Pitte - Bordeaux/Burgundy: a vintage rivalry

The publisher gratefully acknowledges
the generous contribution to this book provided
by the Literature in Translation Endowment Fund
of the University of California Press Foundation, which is
supported by a major gift from Joan Palevsky.

.....

Publi avec le concours du Ministre franais
charg de la culture, Centre National du Livre.

Published with the assistance of the French Ministry
of Cultures National Center for the Book.

A Vintage Rivalry

Jean-Robert Pitte

Translated by M. B. DeBevoise

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley Los Angeles London

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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England

English translation 2008 by The Regents of the University of California. Originally published as Bordeaux Bourgogne: Les passions rivales ditions Hachette Littratures, 2005.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pitte, Jean-Robert

[Bordeaux/Bourgogne. English]

Bordeaux/Burgundy : a vintage rivalry / Jean-Robert Pitte ; translated by M.B. DeBevoise.

p. cm.

Translated from French.

Originally published: Paris : ditions Hachette Littratures, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-0-520-24940-0 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Wine and wine makingFranceBordeauxHistory.

2. Wine and wine makingFranceBurgundyHistory.

3. ViticultureFranceBordeaux. 4. ViticultureFrance Burgundy. I. Title.

TP 553. P 5713 2008

641.2'209447144dc22 2007034023

Manufactured in the United States of America

17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z 39.481992 ( R 1997 ) (Permanence of Paper).

Your Honor, an old marquise of the Faubourg Saint-Germain once asked, from her end of the table to the other, which do you prefer, a wine from Bordeaux or from Burgundy?

Madame, the magistrate who was thus questioned answered in a druidic tone, that is a trial in which I so thoroughly enjoy weighing the evidence that I always put off my verdict until the next week.

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,

The Physiology of Taste (Varieties XXI)

. Bordeaux and Burgundy

. Concentration of grand cru vineyards on the Cte dOr within the boundaries of the former diocese of Autun

. Towns and cities of Aquitaine recorded in the thirteenth century as exporting wine to England

. Wine bottle shapes in Europe at the beginning of the twenty-first century

Map 1. Bordeaux and Burgundy.

It is to the cause of reconciliation among the fraternal enemies of the lands of the Sane and the Yonne, on the one hand, and those of the Garonne, the Dordogne, and the Gironde, on the other, that these pages aspire to make a contribution. They owe much to the innumerable viticulturalists and wine professionals whom I have met in both regions since 1966, the date of my first memorable harvests at Chorey-ls-Beaune, and to all the tastings that I have shared with them. These pages draw a part of their inspiration as well from roots planted for a time on the slope of Villars-Fontaine, a beautiful and promising corner of the Hautes-Ctes-de-Nuits that I discovered one day in June 1986 thanks to Andr Noblet, cellar master at Domaine de la Romane-Conti, on the eve of his premature passing. Andr had a gift for bringing together like-minded people. His talent survives.

Unlike Bernard Frank, I fell in with Burgundy when I was quite young, and so my side seemed to have been chosen from the outset. But I have learned since to put some Bordeaux in my wine (to reverse Franks memorable phrase), and I am all the better for it! From the bottom of my heart I thank my teachers, colleagues, and students of geography, who have helped me to learn more about the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and other regions in France, on which they areor, alas, wereauthorities: Sylvaine Boulanger, Marie-Pierre Cerveau, Henri Enjalbert, Rolande Gadille, Grald-Jack Gilbank, Franois Guichard, Franoise Grivot (Sister Marie-Franoise, OCD, Carmel de Beaune), Jean-Claude Hinnewinkel, Alain and Christian Huetz de Lemps, Franois Legouy, Sophie Lignon-Darmaillac, Ren Pijassou, Michel Rjalot, Philippe Roudi, and Raphael Schirmer, among others. Their work has honored the memory of Roger Dion, who remains their master and mine, while challenging or qualifying some of his arguments. I have learned much from reading these authors, from tramping about the vineyards in their company, from chatting and drinking with them in good humor. May they be so kind as to forgive me if I dissent from one or another of their conclusions. Mine, like theirs, can only be provisional: thus the rule of scientific research. The aim of this brief volume is in no way to provoke or to settle scores. It seeks as far as possible, and without undue illusion, to sharpen the critical spirit.

Trying to penetrate the mysteries of two wine civilizations as different from each other, and yet as similar, as Bordeaux and Burgundy involves the same difficulty as trying to understand England and France. This is not wholly accidental, of course. Fortunately for Europe no less than for French viticulture, the centennial celebration in 2004 of the Entente Cordiale did little to erase the differences between the two countries, which in some ways resemble squabbles between two brothersthe result sometimes of real disagreement, sometimes of affectionate rivalry. Bordeaux and Burgundy are indisputably two opposite civilizations, two distinct ways of feeling. And yet, for all of this, they are united in their ambition to produce the best wines in the world. For what does the plainspoken native of the Burgundy countryside have in common with the sophisticated city dweller of Bordeaux if not a shared passion for excellence?

Bordeaux and Burgundy diverge in any number of ways. Not only do grape varieties differ between the two regions, but the practice of blending wines of the same vintage (or the refusal to do this) distinguishes their growers and merchants, who have in any case never sought to appeal to the same customers: Bordeaux has always made wines for export to the British Isles and northern Europe; Burgundy for a continental clientele of differing tastes and backgrounds. And yet there are similarities as well. Vineyards in each of the two regions have benefited over the centuries from influential patrons and prestigious commissions. The effect of this has been to encourage their owners to bring out the best qualities of their land (as also in Champagne, but to a much smaller extent in the other wine-producing regions of France). Alas, both Bordeaux and Burgundy have from time to time in the course of their history betrayed the confidence that has been placed in them. In recent decades, however, both have elected to reserve a significant part of their production for high-quality wines, keeping the needs of the land in mindFrances only choice, looking to the future, if it hopes to go on exporting its wines to the rest of the world.