Where do we go? There are two answers: The lesser-known villages and the lesser wines of the best growers in the more mainstream villages. In both cases, the most important thing to look for is the name of the grower or merchant. Stick to the starred sources and you will very rarely go wrong. Secondly, pay attention to the vintage. Nineteen ninety-nine is splendid, but a bit young still, except for the very softest wines such as Côte de Beaune-Villages or Chorey-Lès-Beaune. Nineteen ninety-eight is a very good vintage - plump, fruity and medium-bodied - and a lot of the lesser wines are beginning to drink very nicely. Nineteen ninety-seven is even easier to drink: soft-centered, very ripe and fruity, but for drinking soon.

Let me now take you on a tour of the lesser villages in the Côte d'Or. Forget for a minute Volnay and Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin. These villages produce lovely wines, but they are over our budget.

Our first stop is MARSANNAY, which lies to the north, almost in the suburbs of Dijon. The wine here was simple Bourgogne until 1986. Today what you get, increasingly with a vineyard name behind it (look for Clos du Roy, Longerois, Grasses Têtes, Echézeaux, Champs Perdrix and Champ Salomon), is a wine of medium structure, not a great deal of tannin (to extract more would be to unbalance the wine), but very engaging, fresh blackberry and black cherry fruit. Look for the following growers: Bart, Régis Bouvier, René Bouvier, Marc Brocot, Fougeray de Beauclair, Huguenot, Jean and Jean-Louis Trapet plus the merchant Louis Jadot. (Worth noting: Marsannay also produces delicious rosé.)

The most respected address in Marsannay is undoubtedly that of Bruno Clair. Clair, now in his mid-40s with three energetic, preteen children, took over part of the Clair-Daü estate when it was divided in 1985. Since then, he has expanded his domaine and proven himself to be one of the most accomplished winemakers in the Côte d'Or. His range extends from Chambertin Clos de Bèze down to three red Marsannays: Grasses Têtes, Longerois and Vaudenelles. His wines are medium-full in weight (without a suggestion of over-maceration), pure and very elegant. Target price for a good Marsannay rouge: $20.

Moving down the Côte, we come next to the FIXIN appellation. You have to be careful with Fixins because they can often be rather hard, what the French call sauvage (savage). At the expensive end are a few premiers crus, three of which are monopoles. What is of more interest to us, with our value-for-money brief, is the simple village wine, plus the appellation Côte de Nuits Villages, which applies to Fixin and to neighboring land in the village of Brochon, as well as to vines 12.5 miles away, south of Nuits-Saint-Georges. Many of the Marsannay sources above also offer Fixin. Other names to note include Vincent & Denis Berthaut, Philippe Bernard (Domaine du Clos Saint-Louis) and Jean-Michel Molin. Target price for village Fixin: $21.

For really good Côte de Nuits-Villages consult Denis Bachelet, Louis Jadot and Philippe Rossignol. Target price for Côte de Nuits-Villages: $21.

Fixin's best grower is the self-effacing but sympathetic Stéphen Gelin. Gelin used to operate a domaine jointly with his father-in-law André Molin, but when the latter retired he and his cousin (see Jean-Michel Molin, above) decided to go their separate ways. The wines here have become a lot more sophisticated in the last decade. They are rich and substantial but no longer a bit tough. His village Fixin is neat and elegant.

For deliciously stylish Côte de Nuits-Villages

I look to Domaine Bachelet. Denis Bachelet runs his ten-acre domaine virtually single-handedly. You must count what he produces in each category - from Charmes-Chambertin downward - more in dozens of bottles rather than in hundreds of cases. Low yields are crucial, in Bachelet's view, and the wines are concentrated, understated, intense, elegant and subtle, even at the Côte de Nuits-Villages level.

The Côte de Beaune begins with a bang at the hill of Corton. At its foot, on the northeast side, is LADOIX; on the southwest side is PERNAND-VERGELESSES. The latter is best known for its whites, but there are good reds to be had here, too. In both villages, quality has improved immeasurably over the last decade due to both philosophical and technical changes in winegrowing; along with the beneficial practice of dropping fruit in the "green harvest," investments have been made in up-to-date machinery (such as pneumatic presses) and higher quality, new oak barrels for wine maturation. What used to be rustic is now well worth the time investigating. In both cases, parts of the slopes have recently been upgraded from villages to premier cru.

