Burgundy On A Beautiful Autumn Day
http://californiawineandfood.com/articles/218/1/Burgundy-On-A-Beautiful-Autumn-Day/Page1.html
CWF Sources
By CWF Sources
Published on 12/1/2005
By Michael Eady
On a recent beautiful Thursday in San Francisco the Westin St.Francis hotel played host to the Burgundy Wine Council. The event showcasing the wines of Burgundy was divided into two sessions, a morning seminar and an afternoon walk-around tasting.
The first session featured speakers from the Burgundy Wine Council, who covered a variety of topics. M. Bernard Hervet and Mme. Anne Parent, both winemakers from Burgundy, gave a primer on wines of their region, covering geography, geology, climate, classification and appellations. Although many in the audience were already clearly familiar with the area, for the rest of us the session proved most edifying.
On a recent beautiful Thursday in San Francisco the Westin St.Francis hotel played host to the Burgundy Wine Council. The event showcasing the wines of Burgundy was divided into two sessions, a morning seminar and an afternoon walk-around tasting.
The first session featured speakers from the Burgundy Wine Council, who covered a variety of topics. M. Bernard Hervet and Mme. Anne Parent, both winemakers from Burgundy, gave a primer on wines of their region, covering geography, geology, climate, classification and appellations. Although many in the audience were already clearly familiar with the area, for the rest of us the session proved most edifying.
Burgundy On A Beautiful Autumn Day
On a recent beautiful Thursday in San Francisco the Westin St.Francis hotel played host to the Burgundy Wine Council. The event showcasing the wines of Burgundy was divided into two sessions, a morning seminar and an afternoon walk-around tasting.
The first session featured speakers from the Burgundy Wine Council, who covered a variety of topics. M. Bernard Hervet and Mme. Anne Parent, both winemakers from Burgundy, gave a primer on wines of their region, covering geography, geology, climate, classification and appellations. Although many in the audience were already clearly familiar with the area, for the rest of us the session proved most edifying.
The event was fully attended, which is, perhaps not coincidentally, a reflection upon the recent trendiness of Pinot Noirs. As the popularity of the “noble grape” has increased, so too has interest in its heritage. It is recondite that Pinot Noir is not the king of Burgundy. That distinction belongs to the Chardonnay grape, which is crushed for the white wines that constitute almost two-thirds of the wine production there. Nevertheless, the seminar provided a directed tasting of nine Burgundy wines – four whites, four reds and a rosé.
The tasting illustrated the differences of French and American winemaking styles. The French do not drink wine as cocktails. They drink it with food. This helps explain in part why the French make their wines differently from their American counterparts. French wines are typically lighter, less fruity and lower in alcohol than their American cousins. The reason for this, explained Hervet, was because the first consideration of the French winemaker is “how will this go with food?” He added, “The blind-tasting winner is not necessarily the best wine to cook with.” As a result, terroir is of utmost importance. White wines especially are favored the their “minerality,” a sort of stone taste which, along with clean flavors and freshness from low alcohol, comes from the limestone geology of the area. They also eschew imparting oak into the aging process. Hervet remarked, “Oak in wine is like salt in food, once it is in you can’t get it out.” Apparently the French don’t like oak flavoring their foods.
Perhaps another reason for the great interest in this event is the relative rarity of Burgundy wines. If that seems an odd statement about one of the world’s best known and most revered wines, consider this: the average annual production for Burgundy wines is approximately 1.5 million hectolitres (okay, that’s 200 million bottles for us non-continentals). This equates to just under 17 million cases per year—a small part of total French wine production.
The relative scarcity of this wine brings with it great interest and, alas, high prices.
The afternoon session was held in the glass-walled Alexandra room atop the St. Francis, which provided a stunning panorama of the city. The walk-around tasting afforded a rare opportunity to sample an assemblage of wares from nearly 40 wineries—indeed a treasure trove of wines that was the next best thing to visiting Burgundy itself.
Editor’s note: More about the Westin St. Francis, as well as links to other San Francisco hotels and restaurants, can be found in the Resource Directory. of Taste California Travel.
The first session featured speakers from the Burgundy Wine Council, who covered a variety of topics. M. Bernard Hervet and Mme. Anne Parent, both winemakers from Burgundy, gave a primer on wines of their region, covering geography, geology, climate, classification and appellations. Although many in the audience were already clearly familiar with the area, for the rest of us the session proved most edifying.
The event was fully attended, which is, perhaps not coincidentally, a reflection upon the recent trendiness of Pinot Noirs. As the popularity of the “noble grape” has increased, so too has interest in its heritage. It is recondite that Pinot Noir is not the king of Burgundy. That distinction belongs to the Chardonnay grape, which is crushed for the white wines that constitute almost two-thirds of the wine production there. Nevertheless, the seminar provided a directed tasting of nine Burgundy wines – four whites, four reds and a rosé.
The tasting illustrated the differences of French and American winemaking styles. The French do not drink wine as cocktails. They drink it with food. This helps explain in part why the French make their wines differently from their American counterparts. French wines are typically lighter, less fruity and lower in alcohol than their American cousins. The reason for this, explained Hervet, was because the first consideration of the French winemaker is “how will this go with food?” He added, “The blind-tasting winner is not necessarily the best wine to cook with.” As a result, terroir is of utmost importance. White wines especially are favored the their “minerality,” a sort of stone taste which, along with clean flavors and freshness from low alcohol, comes from the limestone geology of the area. They also eschew imparting oak into the aging process. Hervet remarked, “Oak in wine is like salt in food, once it is in you can’t get it out.” Apparently the French don’t like oak flavoring their foods.
Perhaps another reason for the great interest in this event is the relative rarity of Burgundy wines. If that seems an odd statement about one of the world’s best known and most revered wines, consider this: the average annual production for Burgundy wines is approximately 1.5 million hectolitres (okay, that’s 200 million bottles for us non-continentals). This equates to just under 17 million cases per year—a small part of total French wine production.
The relative scarcity of this wine brings with it great interest and, alas, high prices.
The afternoon session was held in the glass-walled Alexandra room atop the St. Francis, which provided a stunning panorama of the city. The walk-around tasting afforded a rare opportunity to sample an assemblage of wares from nearly 40 wineries—indeed a treasure trove of wines that was the next best thing to visiting Burgundy itself.
Editor’s note: More about the Westin St. Francis, as well as links to other San Francisco hotels and restaurants, can be found in the Resource Directory. of Taste California Travel.