Burgundian websites

[cnspriggs]

Hi!

I'm curious if anyone else has previously had trouble finding websites for cellars in Burgundy? If so, where or how do you get contact information for the wineries there?

Cheers!

[jrufusj]

In the old-fashioned paper ages, the best bet used to be to get a copy of a current version of Hachette's Guide to the Wines of France (at least I think there's an English version and that's its title). The book had a pretty deep listing of growers and negociants included their contact information.

Haven't bought a Guide Hachette in years, so I'm not sure if it is still the same.

There is also some website called "Wine of the Web" that seems to come up whenever I do a search for a grower. This purports to have contact info and such, but have never looked so don't know how reliable it is.

Good luck,

Jim

Edited March 7, 2006 by jrufusj (log)

[primowino]

The only good site I know that specifically relates to Burgundy is www.burghound.com. It is mainly one man's opinion and experience, but it's fairly extensive and links to other things.

Edited March 7, 2006 by primowino (log)

[MaxH]

I'm curious if anyone else has previously had trouble finding websites for cellars in Burgundy? If so, where or how do you get contact information for the wineries there

Hi cnspriggs, I don't know your background are how familiar you are with Burgundy and its wine scene today, but the query refers to "cellars in Burgundy" and "contact information for the wineries there" and does not specify the objective; here is a one-shot attempt to answer.

As you may know, Burgundy is a complex and shifting patchwork of ancient winemaking families and a few large firms such as the négociant firms. The average successful producer however is small and lean, has few full-time employees and no "marketing" or "visitor" staff (these being peculiar to larger operations or those on a tourist circuit). Nevertheless this producer is deluged by requests for visits, tours, and various indulgences by people for whom it may or may not be in his/her interest to do so, even given the time. I know of some of them who are in demand and are physically unable to answer most of the written (postal) queries they get, and who discourage online contact for the same reason. People fortunate enough actually to be received personally by these producers either are peers or major journalists or have a longstanding relationship of some kind.

If the interest though (again, the query doesn't make clear) is to find some producers who can be contacted for information or visits, searching for general information about the Burgundy region online will show it. There are some major wine-promotion bodies there such as the venerable Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin which has a HQ in Vougeot and multilingual Web sites. In the event that you are new to Burgundy and want to learn more about the wine scene (for example, preparatory to a visit), it will be extremely worth your while to first obtain general orientation from such a source as Kermit Lynch's light Adventures book full of anecdotes (I can testify that they are typical!) or Yoxall's popular English-language paperback on Burgundy (1968 and 1978, exact producer details obsolete but the bulk of the book is not, which concerns history, geography, and grapes) or the Burgundy chapter in Stevenson's one-volume wine encyclopedia or, for more producer detail, standard in-depth books in English that every serious Burgophile reads, by Clive Coates and Remington Norman. For a newcomer who's seriously interested it's vital to do homework with solid printed sources like these, Web searches are no substitute.

Hope this is helpful -- Max

[bobferdon]

Hi!

I'm curious if anyone else has previously had trouble finding websites for cellars in Burgundy? If so, where or how do you get contact information for the wineries there?

Cheers!

←

http://www.bourgogne-wines.com/ best spot...