than the winemaking. The result is austere, mineral, and precisely structured. It does not give itself away immediately. It rewards attention and food.

Price range: $18–35 for AOP and Village; $30–55 for Premier Cru; $60–120+ for Grand Cru.

Point Two: Mâcon — The Generous, Accessible Middle

Mâcon is two hours south by car and a different climate entirely. The Mâconnais is warmer, sunnier, with longer growing seasons that allow Chardonnay to ripen fully. Stone fruit, ripe apple, sometimes melon. Rounder acidity. A softer, more welcoming texture that does not require the drinker to meet it halfway. Still made without heavy oak — this is Burgundy, not California — but with a fruit-forward generosity that Chablis never aims for. At the Pouilly-Fuissé level, limestone terroir adds a mineral backbone that grounds the ripeness. The best examples here are genuinely complex without being expensive.

Price range: $12–18 for Mâcon AOP; $15–25 for Mâcon-Villages; $25–50 for Pouilly-Fuissé; $18–30 for Saint-Véran.

Point Three: Côte de Beaune — The Prestigious Pinnacle

Between Chablis and Mâcon, geographically and qualitatively, sit the great white wine villages of the Côte de Beaune: Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet. These are the wines that set the international benchmark for aged, complex, oak-influenced Chardonnay — not the heavy, butter-and-vanilla style of warm-climate New World Chardonnay, but something more precise and architectural: rich texture from oak ageing and malolactic fermentation, deep mineral complexity from limestone soils, and a fruit profile that moves from fresh citrus and stone fruit in youth to hazelnut, cream, and toasted brioche with age.

Premier Cru wines from these villages — Meursault Charmes, Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes, Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot — are the wines that professionals study and collectors cellar. They age for ten to twenty years. They are Chardonnay at its most serious and most rewarding.

Price range: $45–90 for village level; $80–200+ for Premier Cru; $300–1,000+ for Grand Cru.

The Framework This Gives You

When you encounter a Chardonnay anywhere in the world, three questions now have meaning:

How warm was the climate? Warm = riper fruit, rounder acidity, more generous. Cool = restrained fruit, high acidity, more mineral.

Was oak used, and how much? No oak or old neutral oak = cleaner, more fruit-forward, more terroir-driven. New French oak = added texture, vanilla, toast, creaminess.

Was malolactic fermentation used? Yes = softer, creamier, lower perceived acidity. No = sharper, leaner, more citrus-forward.

These three variables explain most of what you will taste in any Chardonnay, anywhere. The Burgundy examples are the benchmarks because they are the most studied, the most documented, and the clearest illustrations of each point on the range.

Thursday: Mâcon and spring fish — the generous, round White Burgundy and a seasonal pairing that suits it perfectly.

Next week: we turn to Pinot Noir and the red side of Burgundy. Share your thoughts in the community. 👉 Click here → Expand Your Palate Community

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Chardonnay: The Foundation Grape, and Why Chablis Is Only the Beginning

by Anne Kjellgren | Mar 17, 2026 | Chardonnay, Expand Your Palate, Varietals, Wine

Chardonnay is the most malleable white grape in the world.

This is both its gift and the source of considerable confusion. A Chablis and a Napa Valley Chardonnay can be so different in colour, aroma, texture, and flavour that tasting them side by side without knowing what they are, you might reasonably conclude they are entirely different grapes. They are not. They are the same grape, grown in different climates, in different soils, made by winemakers with different philosophies, and they are expressing entirely different things.

Understanding this malleability is not just an interesting wine fact. It is one of the most useful frameworks in wine education. Once you understand what shapes Chardonnay — climate, soil, oak, winemaking technique — you can apply that same framework to almost any white wine you encounter.

What Chardonnay Actually Is

Chardonnay is a thin-skinned, early-ripening white grape of French origin, almost certainly descended from Pinot Noir through a natural crossing with Gouais Blanc. It is now the most widely planted white wine grape in the world, grown in virtually every wine-producing country. It makes still wines, sparkling wines (it is one of Champagne’s three permitted grapes), and everything in between.

Its intrinsic character is relatively neutral. This is the key to understanding Chardonnay. Unlike Sauvignon Blanc, which announces itself clearly with herbal and citrus aromatics, or Riesling, which carries a distinctive floral and mineral signature, Chardonnay is a quiet grape. It does not have a loud voice of its own. What it has is extraordinary responsiveness — to soil, to climate, to winemaking decisions. It reflects its environment with unusual fidelity.

