Last night, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend one session from Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World wine class. Kevin’s corresponding text was the first wine book I ever read, copyright 1985 (I read it in the early 1990s). Someday I am going to get him to sign it for me. It is a great read, especially for consumers, and a more current edition (2006) is available.

The class topic was red wines from Burgundy and Cotes du Rhone. Kevin is a lively instructor and really gets the class excited about learning and tasting.

As Kevin kept reminding his audience, the main red grape in Burgundy is Pinot Noir and we tasted six different Burgundian Pinot Noirs. The other red grape from Burgundy is Gamay, but its production is primarily limited to Beaujolais, which we also tasted, along with two Rhone wines.

The first Rhone wine (which was the penultimate wine) was a Crozes-Hermitage, which represented the Northern Rhone and was a bargain at $15. The second and last wine was a Chateauneuf du Pape, which hails from the Southern Rhone, and was the only blend of the evening, Chateauneufs being permitted to include 13 different varieties of grapes.

All of the wines were quite good and we were privileged to taste a Grand Cru Burgundy (my notes are at home, so I can’t recall in which vineyard it was born) from the 1999 vintage, which came directly from Kevin’s own cellar.

As with all things Grand Cru (especially Grand Cru Classes), it was superb, probably my favorite wine of the evening. But, at an estimated $125 (if you can even find it), I won’t be drinking much of it in the future. The Premier Crus are often better values and as Kevin noted, the Village level wines from the villages with the highest number of Grand Crus are an excellent choice in hedging one’s bets and pocketbook.

Unfortunately, I have neither the time, nor the energy, just now to provide a detailed explanation of the levels within Burgundy. However, in a nut shell, Village level wines (just list the name of the village on them) can come from grapes grown anywhere in the village and may not be the best ones.

Premier Cru wines (include the name of the village, followed by the name of the vineyard) are made from grapes from that particular vineyard, which was rated as "Premier Cru" due to the soil and microclimate.

Grand Cru wines will often just have the name of the vineyard (be careful, there is a lot of overlap in village names and vineyard names) on the label and are produced from the most highly rated "Grand Cru" vineyards.