White Burgundy starter pack: How to figure out what you like
White Burgundy is one of life’s great pleasures, so don’t be intimidated – it’s easy to dive right in.
Although the category offers incredible diversity in style, quality, and price, we provide a roadmap that gives you a shortcut for deciding which wine is perfect for you on every occasion.
The best way to begin is to ask yourself the questions below.
Who will you be with?
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Family, friends, and work clients each require a different solution to finding the perfect white Burgundy.
Choosing a wine to share with your family should be easy, but often it isn’t. Hopefully, they will not judge you, but one wants top quality for those who are close.
Ideally, your house white Burgundy will be an everyday wine, so find a producer working in a style that you like and anchor your wine fridge with one of their entry-level offerings.
I delight in finding a solid sub-£25 Mâcon-Villages and laying down a case for frequent drinking, such as the Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau Mâcon-Villages Clos Saint-Pancras.
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You may wish to surprise your friends, so explore something new among the region’s rising stars.
The wines with the most buzz will not be the least expensive, but they will still cost less than top names.
Guillaume Lafon, son of renowned winemaker Dominique Lafon, has just founded his own domaine and is producing tremendously exciting wines.
Clients need to be impressed with a classic wine that is reliable in every vintage, so choose a well-known name from a classic region.
Bosses, however, will be impressed by smart choices, so let the size of your expense account determine whether you are picking a regional Bourgogne, a village-level wine, or a ravishing premier cru.
What is your style?
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At the risk of oversimplifying, it may help to think of three main styles of white Burgundy: crisp and refreshing, richly exuberant, and polished and elegant.
The good news is that you can find bargains among all three types. The classic example of ‘crisp and refreshing’ is Chablis.
The wines have aromas of citrus and green apple, and the better ones have a pronounced flinty, mineral note.
Although it’s fine to start with an inexpensive Petit Chablis, but for a surprisingly small increase in price, you will find a village-level Chablis like the 2024 Domaine Billaud-Simon that will give you the full range of minerally, lemony fruit.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are richly exuberant white Burgundies, like those from the southern districts of Burgundy (the Mâconnais).
This region offers some of the most reasonably priced wines, yet also delivers great quality, particularly in crus whose names appear alone on the label.
The single vineyard Saint-Véran Les Crèches from talented grower Domaine Saumaise-Michelin is a perfect place to start.
Wines from all over Burgundy could fit into our ‘polished and elegant’ category, but to simplify, focus on finding values from the rarified ‘golden triangle’ of white Burgundy villages: Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, and Chassagne-Montrachet.
These villages are renowned for the quality and complexity of their wines, but they can often be expensive; some, however, will fit into your Starter Pack.
One example is the Bourgogne Côte d’Or from Meursault producer Michel Bouzereau.
Although they are grown outside the area for village-level wines, they still show some of their noble character.
Where and when are you drinking?
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A final consideration is time and place. White Burgundy is incredibly versatile, so don’t be afraid to mix it up.
In a restaurant, the tried-and-true pairings could be Chablis with shellfish or lighter fish such as sole.
The wines of the Côte d’Or can accompany more substantial dishes such as roast chicken, pork, or duck, and the exuberantly fruity wines of the Mâconnais are well suited to spicier food such as Indian or Chinese.
To answer the perennial question ‘when to drink?’, one must leave it to personal preference, and many inexpensive white Burgundies drink well on release.
The best of the premier cru wines, however, need some time to digest the oak used in their ageing, and warrant up to a decade of cellaring, while the top grand cru whites can easily age for 50 years.
Once you know the ‘who, what, where, and when’ of Burgundy, you won’t need any help deciding ‘why’, since these wines are among the most enjoyable whites produced anywhere.