This is why Burgundy chose it. In a region built on the philosophy that place is what matters, a grape that expresses place faithfully is the ideal instrument.

The Two Forces That Shape Chardonnay

Climate and soil. In cool climates — Chablis, Champagne, Chablis’s near-neighbour regions — Chardonnay ripens slowly, retains high acidity, and produces wines that are lean, mineral, and tightly structured. The fruit is understated: green apple, lemon, sometimes a chalky or flinty mineral note that seems to come from the ground rather than the grape. In warm climates — California, Australia, Mâcon on a warm year — Chardonnay ripens fully, develops richer, rounder fruit (peach, melon, tropical notes), and can feel generous and immediate in a way that cool-climate expressions do not.

Chardonnay

Oak and winemaking. Chardonnay is one of the few white grapes that takes well to oak ageing — it has the body and structure to absorb the flavours (vanilla, toast, spice) and textural influence (creaminess, weight) that oak imparts. When fermented or aged in new French oak barrels and put through malolactic fermentation — a secondary process that converts tart malic acid into softer lactic acid, giving the wine a buttery, creamy texture — Chardonnay becomes a completely different sensory experience from the same grape made in stainless steel with no oak contact.

Chablis: The Unoaked, Mineral Extreme

Chablis is made without oak, or with very light, old oak that contributes texture without flavour. It is fermented and aged in stainless steel or neutral vessels, which means the winemaking gets almost entirely out of the way. What you taste in a good Chablis is the grape and the ground: the Kimmeridgian limestone and fossilised oyster shells of the Chablis appellation expressing themselves through Chardonnay’s quiet voice.

The result is a wine that can initially seem austere. There is no butter, no vanilla, no tropical fruit. There is instead a flinty, almost saline mineral quality, high acidity, restrained citrus and green apple fruit, and a finish that is clean and long. It is a wine that rewards attention and food — it is not designed to be enjoyed alone as a sipping wine. It is designed to be at a table.

Chablis is technically White Burgundy. It is Chardonnay grown in Burgundy’s northernmost appellation. But it tastes so different from the richer, rounder, sometimes oak-influenced white Burgundies of the Côte de Beaune — Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet — that it occupies its own category in most wine lovers’ minds. The classification is accurate. The flavour profile is its own.

What’s Coming Next Week

Next week we go to Mâcon — the southernmost white wine district of Burgundy, where the climate is warmer, the wines are riper and rounder, and Chardonnay shows a completely different face. Mâcon is where Chardonnay becomes accessible and generous rather than austere and mineral. It is also where it becomes exceptional value — some of the most honest and enjoyable white Burgundy available at $15 to $25.

Chablis and Mâcon are bookends. Same grape, same region in name, almost entirely different wines. By the time you have tasted both, you will understand what Chardonnay is actually capable of — and you will have a framework for evaluating any Chardonnay you encounter anywhere in the world.

This is where noticing begins. Taste a Chablis this week alongside Thursday’s crab legs. Notice what the wine does at the table that it does not do alone. Share what you find in our community. [LINK]

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Burgundy: The Region That Changes How You Think About Wine

by Anne Kjellgren | Mar 15, 2026 | Burgundy, Expand Your Palate, France

In November, I stood in the courtyard of the Hospices de Beaune the day before the auction.

The setup was already underway — the barrels arranged, the logistics of one of the world’s oldest wine charity events taking shape around us. I had known about this auction for years. Studied it. Taught it. But standing inside it, in the courtyard of a 15th-century hôtel-Dieu built to care for the poor of Burgundy, the barrels of wine that would sell the following day lined up in the candlelit cellar — I understood something about this region that no textbook had quite delivered.

The wine is not incidental to Burgundy. It is structural. It has funded hospitals, shaped politics, defined an entire civilisation’s idea of what the land is worth. And it sells, still, by the barrel — because the barrel is the unit of measure that has always made sense here. We were, frankly, shocked. A single barrel. Not a case, not a bottle. A barrel.

This week we begin Burgundy. Not a single wine, not a single village — the whole complex, extraordinary, occasionally maddening region. Consider this the foundation.

Where Burgundy Is and Why It Matters

Burgundy — Bourgogne in French — sits in eastern France, running roughly north to south for about 250 kilometres from Auxerre in the north to Lyon in the south. It is not a large region. The entire appellation produces less wine in a year than a single major Bordeaux château might. What it produces, in its finest expressions, is considered by many wine professionals to be the closest thing wine has to a benchmark.

