Burgundy

Burgundy, located in eastern France, is split into five regions from Chablis in the far north, down through the heartlands of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune and finally through to the Châlonnaise and the Mâconnais in the South.

There are four levels of appellation in Burgundy. 28 regional appellations produce wines such as Bourgogne Rouge and Mâcon-Villages; Communal appellations whose wines come from village locations such as Pouilly-Fuisse, Meursault and Aloxe-Corton, next we find special sites within the village appellation; Premier Crus which produces wines with unique characteristics and qualities and Grand Cru which represents the crème de la crème and account for just one percent of Burgundy's entire production. The grand crus are only found in the Cotes de Nuits and the Cote de Beaune. This whole system can be represented by a pyramid with the regional appellations, and most numerous wines, forming its base and the rare Grand Crus at its pinnacle.

Chablis

A small wine region producing dry and steely white wines located to the south of the Champagne region. The best vineyard sites, the Grand Crus, lie on the South west facing slopes of the Serein Valley just outside the town of Chablis. Although part of Burgundy the Chablis lies more than an hour away from Dijon and is quite separate from the rest of Burgundy.

Beaujolais

A pretty region just south of Burgundy producing fruity, mainly red wines from the Gamay grape. The flatter land in the southern part of the region accounts of about half the production of AC Beaujolais. A quarter of wines made are Beaujolais Village wines from the hillier sites. Finally, the regions finest wines come from the ten 'crus' in the northern half of the area: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Regnié and St Amour.