The various Burgundy AOCs are classified from carefully delineated grand cru vineyards down to more non-specific regional appellations.

The area is made up of tiny villages surrounded by a combination of flat and sloped vineyards on the eastern side of a hilly region, providing some rain and weather shelter from the prevailing westerly winds.

Below the Côte Chalonnaise is the Mâconnais region, known for producing large quantities of easy-drinking and more affordable white wine.

Archaeological evidence establishes viticulture in Burgundy as early as the second century AD, although the Celts may have been growing vines in the region previous to the Roman conquest of Gaul in 51 BC.

[1] Monks and monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church have had an important influence on the history of Burgundy wine.

Another order which exerted influence was the Cistercians, founded in 1098 and named after Cîteaux, their first monastery, situated in Burgundy.

The only part of Burgundy which could reach Paris in a practical way was the area around Auxerre by means of the Yonne.

These wines first became famous in the 14th century, during the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy in Avignon, which was reachable by Saône and Rhône after some overland transport.

On 6 August 1395,[5] Duke Philip the Bold issued a decree concerned with safeguarding the quality of Burgundy wines.

The duke declared the "vile and disloyal Gamay"[6]—which was a higher-yielding grape than Pinot noir in the 14th century, as it is today—unfit for human consumption and banned the use of organic fertilizer (manure), which probably increased yields even further to the detriment of quality.

High-quality white Burgundy wines of this era were probably made from Fromenteau, which is known as a quality grape in northeastern France in this time.

It has also led to a profusion of increasingly smaller, family-owned wineries, exemplified by the dozen-plus Gros family domaines.

An early author on this aspect of Burgundy wines was Denis Morelot with his La Vigne et le Vin en Côte d'Or from 1831.

[7] Lavalle's classification was formalized in modified form by the Beaune Committee of Agriculture in 1861, and then consisted of three classes.

Most of the "first class" vineyards of the 1861 classification were made into Grand Cru appellations d'origine contrôlées when the national AOC legislation was implemented in 1936.

For the next 30 years, they followed the advice of renowned viticultural experts, who advised them to keep spraying their vineyards with chemical fertilizers, including potassium.

While a certain amount of potassium is natural in the soil and beneficial for healthy growth, too much is harmful because it leads to low acidity levels, which adversely affect the quality of the wine.

During this time, many Burgundian domaines renewed efforts in the vineyards and gradually set a new course in winemaking, producing deeper, more complex wines.

This focus is reflected on the wine's labels, where appellations are most prominent and producers' names often appear at the bottom in much smaller text.

In 2003, the Burgundy vineyards (including Chablis but excluding Beaujolais) covered a total of 28,530 hectares (70,500 acres).

[20] In 2000, Burgundy had a total of 3,200 wine domaines (compared to 50 in the early 19th century), of which 520 were in the department of Yonne, 1,100 in Côte-d'Or and 1,570 in Saône-et-Loir.

[21] Generally, the small growers sell their grapes to larger producers, merchants called négociants, who blend and bottle the wine.

The négociants may use the term Mis en bouteille dans nos caves (bottled in our cellars), but are not entitled to use the estate-bottled designation of the grower/producers.

Another grape found in the region, Aligoté, tends to produce cheaper wines which are higher in acidity.

Aligoté from Burgundy is the wine traditionally used for the Kir drink, where it is mixed with black currant liqueur.