Inside Burgundy
Inside Burgundy By Jasper Morris
A telling reflection of the growing interest in burgundy wine is the fact that a Burgundian reference book was launched two weeks ago not in London or New York, but in Shanghai and then in Hong Kong.
Weighing more than 2kg, the 656-page Inside Burgundy, by master of wine Jasper Morris, is the mother of all reference books and is based on 30 years of experience. While most books on Burgundy focus on the producers, Morris' tome concentrates on the feature Burgundians themselves treasure: the vineyards.
The book not only describes the more than 1,200 plots that make up the region but also details the ownership of each Burgundian grand cru, the most revered vineyard sites. The nine hectares of Mazis-Chambertin, for example, have 18 owners, with Confuron-Cotetidot's plot measuring 0.08 hectares, roughly the size of two posh Mid-Levels flats.
Another grand cru, Clos de Vougeot, has fascinated journalists and educators; its highly fractionalised ownership (there are more than 80 owners) is relentlessly trotted out as an example of the complexities of the region.
On a colourful pink page resembling more an Excel spreadsheet than a picture of a famous vineyard, Morris' team has painstakingly mapped the ownership of the revered rows and blocks. The book's cartography has been adapted and updated from earlier works by Sylvain Pitiot and Pierre Poupon, who designed the C?te-de-Nuits and C?te-de-Beaune posters that wine lovers snap up while in Burgundy. In our petite Hong Kong living rooms, however, the sizeable posters would better serve as wallpaper than framed artwork.
While the book was initially intended to focus only on vineyards, Aubert de Villaine of Domaine Romanee-Conti pointed Morris back towards the human factor, as 'terroir is nothing', he suggested, 'without man'. Therefore, brief portraits of key producers follow the descriptions of each village's vineyards.
The book provides an introductory overview of the region's geography, climate, grape types, viticulture, vinification and trade structure, and is peppered throughout with first-hand anecdotes, quirky anomalies or quotes from historic references or personalities. For example, it details the debate as to whether early Nibelungen Burgundians were dwarves or seven-foot giants, as described by Sidonius Apollinaris in the fifth century. Sidonius, who seemed fairly unimpressed with his far-flung posting in Burgundy, wrote:
'Your eyes, your ears, still more your nose are blessed;
By morning stench of garlic unoppressed;
Which ten Burgundian breakfasters exhale,
Whose morning raids can cause my cook to quail'
How surprised Sidonius would have been to see the world so enamoured with Burgundy's contemporary aromas that we derive such pleasure in reading about the region from such a hefty tome.
Inside Burgundy costs HK$650 at Berry Bros & Rudd (tel: 2907 2112).
