What happened to Burgundy and Chablis?

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Burgundy," my late mother-in-law once said to me. "Whatever happened to Burgundy?" My reply was snarky: "It's still part of France last time I looked." "No, no, no," she said, proceeding undaunted. "Burgundy, the wine. You used to be able to go into the stores and always find wine with Burgundy on the label. Not anymore." "Well, yes," I replied. "Now it's called ‘pinot noir.'" Mary was not mollified. She wanted to make her famous boeuf bourguignon as she used to back in the 1960s with a wine labeled "Burgundy." Gallo's Hearty Burgundy to be exact. I must admit I feel funny using the term Hearty Burgundy without quotes around it. I know it's the trademark name of a wine brand, but I also don't want to anger my French friends who insist the only wines that can be called Burgundy must come from Burgundy in France, not from somewhere in California. So pretend there are imaginary quote marks, OK? Gallo introduced Hearty Burgundy in 1964. In a November 1972 cover story on the growing American wine scene, Time magazine quoted the Los Angeles Times wine critic, Robert Balzer, as saying, "Gallo Hearty Burgundy is the best wine value in the country today." That line put the wine on the map and in the glass. "It's part of many people's first experience with wine," said Kristina Kelley, a Gallo spokeswoman. I had thought Gallo's Hearty Burgundy was long gone, but it's still out there, part of the Gallo Family Vineyards' Twin Valley line. Kelley said the wine was originally made from grapes grown in California's North Coast, mostly zinfandel, petite sirah and carignan. Now the wine sports a California appellation and is made from zinfandel, syrah, sangiovese, pinot noir, grenache and cabernet sauvignon. It's a distinctly non-Burgundian blend, but the price is right: only $5 for a 750-milliliter bottle and $8 for a 1.5-liter jug. The wine was a favorite of winery founders Ernest and Julio Gallo, Kelley said, "because it was the kind of hearty red wine they were raised on and it went well with their evening meal." Today, Kelley thinks "there's always room for a food-friendly robust red wine." True, but is that wine Hearty Burgundy still?

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Ever wonder what happened to Chablis? If you’re not at least fifty years old, you probably don’t understand the question. But, for the rest of us, we used to drink a lot of Chablis back in the day. Chablis was generic for white wine. We would ask for a glass of Chablis and not care what we got, as long as it was white. Well it turns out that Chablis didn’t go anywhere. Its alive and well in a small town in France. No I’m not talking about Remulak where the SNL Cone Heads came from, but about the small town of Chablis.So what happened? In the early days of American wine, the name Chablis was appropriated by giant producers like Gallo for their cheap, white jug wines. Chablis became generic. We would ask for a glass of Chablis when what we meant was “white wine.” As the American wine industry matured and Americans leaned to distinguish one white wine from another, the generic use of the term Chablis began to fade. Today most of us never hear the term, but the people in that small town in France would like to change that. Though the name Chablis is now restricted by international law to mean wines from the Chablis AOC (French appellation). Chablis is a much overlooked wine that ironically bears one of the most familiar wine names. Chablis is made from Chardonnay, far and away the most popular white wine. But Chablis is not found on every restaurant wine list. Although Chablis is from the famous Burgundy region of France, it doesn’t command the respect of other Burgundies or of other French white wines. Why the lack of respect?

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