After the Revolution, the Bourgogne winegrowing region was dominated by families of wine merchants. It was they who bought the grapes from the winegrowers, who sold the wines and bottled them if they were not being delivered in barrels. The 19th century saw the wines of Bourgogne expressing their identity and enhancing their image as generous and robust with strong red colors. White Bourgognes did not become popular until some time later. This was the golden age of Bourgogne and exports were growing, with wines being dispatched as far as Russia and America. Napoleon insisted on nothing but Chambertin to be served at his table - following, like Louis XIV before him, the advice of his doctors. And when Jules Verne’s heroes reached the Moon, they celebrated their arrival with a bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges.

The 19th century was also a time of technological innovations in oenology and the official classification of Bourgogne wines. In 1855, a certain Dr Lavalle established the hierarchy of Bourgogne wines, updating the classifications carried out in 1827 and 1831. It was this classification which was then used for the establishment of the Appellations d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system in 1936, just after the creation of the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO). During the 19th century, the villages saw their names attached to those of their best Climats. Gevrey set the example, with the authorization of King Louis Philippe in 1847 for it to be subsequently known as Gevrey-Chambertin. 

But in 1875, disaster struck in the shape of a devastating pest called phylloxera. Little by little, these sap-sucking insects destroyed the majority of the vines in the region and many growers went bankrupt. Various remedies were tested, until a solution was found which is still used today: all Bourgogne vines and all those throughout France, are grafted onto American rootstock which is resistant to the bug. When replanting was complete some thirty years later, everything had changed. Whilst until then the vines were planted in large numbers, in no particular order, with cuttings always taken from the same vine (layering), new practices of trellising and growing vines in orderly rows changed the landscape, and allowed for the introduction of the horse-powered machines and later on, mechanization. The vines, which previously had been planted all over the region were replanted only in the best plots, greatly enhancing quality and virtually ending the production of table wine. The phylloxera crisis also resulted in a more effective organization of the vineyard.

Source: Vins de Bourgogne

Photo Credit: Vins de Bourgogne