The reason is terroir — and Burgundy is where the concept of terroir became a philosophy. The idea that the specific patch of ground a vine grows in shapes the wine in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere, that two vineyards fifty metres apart can produce wines of entirely different character, that the soil, the slope, the drainage, and the microclimate matter as much as the grape or the winemaker — this idea was not invented in Burgundy, but it was refined, mapped, and codified here over centuries with an obsessive precision found nowhere else.

The Grapes

Burgundy is built on two grapes. Chardonnay for white, Pinot Noir for red. That is almost the entire story, which is part of what makes the region so instructive: the same two varieties, grown across hundreds of different named vineyard sites, produce wines of extraordinary range and distinction.

Two other grapes exist in Burgundy and deserve a brief mention for the complete picture. Aligoté is a white grape — leaner, sharper, higher in acidity than Chardonnay — traditionally used to make Bourgogne Aligoté, a lighter white wine and the traditional base for Kir (Aligoté with a splash of blackcurrant liqueur). Gamay, which we explored last week in Beaujolais, is permitted in Burgundy in the Beaujolais appellation and in the blended Passe-Tout-Grains style. Both are minor players. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the story.

This week: Chardonnay in depth, and Chablis as our tasting example — the northernmost, coolest, most mineral expression of what this grape does in Burgundy. Next week: Mâcon, and Chardonnay in an entirely different register. The same grape, very different conversations.

The Classification System

Burgundy’s classification system is one of the most specific and most studied in wine. Understanding it removes a significant amount of confusion from labels and gives you a framework for navigating any Burgundy you encounter.

There are four levels, moving from broadest to most specific:

Régionale (Regional). The widest designation — ‘Bourgogne’ or ‘Bourgogne Blanc’ on the label. Grapes can come from anywhere within the appellation. Reliable, honest, often excellent value. Entry point to the region.

Villages. Wines from a specific village — Gevrey-Chambertin, Meursault, Chambolle-Musigny. The village name appears on the label. A significant step up in character and specificity.

Premier Cru. Named vineyard sites within a village, officially classified as superior. The vineyard name appears on the label alongside the village: ‘Meursault Premier Cru Les Charmes.’ These sites have been identified and mapped over centuries as consistently producing finer wine than surrounding parcels.

Grand Cru. The highest classification — 33 vineyard sites across all of Burgundy, standing entirely on their own. No village name required on the label. ‘Chambertin.’ ‘Montrachet.’ ‘Clos de Vougeot.’ These names are sufficient. The vineyards have earned that.

What makes this system remarkable is that it is a map of the land, not of the producers. The same Premier Cru vineyard may have twenty different owners, each making wine from their parcel. The classification belongs to the ground, not the person farming it. This is the terroir philosophy in institutional form.

The Dukes of Burgundy — A Brief Word

Burgundy’s wine culture did not emerge from nowhere. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, the Duchy of Burgundy was one of the most powerful political entities in Europe — wealthier than the French crown at certain points, controlling territory that extended from Burgundy north through the Low Countries. The Valois Dukes — Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, Philip the Good, Charles the Bold — were active patrons of viticulture. Philip the Bold, the same Duke who banished Gamay from Burgundy in 1395 in favour of Pinot Noir, understood that the quality of Burgundy’s wine was an instrument of political prestige. The wine poured at a ducal table was a statement about the power of the territory it came from.

That legacy — of wine as an expression of place and civilisation rather than simply a beverage — is embedded in Burgundy’s culture in a way that still shapes how the region presents itself. The Hospices de Beaune auction, founded in 1859, is a direct continuation of that tradition: the wines of specific vineyards, sold to benefit a hospital, in a ritual that the entire wine world watches. Standing there the day before it happened, I felt the weight of it.

This Week’s Tasting Wine: Chablis

Chablis sits at Burgundy’s northern extreme — geographically closer to Champagne than to the Côte d’Or, on ancient Kimmeridgian limestone and clay soils packed with fossilised oyster shells. The climate is cool, the growing season short, the wines it produces unlike anything else Chardonnay makes anywhere else on earth. We explore Chablis in depth on Tuesday and pair it with crab legs on Thursday.

Find a Chablis this week. It does not need to be a Premier Cru — a straightforward Chablis AOP will do. Taste it cold, without food first. Notice the flint, the chalk, the mineral quality that precedes the fruit. That quality is the Kimmeridgian limestone expressing itself through the glass. That is Burgundy.

Share what you find in our community: Expand Your Palate

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Post Created: Mar 15,2026

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