The following names offer good Ladoix: Capitain-Gagnerot, Robert & Raymond Jacob, Jean-Pierre Maldant and Jean-René Naudant. Target price: $21.

The following names offer good Pernand-Vergelesses rouge: Marcus Delarche, Roger Jaffelin, Régis Pavelot and Rollin Père & Fils. Target price: $21.

One of the leading growers in Pernand-Vergelesses is Rapet Père & Fils. The "fils" in the operation is Vincent, who has been in charge of the winemaking since 1993. Not entirely coincidentally, this milestone marked the vintage when this estate shifted from making merely acceptable wines to producing something rather exciting. The Rapets produce Corton in both colors, and are major landholders in Pernand's leading premier cru, Ile des Vergelesses. They now have four other Pernands, three of them new premiers crus. But the basic village wine remains a very good value.

SAVIGNY-LES-BEAUNE lies round the corner of the Mont Batois from Pernand-Vergelesses. Its wines used to be rather sturdy and rustic, but now they are much more refined. These are fullish, rich wines which I consider one of Burgundy's real bargains today. What is more, they keep well. The best growers include: Simon Bize, Bouchard Père & Fils, Chandon de Briailles, Camus-Brochon, Bruno Clair, Jean-Jacques Girard, Lucien Jacob and Louis Jadot. Target price for a village Savigny: $23; for Premier Cru: $28.

Jean-Marc Pavelot, now ably assisted by his equally tall, lean and handsome son Hugues, is my favorite grower in Savigny. In his large, vaulted cellar you will find half a dozen very good premier cru Savignys. But do not miss out on the village wine, which he offers in both red and white.

On the "wrong" side of the main Beaune-Dijon road - that is, the downslope - we find CHOREY-LES-BEAUNE. There are no premiers crus here and, it seems, not much interest in single-vineyard wines. Rather, this is a light, soft, fruity, elegant expression of pinot noir. The grapes can also be used, as can those of other, lesser Côte de Beaune villages, for the appellation Côte de Beaune-Villages. Indeed, a mixture of the somewhat solid but rich wine from Maranges (see below) with the more fragrant and elegant, if lighter, Chorey-lès-Beaune, is a regular négociant blend.

Tollot-Beaut is, in my view, the best grower in Chorey. Look, too, for the merchant wines of Bouchard Père & Fils, Joseph Drouhin and Louis Jadot. Target price for Chorey-lès-Beaune: $20.

For outstanding Chorey-lès-Beaune, I am drawn to the moated Château de Chorey-lès-Beaune (where one can stay over on a bed-and-breakfast basis). Run by the Germain family, father François is now semi-retired, and has put his son, Benoít, and daughter, Aude, in charge of day-to-day wine production. Together they turn out several premier cru Beaunes, a delicious white Pernand-Vergelesses and, of course, Château de Chorey-lès-Beaune: juicy, succulent and deliciously drinkable.

Good Côte de Beaune-Villages can be found at Bouchard Père & Fils, Drouhin, Jadot and other leading merchants. Target price for Côte de Beaune-Villages: $19.

Continuing south we skip, out of necessity, over Beaune, Pommard and Volnay, to reach MONTHÉLIE. Its best wines, put simply, are lesser Volnays. They show the same elegant, delicate style, but at half the price. The premier cru Monthélie Champs-Fulliot marches with Volnay Clos des Chênes. As elsewhere in the minor villages of Burgundy, over the last 20 years Monthélie growers have stopped vinifying with the stems (a fine practice for the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, but only leading to rustic wines here because the stems are never ripe), tidied up their cellars, invested in temperature control and reduced the harvest. Prices remain low because few consumers have heard of the name, making the wines difficult to sell.

The best Monthélie producers are Éric Boigelot, Bouchard Père & Fils, Denis Bousset, Didier Darviot, Michel Deschamps, Paul Garaudet and Monthélie-Douhairet. Target price for Monthélie: $21.

