Raise a glass to the aristocracy

THE BORDELAISE POKE FUN AT the Burgundians. And vice versa.

It's almost a sport between the two renowned French wine regions.

The well-to-do Bordelaise to the west bordering the Atlantic, who define cabernet sauvignon to the world, will tell you they rarely venture as far east as Burgundy with its pinot noir and chardonnay and tiny vineyard plots and ancient winemaking ways, where the phases of the moon guide many winemaking decisions. The suggestion is that Burgundy winemakers are simply too archaic to be taken seriously. Peasants. Pfff!

The down-to-earth Burgundians return serve. With their wealth and obsession with status, the Bordelaise are throwbacks to the ancien regime, they say. Or sentiments to that effect. Aristocrats. Pfff!

So, what happens when a member of the Bordeaux wine elite buys into Burgundy? Well, it certainly makes for interesting times down on the Burgundian farm.

In 2005, noted Burgundy producer Rene Engel, based in the village of Vosne Romanee, died suddenly.

His family decided to sell Domaine Rene Engel's 6.5 hectares of vineyards and given that few Burgundian vineyards come up for sale, at least ones you get to hear about, it was snapped up (for €13 million if you believe the rumours).

The buyer was Chateau Latour, the eminent Bordeaux First Growth owned by France's wealthiest man, Francois Pinault(owner of Converse shoes, Samsonite and Christie's, among others), who immediately changed the domaine's name to d'Eugenie in honour of his grandmother.

Entering alien territory was apparently considered ''a natural next step'', according to long-time Latour manager Frederic Engerer. The move wouldn't be too alien.

The top class of wines in Bordeaux under France's appellation controlee or designation of origin system (the first and second growths, etc) had their equivalent in Burgundy - the grand and premier cru, etc.

However, Engerer, who was recently in Australia, had clearly forged a far more personal connection to Burgundy. As a young Parisian eager to learn more about wine, he would drive to Burgundy and was, he says, warmly welcomed into many domaines, filling his car boot at Roumier and Comtes Lafon, among others.

''I think my heart stays in Burgundy,'' he says.

So, the cabernet-obsessed Bordelaise in pinot noir country Burgundy?

Wine watchers imagined all kinds of goings on and changes at Domaine d'Eugenie. Some may have been surprised, perhaps disappointed, to see there were in fact few changes introduced by the Bordeaux superstar.

Asked what Bordeaux brought to Burgundy, Engerer beamed: ''Only a smile.''

On reflection, he added that, if anything, Latour introduced a wine philosophy of longevity to d'Eugenie, looking to produce wines with the ability to age.

He was confident, for example, that the 2007 Grands Echezeaux grand cru pinot noir would last 30 years, at least.

The new management also made the decision to convert vines over to biodynamic practices.

Domaine d'Eugenie holds vineyards across five appellations, making everything from the drinker's everyday friend - a sweet cherry fruited Vosne-Romanee village - through to the powerful and slightly grandiose, Clos Vougeot grand cru.

Engerer showed the 2009 and 2010 Vosne-Romanee vintages together. ''Here we have two extremes of style,'' he said comparing the warm '09 vintage with the cool '10.

Fruit, beautiful, fleshy fruit, drives the '09. Forest floor notes, earth and tannin drives the '10. Personally, I prefer the former.

Brulees is a small premier cru area within Vosne-Romanee, just five hectares, with nine separate parcels and owners. D'Eugenie has a mere handful of vines, 1.2 hectares, yet it is the biggest owner.

''I didn't understand Aux Brulees for at least two or three years, to be honest,'' Engerer says. There is an elevated part to the small vineyard, which he came to consider grand cru quality, and a lower half, which he realised with time was less than premier cru status.

In 2009, he downgraded fruit from the lower half going from a total of nine barrels of Aux Brulees to just four. Knowing that made it hard to taste the '07 Aux Brulees without prejudice. The tannins were dense and strong, so too the oak in an almost brutish way, but there was also an energy to the fruit. Not a wine for Librans, a firm decision was hard to come by.

And then there is Echezeaux, one of Burgundy's largest grand cru areas

(37 hectares), the one Burgundy drinkers like to taunt for its inconsistency. Domaine d'Eugenie has just half a hectare and, in 2008, produced a taut, fine tannin wine.

In 2009, the pinot was gloriously pretty with cherry, spice, tannin and oak gliding over the palate as one. The '08 is ''starting to be civilised'' according to Engerer while the '09 is ''a welcoming vintage for non-Burgundy drinkers''. Translation: one appeals to the mind, one to the heart.

Coming from Bordeaux to Burgundy, Engerer says he doesn't want people ''intellectualising'' too much on the differences between the two. But they do exist.

''For me,'' he says, ''the big difference is the fruit around the tannins; this brilliant, shiny, extroverted fruit that Burgundy has which is fascinating. Fruit is less of an issue in Bordeaux, where tannin, very early on, is a key.''

It is so tempting to see a Latour thread running through the top guns, grand crus Grands Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot - obsessed with structure, structure, structure - with the 2007 Clos Vougeot revealing the most drive and length.

The effortless, natural balance of 2010 Grands Echezeaux and the emerging power of the '07 Clos Vougeot make them standouts.

''Bordeaux and Burgundy are like two different countries,'' Engerer says. ''I don't know if it's like Sydney and Melbourne, but it is two different countries.''

Ah, yes, we can definitely relate to that.