Nicos & Alex’s Excellent Burgundy Adventure
With having spent part of my 1997 honeymoon in Burgundy in Aloxe-Corton, and with having had a lovely return trip to the region in 2004, I made it a goal to persuade my good friend and Rhonophile Nicos Neocleous that a visit to this fabled wine region would convince him that it would make for a worthwhile detour on his future trips to and from the Vaucluse, serving as a useful vinous rest stop on the long drive from London to Chateauneuf. I thought that the medieval city of Beaune would serve as a good base for a brief exploration of the region, and I set up appointments set at several Domaines located in the Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune. Thus it was that we found ourselves early on the morning of Monday 27 April 2009 leaving our overnight accommodations in Kent in the UK and heading for the Channel Tunnel, with Nicos driving his recently serviced Audi A4, and with my instructions being to act as his co-pilot, music director, and toll payer while we were in France. (As an American I find it interesting and somewhat alarming that cars and trucks can easily cross the English Channel either by ferry or by the tunnel and simply drive on the “wrong” side of the road … for those driving solo, it means having to literally get out of one’s car or truck at any toll booth and having to walk across to pick up the ticket or pay the toll!) At this point I must thank USA wine importer Cynthia Hurley and her husband Bob for their assistance in arranging most of our appointments (http://www.cynthiahurley.com" onclick=“window.open(this.href);return false; ) and to Cecil Jones for helping to coordinate aspects of this trip ( http://www.justfrance.com” onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ).
After an uneventful crossing, we set our watches ahead one hour to central European time as Nicos fired up his Garmin sat nav and plugged in the coordinates for our first way station in Reims. Expertly driving on the wrong side of the road for a Brit, Nicos followed the voice prompts from the Garmin and we merged onto the autoroute heading south, with music from Matthew Sweet, The Hooters, and The Crash Test Dummies passing the time. A brief stop for breakfast made me once again realize that there is no such thing as a bad meal in France, even at an autoroute restaurant. By lunchtime, we were in Reims, visiting a superb Champagne shop, La VinoCave (43 Place d’Erlon, 51100 Reims). Regular bottles and magnums of vintage Champagne lined the walls of this shop, where the friendly clerk made some helpful suggestions regarding 1996 vintage bubbly. The 1996 Henriot looked enticing at 31 Euros per bottle, and several were purchased. With a feeling of “mission accomplished” Nicos plugged in the address of the Hotel Le Cep in Beaune and once again followed the voice prompts from the Garmin to continue our journey through the pastoral French countryside. A second autoroute meal of steak frites made this Yank quite happy to be back in France once again …
Approaching Dijon, Nicos received a text informing us that vigneron Gerard Raphet was able to meet us that very afternoon at his winery in Moret-Saint-Denis. Exiting the autoroute at Dijon we headed south on the N 74 along the various famous villages and vineyards of the Cote de Nuits until we arrived in Moret-St-Denis. After a stop to ask for directions at the central village wine shop, we pulled into the driveway of this producer’s winery where M Raphet greeted us and the ushered us into his tasting room where we tasted (and spit, mostly) through various bottles of his Grand Cru wines including those from the controversial 2003 vintage. A quiet, serious man with a deeply penetrating gaze, M Raphet kindly answered our various questions as we attempted to not overly embarrass ourselves with our spoken French. While I did not take any formal notes, my overall impressions of his wines were that they were well made, structured for the long haul, and accurately reflected their various terroirs. Indeed, we received our first lesson as to which sites produced “masculine” or “feminine” wine. We gratefully ended our visit with a taste of his 2002 Clos de Vougeot, and it was a real treat to have such a wine freshly opened for us – powerful yet seductive, fruity with great tannic structure, needing years in the cellar to reveal its charm. Our trip to Burgundy had started off nicely …
After a scenic drive down the N 74 we arrived at the famous Hotel Le Cep in Beaune, a great little inn within the walled portion of the city and located a walking distance to most of Beaune’s attractions. Dinner that night was at Le Comptoir de Leon, a quick cab ride away just to the north of the walled portion of Beaune. After being seated, we were informed that we could pick our wines for dinner from the restaurant’s cave … a small but diverse selection of mainly Burgundian wines greeted us, although I had to restrain Nicos from trying to select a Jaboulet Hermitage for our red! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
(No notes were taken for our dinner wines, though they were well priced for a restaurant).
The next morning, after a filling continental breakfast at Le Cep, we headed off to our first appointment of the day, with Philippe LeClerc in Gevrey-Chambertin. (http://www.philippe-leclerc.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). He is quite a figure, a bit like a character from The Three Musketeers, with a medieval-looking beard, leather jacket, and large gold chain around his neck. Very expressive, constantly on the move, and cracking jokes (he informed us that he speaks Burgundian, not French) M LeClerc took us on a tour of his extensive cellars, most of which have been and continue to be excavated for him by a full time work force of five laborers. We spent a good time of time barrel tasting his 2007s, and then compared those to his already bottled 2006 wines. He did inform us that he has had a change in winemaking style recently, looking for more fruit-forward, earlier drinking wines as he has a large export market to Japan. This seemed evident to me for his 2007s in barrel, which were lush, fruity and with soft tannins. He also informed us that he picked late in 2007, at the end of September and in early October, which allowed the fruit to fully ripen, although he had to carefully sort the grapes to remove rotted bunches. This led to lower yields than he usually sees, but with high quality, naturally ripe fruit with good acid levels. The 2006 wines were a bit more austere and tannic, a “classic” vintage for the Burgundy purists, as he put it. Once again we asked about the controversial 2003 vintage and M LeClerc quickly found and opened a bottle of his 2003 Gevrey-Chambertin “Combe aux Moines” 1er Cru for us to taste. He told us that those who were patient and picked late when acid levels began to rise after the record breaking hot summer have made wines which well age well and will show their terroir after several years in the cellar. This was not the only time we were to hear this refrain on this trip – that winemakers who were fortunate to use fruit from old vines with deep roots, and who did not panic and harvest too early, allowing the grapes to recover some natural acidity, therefore not needing to manipulate with acidulation, have made stunning wines from the 2003 vintage which will be fruity with fantastic natural tannins and low acid levels. So what of his 2003 which we tasted? I call it the “Rhone lover’s” Burgundy as the bright red cherry fruit one normally finds has morphed into more of a Grenache-like kirsch and dark cherry fruit character, very ripe, somewhat lower in acidity than found in other ripe vintage wines, but with silky smooth tannins and velvety fruit. How long should one cellar such a wine? M LeClerc kindly gave each of us a bottle of this particular 2003, and I plan on opening mine sometime after 2015.