J&A Parent is my favorite source in Monthélie. Following the retirement of her father, Jean, the charming Annick Parent is now in charge. Much of the land, hitherto, was leased to neighbors on a sharecropping basis, and these arrangements still continue in some cases. Annick, who doubles as a child physiotherapist, makes both red and white wine of surprising purity and finesse for a wine at this price level. As I remarked in my notebook when I was sampling her 2000s: Why pay twice as much for indifferent Volnay?

Beyond Monthélie, up in a valley into the Hautes Côtes, lie Auxey-Duresses and Saint-Romain. AUXEY-DURESSES' wines are cooler, less rich, less interesting than Monthèlies. Indeed, I would suggest that most of the land is better planted to chardonnay rather than pinot noir. Yet, above the village on the slope that includes the premier cru of Clos du Val, some very worthwhile red wines can be found. This is the best site in the commune. Look for the following names: Alain Creusefond, André and Bernard Labry, Henri Latour and Dominique & Vincent Roy.

Just about everybody else in Auxey-Duresses answers to the name Prunier. Indeed, at least six domaines belonging to individual members of this family bear the Prunier name. All are quite closely related to each other and all produce at least acceptable wine, but it is Michel Prunier who stands out in the crowd. It is hard to think of the somewhat shy, diminutive Michel as the doyen of the village, but his Clos du Val premier cru is the best red Auxey-Duresses on the market, and his village wines are not at all without interest either. Target price for Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru: $21.

Further on still, into the hills, is SAINT-ROMAIN. Again the weather is cooler, the wines lighter and leaner than Auxey-Duresses. We have seen three very ripe vintages lately, so the Saint-Romains are not too unfriendly. They are lightish in body but can be decently unpretentious.

Alain Gras is the leading grower in Saint-Romain. The view from his courtyard, up in Saint-Romain-le-Haut, perched above a 100-foot cliff, is breathtaking. You can sometimes see Mont-Blanc, but if so, say the locals, it will rain the next day. Alain Gras' wines are pure, elegant and full of fruit. Target price for Saint-Romain: $19.

Further south, beyond the communes of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, we arrive in SANTENAY, which, like Savigny, produces some of the greatest values in Burgundy. Its medium-bodied wines are plump, fruity, balanced, very easy to drink and surprisingly elegant. Once again, the wines are a great deal more sophisticated than they were a generation ago, yet prices remain reasonable.

The most rewarding section lies on the slope adjoining the commune of Chassagne-Montrachet: premiers crus such as Clos des Tavannes, La Comme, Les Gravières and Beauregard. La Maladière and Beaurepaire lie in the middle, above the village. Clos Grand-Rousseau is found to the south. Even village Santenay is better than you would expect. The commune boundaries confine the appellation almost entirely to vines on the slope. Names to look for include: Roger Belland, Denis Clair, René Lequin and Lucien Muzard. Target price: Villages wine: $22; Premier Cru: $28.

Vincent Girardin has the best address in Santenay. Starting with only seven-odd acres in the early 1980s, Vincent, now in his early 40s, has expanded to nearly 35 acres and in the process has also become a wine merchant. He is currently in the process of relocating from Santenay to a new, custom-built, modern warehouse on the flat land between Meursault and the A6 autoroute. Vincent Girardin offers a wide range of Santenays in both colors: medium weight, full of fruit, splendidly balanced and full of interest.

MARANGES - comprising the villages of Dézize, Chouilly and Sampigny - is the last appellation in the Côte d'Or. The wines have good substance and, as I previously mentioned, make useful elements in the Côte de Beaune-Villages blends. In their own right, provided you find a grower whose Maranges are elegant and not too sturdy, the wines offer excellent value. The best names include Bernard Bachelet & Fils, Maurice Charleux, Fernand Chevrot, Contat-Grange and Édouard Monnot. Target price for Maranges: $19.

Beyond Maranges, a little further east, another group of hills, though not as continuous as the Côte d'Or, form the base for the Côte Chalonnaise. Three Chalonnaise villages are of interest to us: RULLY, MERCUREY and GIVRY (the other two, Bouzeron and Montagny, produce only white wine).

