Unearth secrets behind a great red

For the consumer of top French wines, choosing a bottle of Bordeaux is easy. All the hard work has already been done for you. Ancient classification systems have categorised wines from the famous chateaux into tiered 'growths'. The well-heeled can choose a first-growth Chateau Margaux while a fifth-growth Chateau Cantemerle is a superb yet affordable wine for the rest of us.

However, those who really love wine will want to explore beyond the familiar boundaries. For those who love Bordeaux, what else is out there?

Burgundy seems an obvious next step. So many wine writers and connoisseurs wax lyrical about the seductive powers of great burgundy. In her book, Confessions Of A Wine Lover, Jancis Robinson admitted her love affair with wine was 'ignited by a single, outstanding and still memorable bottle of red burgundy'.

At first glance, burgundy wine labels are difficult to decipher. However, there is a secret to unlocking all the complexities: think real estate. On this basis, there is nothing about a bottle of burgundy that should fool a wine-loving Hong Kong resident.

Burgundy comprises five sub-regions: Chablis in the north, the Cote d'Or around the town of Beaune, Cote Chalonnaise, Maconnais and Beaujolais. The Cote d'Or is again subdivided into the Cote de Nuits and the Cote de Beaune and it is these two regions that produce the famous red and white burgundies.

There are four elementary points to remember about Burgundy: the region is cold and wet, grows pinot noir and chardonnay almost exclusively, is called Bourgogne in French, and it is the plot of land on which the vines have been grown that determines the classification of the wine.

The quality hierarchy of appellations begins with regional wines. These will often only show the term AC Bourgogne on a label. The next level up, communal appellations, reflects the legal right of a large number of Burgundian wine-growing villages to attach their name to wines grown on their soil. Probably the most common examples of this would be an AC Nuits-Saint-Georges or an AC Meursault.