Photo Courtesy of Retailers
A love affair with Burgundy has always tugged fiercely at the heart strings. These days, however, it seems to tug ever more fiercely at the wallet too, and wines from Burgundy’s heralded sites in the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune have fallen out of reach for many wine lovers.
But happily, there’s still considerable value to be found in historically underappreciated regions like the Côte Chalonnaise.
A narrow stretch of land linking the Côte de Beaune to the north and the Mâconnais to the south, the Côte Chalonnaise boasts no grand cru appellations. Historically, it’s known for fresh, fruity wines best enjoyed young. But, as throughout Burgundy, the consistency of wines produced in the Côte Chalonnaise have improved dramatically in recent decades.
From north to south, the Côte Chalonnaise encompasses the villages of Bouzeron, Rully, Mercurey, Givry and Montagny. In terms of terroir, it is built on the same bedrock of limestone soils that sweep the escarpment of the Côte d’Or, but the landscape of the Côte Chalonnaise is better described as a scattering of hills of varying altitude and exposition. As in the Côte d’Or, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the mainstays—the exception being Bouzeron, the only village in Burgundy devoted to the Aligoté grape.
Mercurey and Givry are the region’s most prominent villages, both known for perfumed, seductively spiced Pinot Noir with a longevity increasingly reminiscent of pricier wines from the Côte d’Or.
