Ever since wine has been made in Burgundy, it is the Pinot Noir on which the fame of her great red wines depends. It produces compact, purplish-black grape bunches whose berries contain an abundance of sweet, colourless juice. The leaves, dark green on their upper side and a lighter green below are thick, as wide as they are long, and divided into three or five lobes whose incisions vary in depth according to the fertility of the particular plant.

NB: the juice of the Pinot Noir is, as we have said, colourless, which explains why juice from the same grape is used in the making of champagne. In Burgundy, the skins (which contain the colouring matter) are macerated in the fermenting vats along with the juice, and it is this that gives the wines their attractive red hue.

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