Burgundy Pinot Noir

Video Transcript

"I'm Mark Middlebrook, and I'm here in the Paul Marcus Cellar, and in this segment, I'm going to talk about Red Burgundy, the original Pinot Noir. Burgundy, or Bourgogne in French, as you probably know, is a region south of Paris. And it's really the heart of the original Pinot Noir. People have been growing Pinot Noir in Burgundy since at least the Middle Ages, and probably before that. And monks have been working there, started working there in the Middle Ages to classify the different vineyards, and the different characteristics, and how they changed the flavors of the wines. So it's really the reference point for Pinot Noir, and great to drink and really fun to explore. The most, the basic kind of Pinot Noir you'll get from Burgundy it's simply called Bourgogne, which means Burgundy wine, and again, when we say Red Burgundy we mean a hundred percent Pinot Noir. Nowadays, the producers can put Pinot Noir on the label. Previous to this they couldn't, so sometimes you'll see a wine that's red that just says Bourgogne, but you know, you can pretty much bet that that's Pinot Noir. Wines that are of a kind of higher classification won't say Pinot Noir on the label, instead they'll list the name of the village near which the vineyard's located. So in this case Gevrey-Chambertin is the village, and there may also be a specific vineyard name on some of the bottles. Those are the basics of Red Burgundy, and I encourage you to go out and explore some of these, and ask your local wine shop person, or wine server, or Sommelier for some recommendations."