Prices continue to spiral for wines from the Côte d’Or – Burgundy lovers’ choices for good-value options are increasingly limited. Demand remains sky-high and this, combined with significant reductions in the volumes produced in 2016, 2019 and 2020, has led to even higher prices. And that was all before the drastic losses suffered in 2021 (through frosts, snow, vine diseases and rain), compounded by rising fuel and raw material costs, have added even greater pressure.
Rebecca Palmer, buyer and associate director at merchant Corney & Barrow, summed up the current situation, lamenting: ‘Côte Chalonnaise pricing is where village Burgundy used to be not so long ago, with the Côte d’Or off the chart. Much of it is inaccessible to most.’ So where should consumers look now?
There are 84 appellations within the wine regions of Bourgogne, with the top of the quality pyramid occupied by famous names from the Côte d’Or, such as Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Meursault and the Montrachets. Within these appellations, village-level wines support even more renowned premier and grand cru exotica from specific vineyard sites – the latter often costing many hundreds of pounds per bottle.
The rise in prices for wines from the Côte d’Or has naturally led to greater interest in lower-cost alternatives. Wines from the less-renowned sites of the Côte d’Or (for example, the Hautes Côtes de Nuits or Beaune), Côte Chalonnaise, the Mâconnais and Grand Auxerrois (either side of the Chablis area, including APs Irancy, Saint-Bris and Vézelay) have been increasingly touted as the way forward for Burgundy lovers seeking quality combined with value.
At the same time, there have been improvements in many of these (previously) less favoured areas, partly due to improved techniques and the arrival of new generations of winemakers, together with a warming climate bringing fruit grown on marginal sites into better maturity. Palmer notes ‘many
