As a wine educator, and in particular one of 7 French Wine Scholars (FWS) in Georgia, I’m a little embarrassed by the way I have been botching the pronunciation of this profound wine region within Burgundy, France. Profound in that the red and white wines from this region are so elegant and distinctive, mispronouncing or Americanizing the pronunciation of this place is somewhat disrespectful and for this I apologize. Now, to my defense, I am American and most Americans pronounce letters when they see them. The French elegant-ize their words and there is nothing wrong with that so we all need to just get on board. Now on to the fabulous wine from one the worlds most famous plots of land, Chassagne-Montrachet {shah-san-yuh-mon-rah-shay}. One of easiest things to remember when you see this name on a wine label is that if the wine inside the bottle is red, it’s Pinot Noir and if it’s white, it’s Chardonnay…..how simple is that! The glory of Burgundy is the uncomplicatedness of using only two grape varieties expressed from different points of view through different plots of land. The bottle pictured is what we sampled in class, Chateau de la Maltroye 2006 Chassagne-Montrachet (red). My class and I felt it had the most perfect balance of deep berries, tannin and earth; a perfect expression of pinot noir. Now there are other expressions within other famous plots of land in Burgundy; Chambolle-Musigny {shom-bowl-moo-sih-nyee}, Corton-Charlemagne {cor-tawn-shahr-lih-mahn} and Vosne-Romanee {vone-roh-mah-nah}…..those we’ll tackle later. Mastering the proper pronunciation is half the battle :)enjoy
