The Road To Burgundy

An intoxicating memoir of an American who discovers a passion for French wine and gambles everything to chase a dream of owning a vineyard in Burgundy Ray Walker had a secure career in finance until a wine-tasting vacation ignited a passion he couldn’t stifle. He quit his job and moved to France to start a winery—with little money, limited command of the French language, and no winemaking experience. He immersed himself in the extraordinary history of Burgundy’s vineyards and began honing his skills. Ray shares his journey to secure the region’s most coveted grapes. The Road to Burgundy is a glorious celebration of finding one’s true path in life and taking a chance—whatever the odds.

An intoxicating memoir of an American who discovers a passion for French wine and gambles everything to chase a dream of owning a vineyard in Burgundy Ray Walker had a secure career in finance until a wine-tasting vacation ignited a passion he couldn’t stifle. He quit his job and moved to France to start a winery—with little money, limited command of the French language, and no winemaking experience. He immersed himself in the extraordinary history of Burgundy’s vineyards and began honing his skills. Ray shares his journey to secure the region’s most coveted grapes. The Road to Burgundy is a glorious celebration of finding one’s true path in life and taking a chance—whatever the odds.

Ten years after the publication of the highly acclaimed, award-winning Côte D'Or: A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy, the "Bible of Burgundy," Clive Coates now offers this thoroughly revised and updated sequel. This long-awaited work details all the major vintages from 2006 back to 1959 and includes thousands of recent tasting notes of the top wines. All-new chapters on Chablis and Côte Chalonnaise replace the previous volume's domaine profiles. Coates, a Master of Wine who has spent much of the last thirty years in Burgundy, considers it to be the most exciting, complex, and intractable wine region in the world, and the one most likely to yield fine wines of elegance and finesse. This book is an indispensable guide for amateur and professional alike by one of the world's leading wine experts, writing with his habitual expertise, lucidity, and unequaled firsthand knowledge.

"My Favorite Burgundies is a more personal follow-up to--but not a comprehensive revision of--Coates' The Wines of Burgundy (California, 2008). The book is based on the author's many subsequent tastings and travels through the region since the publication of his last book five years ago. Chapter 1 includes descriptions of Burgundy's most renowned vineyards, including their particular history, geography, and soil conditions, as well as tasting notes of various producer's single-bottle offerings from these sites. Chapter 2 describes the region's most distinguished domaines, with Coates impressions of the proprietors, facilities, and wine-making philosophies, along with vertical tasting notes (in some cases, stretching back more than thirty years). Chapter 3 provides current vintage assessments of Chablis from 2008-2010, Coates' highly sought-after "Three Years On" and "Ten Years On" tastings, assessing wines from between 1990-2002. All tastings are accompanied by the author's personal notes, ratings, and suggested drinking dates. Interspersed throughout are a brief series of "observations" on a variety of hot-button issues in the wine world, from the utility of blind tasting and tasting notes to biodynamics and other philosophies of viticulture"--

The Original Grands Crus of Burgundy is a translation from works describing the vineyards of the Cote d'Or written prior to the establishment of today's system of Appellation d'Origine Controlee in 1936 and a discussion of how they compare to the modern system. For centuries, a number of authors ranging from learned amateurs to experienced professionals weighed in with their thoughts, including Claude Arnoux, Dissertation sur la situation de la Bourgogne, sur les vins qu'elle produit (1728); Claude Courtepee and Edme Beguillet, Description historique et topographique du Duche de Bourgogne (1778); Andre Jullien, Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus (1816); Dr. Denis Morelot, Statistique de la Vigne dans le Departement de la Cote d'Or (1831) ; Dr. Jules Lavalle, Histoire et Statistique et des Grands Vins de la Cote d'Or (1855) ; Rene Danguy and Charles Aubertin, Les Grands Vins de Bourgogne (1892) ; and Camille Rodier, Le Vin de Bourgogne (1920). More than a dusty history lesson, The Original Grands Crus of Burgundy provides a roadmap for the discovery of forgotten gems, hidden in plain sight. Crucial reading for all who love Burgundy.

In To Burgundy and Back Again, Roy presents a richly evocative account of their journey—one replete with discovery, adventure, and poignant surprises. Written in the tradition of A Year in Provence and Sideways, this elegantly penned book will delight wine lovers and armchair travelers alike.

"Since its first publication in 2010, Inside Burgundy has been the benchmark reference on winemaking in the region. Jasper Morris MW is a highly respected writer and critic on the wines of Burgundy. He has been a Master of Wine since 1985, with an illustrious career behind him as a wine merchant and author. He was Berry Bros. & Rudd's Burgundy Director from 2003 to 2017. This second edition spans 800 pages, with expanded coverage of over 1,200 vineyards, 300 wine villages and 700 domaines. It offers detailed insider knowledge on the places and people that make Burgundy such a special winemaking region. Jasper gives particular attention to Burgundy's more affordable regions: Chablis, the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune and Nuits, the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais. The book includes 45 full-colour maps -- all of which have been revised and updated since the first edition -- shining a light on Burgundy's complex network of vineyards and villages. It also includes six new maps, which illustrate plot-by-plot holdings in individual Grand and Premier Cru vineyards."--Publisher's description.

When Adventures on the Wine Route was first published, Victor Hazan said, "In Kermit Lynch's small, true, delightful book there is more understanding about what wine really is than in everything else I have read." A quarter century later, this remarkable journey of wine, travel, and taste remains an essential volume for wine lovers. In 2007, Eric Asimov, in The New York Times, called it "one of the finest American books on wine," and in 2012, The Wall Street Journal pro-claimed that it "may be the best book on the wine business." In celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, Adventures on the Wine Route has been thoroughly redesigned and updated with an epilogue and a list of the great wine connoisseur's twenty-five most memorable bottles. In this singular tour along the French wine route, Lynch ventures forth to find the very essence of the wine world. In doing so, he never shies away from the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs that have made him one of our most respected and outspoken authorities on wine. Yet his guiding philosophy is exquisitely simple. As he writes in the introduction, "Wine is, above all, about pleasure. Those who make it ponderous make it dull . . . If you keep an open mind and take each wine on its own terms, there is a world of magic to discover." Adventures on the Wine Route is the ultimate quest for this magic via France's most distinguished vineyards and wine cellars. Lynch draws vivid portraits of vintners—from inebriated négociants to a man who oversees a vineyard that has been in his family for five hundred years—and memorably evokes the countryside at every turn. "The French," Lynch writes, "with their aristocratic heritage, their experience and tradition, approach wine from another point of view . . . and one cannot appreciate French wine with any depth of understanding without knowing how the French themselves look at their wines, by going to the source, descending into their cold, humid cellars, tasting with them, and listening to the language they employ to describe their wines." Here, Kermit Lynch assures a whole new generation of readers—as well as his loyal fans—that discussions about wine need not focus so stringently on "the pH, the oak, the body, the finish," but rather on the "gaiety" of the way "the tart fruit perfume[s] the palate and the brain."