Burgundy

California Pinot Blanc - same as for white Burgundies.

Hoping to reduce the number of bad Burgundies purchased by consumers, leading Burgundy trade organizations, such as the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne, a group of all growers and negociants in the region, have decided to crack down on inferior winemakers and hunt down their wines wherever they are sold around the world.

Among Johnnes picks for the best wines are Domaine de la Romanee Conti 1996 (about $360 per bottle) and Musigny Comte de Vogue ($200), both burgundies. There's also Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1996 ($322) and Chateau Margaux 1996 ($316), both bordeaux.

Most other young but reasonable quality reds should be 14 to 16 C and fine, old Burgundies, Bordeaux, Rioja etc a warmer 16 to 17C.

I'M slowly recovering from tasting my way through dozens of wonderful red, white and sparkling Burgundies. Even so, I sampled only a small fraction of the host of bottles on show at last week's annual Burgundy Trade Tasting in London.

So I was pleased to be invited to a tasting recently of Louis Latour wines that included 1997 barrel samples of the great white burgundies of Puligny-Montrachet and Meusault to find out whether these wines really were "charming" or, as I suspected, a little too light to be called great.

White Burgundy sales grew 5% to 415,000 hectoliters, reaching 64% of all Burgundies exported.

All of the seriously expensive burgundies come from the Cote d'Or, in and around the city of Beaune.

For white Burgundies the picture is "brighter"-only -21% in the U.S., -17% in the U.K.