Photo of Bourgogne bottles from Burgundy (c) BIVB
For several years now the Burgundy Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) has been pleading with requesting those in the wine trade and journalists to refer to the wines produced in the Burgundy region as Bourgogne wines.
Personally, when writing and speaking in English, I have trouble thinking of the wines made in the 74,000-acre patchwork of the Burgundy winegrowing region as anything but Burgundies, unless I’m drinking Chablis, which I think of as Chablis even though its vines are firmly rooted in Burgundy, or Beaujolais, which is the wine equivalent of a dog that wants to be both inside and out.
Nevertheless, I share with you the latest plea from Burgundy, dated March 16, 2021, before commenting further below:
In 2012, on the request of its elected representatives, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) decided to stop translating the word “Bourgogne”, whatever the country. The aim is to help consumers find their way by ensuring coherence between our wine labels and the name of the region where the wines were created.
Bourgogne wines enjoy a strong global reputation with half of all Bourgogne wines produced being sold at export to around 170 territories. However, the farther the consumer lives from France, the more they struggle to understand our appellation system. They can get their bearings thanks to the wine’s origins, which is the name of this winegrowing region. It is therefore essential to use only one powerful name, a synonym for excellence and the respect for origins: Bourgogne.
Historically, Bourgogne is the only wine-producing region in France whose name is translated into different languages: “Burgundy” for English speakers, “Burgund” for Germans, “Borgogna” in Italian, to name but a few. This dates back to ancient times when the region was established as a crossroads for trade between the north and south and the east and west of Europe, as it still is today.
As such, Bourgogne wine producers and fans find themselves caught up in something of a paradox. The 200 million bottles of Bourgogne wine sold every year have the word “Bourgogne” on their label, either due to their appellation, which might be Bourgogne, Crémant de Bourgogne, Bourgogne Aligoté, and so on, or because they are a “Vin de Bourgogne” or a “Grand Vin de Bourgogne.” But consumers can find them amongst a range referred to Burgundy, Burgund, or Borgogna…
Confusing, to say the least.
“We felt it necessary to return to our original name, Bourgogne, in order to affirm our true identity, in a unified and collective way,” explains François Labet, President of the BIVB. “I’d say that our appellations are like our forenames, which makes Bourgogne our family name. A name that unites us all with our shared values embracing all the diversity of our wines. You don’t translate a family name!”
As they say in Beaujolais: Yes and no.
Yes, the historic region and former administrative region of Burgundy is called Bourgogne in French, as is the winegrowing portion of that region. But with all due to respect to this beautiful territory and the complexities of its mono-varietal wines and its terroirs and climats, it’s disingenuous to say that the wines made in the region that English-speakers call Burgundy should be called Bourgognes just as, say, the wines made in Champagne are called Champagnes. While Champagne the region and Champagne the wine are spelled the same way in English, Champagne’s pronunciations in English and French are as different from each other as Burgundy is from Bourgogne.
Would the BIVB also now have all non-French-speakers refer to the region itself as Bourgogne so as to complete the linguistic-territorial wine-pairing? If so, I look forward to their fight with tourist and government officials who are still keen on inviting English-speaking visitors to “Love France, Adore Burgundy,” to quote a slogan of the regional tourist board. Perhaps one day Burgundians will unify in imploring the world to call the region Bourgogne, but in a sense the region itself has somewhat faded on the map; Burgundy/Bourgogne no longer exists in the administrative way that it did when the BIVB first stopped translating Bourgogne. France’s territorial reform law of 2014 forced Burgundy/Bourgogne to marry its lesser-known (and also largely pinot-noir- and chardonnay-producing) neighbor to the east, creating Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Of course, it isn’t for historic or administrative reasons that the BIVB requests that we refer to their wines as Bourgognes but for the very contemporary, exported-minded reason of distinguishing their wines on the international wine market. The effect of decades of abuse of the term burgundy to refer to Burgundy-style New-World wines still lingers in major export markets, so insisting on Bourgogne is a way of appearing inimitable as well as uniquely French. Champagne producers fought long, hard and for the most part successfully to uphold the proprietary distinctiveness of their evocative name. Bourgogne producers are now looking to assert their particularity by gently pushing professionals and consumers to adopt the singularity of their geographical indicator as written in French.
For now, calling the wines produced in Burgundy’s winegrowing region “Bourgognes” sounds a bit pretentious in English. Admittedly, positioning the wines of Burgundy as products of quality on the world market could well call for an affected pronunciation. The “bourgignon” in beef bourgignon (aka beef burgundy or boeuf bourgignon) gives beef stew braised in red wine added value to a rustic dish. (The true snob would feel the need to prove to guests that the red wine in the dish was a Burgundy/Bourgogne.) With time, “I’d like a good red (or white) Bourgogne, please” may sound less affected, just as we eventually cozied up to Beijing as a closer approximation in speech and spelling to the name of the Chinese capital than Peking, though we still call the imperial fowl with the crispy skin “Peking duck.” But I digress.
If producers in Burgundy want us to call their wines Bourgognes then I’m willing to make an effort—it’s no skin off my grape—but without promising anything. I won’t try to sway you one way or another, though. But here’s some wine advice: If you’re going to order a “Bourgogne,” it better be good one—otherwise an ordinary Burgundy will do.
© 2021, Gary Lee Kraut