If you only have 1 day in Beaune

I would suggest making it a Saturday, and meeting Nicholas and Colleen Harbour. My wife and I, and another couple made our first trip to Burgundy this summer. Wanting to make the most of or time, I reached out to Nicholas who suggested we meet him in Beaune on Saturday for the weekly market. Now I have been to farmers markets, but nothing like this:

You grab a few things for a picnic, and you head out to the vineyards. Nicholas insists that you can all make it in his ride:

After a leisurely ride south, you amble up the hills of Pommard to rough it a bit:

After eating a fabulous meal prepared my Nicholas and Colleen, you find a suitable place to bury your dead:

Nicholas then explains that it’s your lucky day! The town of Savigny les Beaune is having their annual Savigny en tous Sens, where many of the producers have a tasting in the vineyards surrounding the town. You take a 5 mile hike while tasting Aligote, Chardonnay, Pinot, Cremant de Borgoune, and every (16/17 ?) Premier Cru grown there.

Until the townsfolk tell you it’s time to leave:

Luckily, Nicholas is there to rescue you and show you his soon to be new home, complete with wine production facility. Being conscientious, you make sure to check it for spiders:

And have your electrician friend green light the grid:

Relieved that he’s up to code, Nicholas takes you to his boyhood home down the street, where he took 5 years to dig out a beer cellar by hand:

And shows you what a real wine room looks like, while you help him with some valuable market research:

You head over to Meursault to get ready for dinner:

and head back to Beaune for dinner at Les Caveau des Arches:

While you sit on the streets of Meursault having a nightcap, you wonder what day 2 has in store…

Is this an advertisement?

who are these people? professional tour guides/hosts?

Nicholas is a board member who I met through here. He is not a professional tour guide, but he is trying to start a negociant. While he had nothing to sell, taste or promote - he was nice enough to cook and tour us around for a day.

In the interest of full disclosure: We insisted on bringing him 2 t-shirts from our favorite surfboard manufacturer (Harbour Surfboards - get it?) in California and dinner for him/Colleen when he wouldn’t accept any payment for helping out 4 strangers.

I still think fondly about our time in the French countryside, and meeting people like Nicholas and Colleen is a big reason why I want to visit there again.

So you’re trying to send more people (“strangers”) that they can host in exchange for a couple of tee shirts?

Hey, if this is an advertisement then I am SOLD on it.

I was extremely moved by the experience. So much so that 3 days later when hail devastated the hillside where we picnicked, and the vineyards we toured that I felt very sad for his prospects of getting grape contracts. Just trying to pass along my travel experience, since so may people seem to be interested in this part of the world.

The best memories I have from this board are meeting people. They always turn out to be the nicest people in person.

Looks like you had a nice day and a great time.

My wife and I will be making a visit in December. I’m still planning the trip and had Maison Harbour on my list for consideration. Their website is excellent and the blog is a great read especially if you go back to the first entry and read forward as I did. Seeing this post makes me want to visit them even more.

Thanks for the report Josh.

If you look to the right of the Meursault photo you can almost see Anthony’s house.

Best Regards
Jeremy

My wife and I arrived I Paris this morning and will be meeting Nicholas and Collen next week. Can’t wait!

How many badger teeshirts did you bring to gift?

for the love of cheeses! Looks like a great time and great pictures

It sure does!!

Josh, as I look at what you did and the great time you had, looks like you only made one huge mistake - limiting your trip to Burgundy to one day!!!

We were there longer, but mostly in the South (Verze, Macon, Pouilly Fuisse). My traveling companions aren’t board-level wine geeks, so I tried to keep myself in check.

I do regret not taking Colleen’s advice to go Montrachet on Sunday. It was apparently one of the only places to taste on Sunday and I didn’t want to dominate the itinerary. I can’t remember the name of the place, but later read a piece about them and found out they have a library going back 50+ years

I don’t know Anthony, but he is doing it right.

Meursault was a lucky find. All of the hotels were booked in/around Beaune in our price range, and we happened across this beautiful town with just enough size (Church, a few restaurants and hotels, two boulangeries and a boucherie) to make walking around Sunday morning very enjoyable while everyone else slept off the prior night. I took a ton of pictures of that town, especially the Chateau/Spa behind the main street - what a place!

Josh,

Great photos! It was really a perfect day we got to spend together. All honesty I have not been on the forum much in the last few days… with vendange preparations and all, I missed this thread.

We had John E and his wife / their friends visiting today (John E broke the news that you had posted something about your visit…). The winery is looking more like a real winery which is fulfilling for us and fun for them to see. We have a few wine tanks, a de-stemmer, a 250 year old wine press, some barrels and… hold for it… grapes coming in, in just a few weeks, Gevrey-Chambertin! We are having a blast.

Ultimately, we chose to quite our jobs and move to Burgundy to pursue our passion of wine (Pinot Noir…) and it is truly our pleasure to share that passion with other people. Thanks for stopping by and until next time…

Cheers!


ps… thanks for the t-shirts. We will get a photo up of both of us in them during the harvest!