RULLY is the least interesting of the three red wine appellations (its whites are generally more satisfactory). Yet the last few vintages have seen kind weather and more generous wines, and the best reds are full of fruit and not too lean. It is worth trading up to premier cru. Look for the following labels: Jean-Claude Brelière, Michel Briday, Dubreuil-Janthal, Domaine de la Folie, Domaine de Grandmougin and the Château de Rully.

Rully's most original wines come from Henri & Paul Jacqueson. The top of their range consists of reds from the premiers crus of Cloux and Chaponnières (the Cloux is the best), and two splendidly contrasting whites from Grésigny and Les Pucelles. One of the notable things about the Jacqueson cellar used to be a full-size photo of two scantily-clad nymphettes treading down a vat of grapes. This is no more. Rully, it seems, has become politically correct. Target price for Rully: $22.

Adjoining Rully is the larger MERCUREY, which, for the most part, faces due south, and has soils more favorable to pinot noir. The wines are firmer, richer, a little more expensive and last longer than those of Rully. Again, a premier cru is worth the extra cost.

The most impressive estates include those of Brintet, Faiveley, Jeanin-Naltet, Bruno Lorenzon, François Racquillet and Antonin Rodet. Target price for a Mercurey Premier Cru: $26.

The Domaine Michel Juillot is Mercurey's most esteemed estate. Today it is ably run by Michel's son, Laurent. The wines are elegant and very well balanced; standouts in our price range include two reds, the Clos des Barraults and the Champs-Martin. The white Clos des Barraults is equally good (they also offer Corton-Charlemagne).

GIVRY is the third village in the Côte Chalonnaise of interest to us. The nucleus of the commune consists of an elongated amphitheater three miles in length, splendidly sheltered from the prevailing westerly wind and blessed with very rocky, limestone soil. Sited above the village, this swath of hospitable land is rated premier cru. The wines are a bit lighter than Mercurey's, but have more to them - definition and elegance, as well as substance - than those of Rully. Admirable domaines include: Chofflet-Valdenaire, François Lumpp, Jean-Paul Ragot and Clos Salomon/Dujardin.

The Domaine Joblot, in the center of town, is the village's leading source of Givry. The wines are quite oaky, but not excessively so. Joblot's Clos de la Servoisine is surprisingly rich, profound and multidimensional. It does not lack class either. Target price for a Givry for Premier Cru: $24.

Much has been mentioned in the preceding paragraphs about the most affordable wines turned out by the top growers in the mainstream villages. But what of the simple Bourgogne Rouge or generic wine from either of the Hautes Côtes, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune? You could do a lot worse than to investigate the following:

Bourgogne Rouge: Ghislaine Barthod (Chambolle-Musigny); Louis Jadot (Beaune); Michel Lafarge (Volnay); Michel Morey-Coffinet (Chassagne-Montrachet); Thierry Mortet (Gevrey-Chambertin); Michelle & Patrice Rion (Nuits-St.-Georges Prémeaux) and Fabrice Vigot (Vosne-Romanée). Target price: $18.

Hautes Côtes de Beaune: Domaine du Bois Guillaume; Denis Carre; Michel Gros; Henri Latour; Claude Nouveau and Parigot Père & Fils.

Hautes Côtes de Nuits: David Duband; Blanche & Henri Gros; Gros Frère & Soeur and Thevenot Le Brun & Fils. Target price: $18.

Burgundy is no longer the stuffy, old-fashioned, poor-value-for-money area it was accused of being 20 years ago. Today there is a large and increasing number of dedicated producers who offer well-made wine at honest prices. A Burgundian Pinot Noir offers a delicious flavor, all delicacy, complexity and finesse. And the wines are not as tiring - indeed, much more food friendly - as bigger, more alcoholic blockbusters from farther south

in France or, indeed, from California. In short, the best-value Burgundies are well worth exploring. Happy drinking! ¶

European contributor Clive Coates, MW, is author and publisher of the fine wine monthly magazine The Vine (for a free sample issue, fax a request to 44.208.995.8943). His latest book, An Encyclopaedia to the Wines and Domaines of France, was published by The University of California Press. For further details, visit www.clive-coates.co.uk.