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Burgundy is the name given to certain styles of wine made in the Burgundy region of France.
Red Burgundy is usually made with Pinot Noir and white Burgundy with Chardonnay grapes. The main wine regions in Burgundy proper (those that are entitled to the AOC Bourgogne designation) are the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune, and Côte Chalonnaise. Also viticulturally part of Burgundy are Beaujolais, Chablis, and Mâcon.
Burgundy is home to some of the most sought-after wines in the world, and the most expensive. Burgundy is in some ways the most terroir-oriented region on the planet; immense attention is paid to the area of origin, and in which of the region's 400 types of soil a wine's grapes are grown. It has a carefully demarcated quality hierarchy: the grand crus are at the top, followed by premier crus, then village, and finally generic Bourgogne.
The Napoleanic inheritance laws resulted in the continued subdivision of the most precious vineyard holdings, so that some growers hold only a row or two of vines. This led to the emergence of négociants who aggregate the produce of many growers to produce a single wine. It has also lead to a profusion of increasingly small family-owned wineries, exemplified by the dozen plus "Gros" family domaines.
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