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Text and maps courtesy of the BIVB (Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne)

Côte de Nuits - Meditation

   The wines of the Côte de Nuits are an incitement to meditation. Great red wines, deep and rich, best enjoyed in the evening when the light is fading over the land between Fixin and Corgoloin.
   Even in a land blessed by the Gods, the Côte de Nuits is a little paradise. It is a strip of land some twenty kilometers in length and in places no more than three hundred meters in width. And within its fifteen hundred hectares (3,700 acres) are to be found a rich variety of nuances ranging from the power of a Chambertin to the grace of a Musigny.
   Here are found some of the most famous names in all of Burgundy. Less splendid in renown, but by no means negligible are the vineyards of the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits (some 500 hectares/1,240 acres) and Côtes de Nuits-Villages whose red and white wines are an introductory step towards more sublime pleasures.

These include Marsannay, Fixin, and Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits - supple and well-built wines with intense red-fruit aromas.
   From Gevrey-Chambertin come high-bred powerful, deep-colored wines, tannic and square-shouldered, made for long aging.
   Morey-Saint-Denis, meaty and with a long finish, has generous aromas of blackcurrant and wild cherry which over time are enhanced by notes of wild animals and spices.
   Chambolle-Musigny is lacy, delicate and distinguished, the most supple of the Côte de Nuits wines.
   Vougeot is ample, meaty, and remarkably well balanced, combining power with elegance. The whites are supple, rich and quite full-bodied.
   Vosne-Romanée is smooth and elegant, long in the mouth, with aromas of cherry, strawberry and underwood.
   Nuits-Saint-Georges is strongly colored, solid and full-bodied with complex aromas of red fruits, fur and spices.
   Concentrated in the villages of this district are all the Grand Cru reds of Burgundy with the exception of Corton. There are twenty-two of these prestigious appellations :
   Charmes-Chambertin, Clos-de-la-Roche, Bonnes-Mares, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Clos-de-Vougeot, and others, not forgetting the rare Musigny, which happens also to be the only Grand Cru white of the Côte de Nuits. The Musigny reds are as powerful and solidly-built as the whites - elegant and distinguished, both being known for their breeding, smoothness, fullness, and irresistible aromatic subtlety.
   All the Côte de Nuits wines have, like the art of meditation itself, an unhurried quality, and can offer a sensual pleasure so intense that you will remember it all your life.

Côte de Beaune - Inspiration

   The Côte de Beaune wines, like the gift of creativity itself, have the ability to inspire. And it was divine inspiration which in 1443 drove Nicolas Rolin to found his Hôtel-Dieu, the famous Hospices de Beaune, to aid the sick and needy.
   It was a divinely-inspired decision which put the revenues from the sale of the Hospices wines to the upkeep of the hospital and the modernization of its services.
   And so it is that today, every November, wine-lovers from the world over flock to the sale by auction of these great wines.
   There they find themselves at the very heart of the Côte de Beaune, which stretches from Ladoix-Serrigny to Maranges - twenty kilometers and 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of inexhaustible creativity where the finest dry white wines in the world rub shoulders with highly-renowned red crus.

Throughout the nineteen villages of the Côte de Beaune, the red wines derive exclusively

from the Pinot Noir grape. With the addition of the Côte de Beaune-Villages wines and the 400-odd hectares (990 acres) of regional Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, the result is a complete range including communal appellations with their Premiers Crus and the single Grand Cru - Corton.

   The wines of Ladoix, Pernand-Vergelesses, Chorey, Savigny, Monthélie, Auxey-Duresses, Saint-Romain, Saint-Aubin, Santenay, Maranges and the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune are fine, well-fruited, supple, and elegant.
   Those of Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Volnay, and Chassagne-Montrachet are ample, well-structured, richly aromatic and of great distinction. Pommard and Corton contribute highly-colored wines which are powerful, generous, firm and solidly-built.
   There is a full range, too, of whites from the Chardonnay grape. They have a fine bright golden color and richly and complex aromas recalling hazelnut and honey. In many cases they have as long a cellar life as the reds and are no less splendid. Those of Pernand-Vergelesses, Auxey-Duresses, Saint-Romain and Saint-Aubin are well-rounded, elegant and delicate ; those of Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet have fullness, finesse and a miraculous balance - a brilliant gamut of premiers crus and grands crus culminating in Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne the most sumptuous of all white wines, at once rich and meaty, subtle and powerful.
   Here in the heart of the Côte de Beaune you are also in the heart of Burgundy. Here the whole history of wine and the vine is open to you. And here, as a final touch of the inspiration, is the capital, Beaune itself.