Winemaker Alex Gambal offers an in depth explanation on how to approach Burgundy, one of the world's most complex and sought after wine region. This is Part 1 of a two part series.

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Transcript
Oh, that's the fundamental question, and I say always somewhat in jest but also very seriously, Burgundy is not a spectator sport; it's a contact sport. You've got to get in and get bloodied and bruised and work at it. And then once you're willing to do that, the other key thing is Burgundy is one of the few places where it's not about location, location, location; the first rule and the last rule—it's about the producer, producer, producer. First, and the second rule, go back to the first rule."

"It seems counterintuitive because we talk about this terroir and grand crus and premier crus, and we automatically assume the wine is going to be good. False. The problem in Burgundy is you have these wonderful pieces of dirt, these small parcels where one can grow great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The problem is that it's very difficult to do so, and you have multiple ownership of these parcels. So just because it's a grand cru vineyard doesn't mean it's great wine, and this is the proverbial fly in the ointment."

"Some people know, or maybe think they know, Burgundy. The land is, in essence, a triangle. Think of the pyramid on the back of the dollar bill. Fifty percent of the land, and the key with Burgundy is the land is ranked, not the estate or the domain. If we compare it to Bordeaux, you've got the five first growths of Bordeaux, right? Five or six growths. In Bordeaux, you have about 60, 12 chateaus, domains, estates, and they're ranked, and you can pretty much put a ranking on it, and it's easy. And those are big estates. They may be small, some 20 hectares. Remember, hectares are two and a half acres, to as much as 50, 70, maybe a hundred hectares, 250 acres. And there's a lot of wine produced from each of those estates, the chateaus, 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand cases sometimes of one wine, enormous. For us, a Burgundy domain, estate, is producing three to 4,000, 5,000 cases of 15 or 20 different wines. So the scale is different, the scope is different, the complexity is exponential. Just because you've got great terroir, breaking free, you're just behind. There's no terroir; the tough terroir gets obscured, gets lost because..."

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