Santenay and the Maranges

The Côte d'Or ends at Santenay, where the slope turns south-east and the soil changes, and then in the three communes of the Maranges, which share a single appellation created as recently as 1989. Cheilly, Dezize and Sampigny each carry the suffix lès-Maranges, and the name exists so that three small villages have something a buyer might remember.

This is the cheapest red on the Côte d'Or and by some distance the most variable. At the bottom it is thin, dilute and forgettable. At the top (Les Gravières, Clos de Tavannes, the better parcels where the slope is stoniest) it is a firm, red-fruited wine that does a genuinely honest impression of a far dearer address. The spread between those two outcomes is enormous, and nothing on the label distinguishes them.

Why the spread is so wide here is worth spelling out, because it is a general principle about markets rather than a fact about geology. Where a name commands a high price there is commercial pressure to justify it, and the worst work tends to get weeded out: a bad Chambolle is an expensive embarrassment. Where the name commands little, indifferent wine sells anyway and nobody notices. The result is that the gap between the best and worst Santenay is far larger than the gap between average Santenay and average Beaune.

Which brings this book to the rule it has been circling for four chapters. Below grand cru, the name of whoever made the wine predicts what is in the glass more reliably than the name of the place. Grand cru sites are exceptional enough that the ground asserts itself through most cellar practice. Below that level, the decisions of a particular grower (when they picked, how hard they extracted, what they did at the press, how much sulphur they used) account for more of the difference than the fifty metres of slope between one appellation and the next.

The practical test is simple and slightly uncomfortable. Given a fixed budget, choose between an unknown grower's Volnay and a respected grower's Santenay. The Volnay has the better ground and an unknown pair of hands, and the range of possible outcomes is very wide. The Santenay has lesser ground and a known standard of work, and the range is narrow. Over many bottles the second bet wins comfortably, which is why experienced buyers read the producer first and the appellation second, and why beginners do the opposite.

There is a reason this matters more now than it did. With village Gevrey and Chambolle beyond most budgets, the southern end of the Côte is where affordable, drinkable red Burgundy has gone. It is not the same wine as the famous communes and nobody should pretend it is. It is recognisably pinot noir from the Côte d'Or, made by people who know what they are doing, at a price that permits drinking on a Tuesday rather than collecting for a decade.

Somebody once said that Santenay is where the Côte d'Or runs out of confidence. It is a good line and worth arguing with in front of a good bottle from a careful grower, which is the only setting in which the argument can actually be settled.