Burghounds: Wise words on sublime wines

Ah, Burgundy. It’s a region that invokes a mystical look in many of us. And always has:

• “There are many ways to the recognition of truth, and Burgundy is one of them.”  – Isak Dinesen (left)

• “Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

• ”Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk of them, and Champagne makes you do them.  –Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

• “Bordeaux makes you piss. Burgundy makes you fuck” – Jean-Robert Pitte (left)

• “Burgundy is not the designation of a wine produced and standardized in immense quantities. It is the general description of a great number of closely related wines, having kindred excellence conforming broadly to one type, but varying infinitely by fine shades, which is the pleasure of connoisseurs to distinguish.”  – Stephen Gwynn

• “Burgundy is a lovely thing when you can get somebody to buy it for you.” – A.J. Liebling (left)

• “She gets to keep the chalet and the Rolls, I want the Montrachet.”  – anonymous, Forbes Magazine

• “Pinot is very fragile; it needs space on the dinner table; mix it with other wines and they will knock it to pieces.  The Burgundians even taste chardonnay after pinot so as not to overwhelm it.”  – Peter Finlayson

• “If claret is the king of natural wines, Burgundy is the queen.”  – Moliere (left)

• “To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, and fill his snuffbox, is like giving a pair of laced ruffles to a man that has never had a shirt on his back.” – Thomas Brown

“Aspects of Bordeaux appeal to the aesthete, as Burgundy appeals to the sensualist.” — Hugh Johnson

• “Burgundy for kings, champagne for duchesses, claret for gentlemen.” – French proverb