A short drive and we then were back in Beaune, to have a quick lunch on the go, in order that we could spend time in what I consider to be the world’s best wine book shop, the Athenaeum, located directly across the Hotel-Dieu museum at Place Carnot. Books, posters, maps, guides, decanters, stems, ceramic artwork – on and on I could go, everything to do with wine. It is a fantastic store, a place where a wine geek could happily spend an entire day, well worth a visit when in Beaune.
Our second appointment of the day took us back to Gevry once again to Domaine Rene Bouvier. Rene’s son Bernard and his wife Stephanie greeted us in their modern winery located just off the N 74 in a converted warehouse behind the Super U market. The Domaine makes a full range of red and white wines (even a rose Marsannay!) including GC, 1er Cru, and Villages wines from Charmes-Chambertin, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Marsannay. We started off by tasting through several 2006 and recently bottled 2007 wines, and then barrel tasted other 2007 and some 2008s. Once again my overall impression was that the 2007s are fruity, fun, easy to drink wines while the 2006s will require patience and cellaring prior to being enjoyed. The “masculine” vs “feminine” theme of the various terroirs was discussed once again, and I must say that I enjoyed how approachable and fruity the 2007 Marsannay wines tasted – wines to enjoy while the bigger wines age!
Our next stop was in the quaint and charming wine village of Aloxe-Corton, nestled in the famed Corton hillside where the Cote de Nuits vineyards end and those of the Cote de Beaune begin. We took the scenic drive down the N 74, stopping along the way to take photos of ourselves at various Burgundy landmarks, including the Chateau de Vougeot and along the hillside of Corton-Charlemagne. I wanted to revisit the tasting room at Domaine Comte Senard in Aloxe-Corton as I had previously bought several bottles of the somewhat unique red Corton-Charlemagne GC properly called Corton en Charlemagne. The by now recurring theme of fruit-forward, easy drinking 2007 reds and the more austere but classic wines from the 2006 vintage continued to show with the wide range of Villages, 1er Cru, and GC Corton wines we tasted. (I opted out of tasting any whites). We also tasted this producer’s 2003 reds, finding again the kirsch and black cherry fruit elements from wines made at the end of this hot vintage. I eagerly added a couple of bottles of the 2002 red Corton en Charlemagne to add to the 1999s already in my cellar. Interestingly, this Domaine is closing many of its wines from the 2004 vintage on with an alternative to natural cork called “Guala” – but more on that in another thread!
Our final stop of the day was past the Pommard and Volnay vineyards to the south of Beaune at the Domaine of Paul Garaudet in Monthelie. His son kindly took us through a tasting of their various white and red 2006 and 2007 Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Monthelie, Pommard, and Volnay Villages and 1er Cru wines. Sadly for Nicos, there were no 2003s for him to taste, but the 2007 whites were showing well, a bit racier and more acidic than the fatter 2006s. For the reds, once again the 2007s came across as the vintage which will be ready to go before the 2006s are ready.
Dinner that Tuesday night was at the famous Le Gourmandin right off the Place Carnot in Beaune, a quick walk from the Hotel Le Cep. We splurged on a couple of 2002s to accompany our meal of fois gras and duck, the details of which I’ll have Nicos post on later.
After yet another filling breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed just to the north of Beaune to taste at the Domaine du Chateau de Chorey in Chorey-les-Beaunes, the one AOC region which lies to the east of the N 74. Winemaker Benoit Germain and his two playful dogs greeted us at the gates to this medieval Chateau which also serves as a hotel during the tourist season ( http://www.chateau-de-chorey.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) . Very animated, friendly, and speaking perfect English, M Germain, who utilizes organic (if not outright biodynamic) techniques, led us through a tasting of his wines, including those from several Beaune 1er Cru sites. The theme of “drink the 2007s while the 2005 and 2006s age” came up again, as did the story behind his success with the 2003 vintage – he waited to harvest, allowing some natural acidity to form in the grapes, and after the initial crush and fermentation, he recrushed the skins and extracted more natural acids and sugars with the explanation that often when left alone, nature heals itself. His 2003 Beaune 1er Cru “Les Teurons” was then tasted along side the 1998; the 2003 was all about kirsch and black cherries with loads of fruit and velvety tannins, while the 1998 was just emerging from a closed phase to reveal classic evolved aromas and flavors of red cherries, stone fruit, sous bois, and tannins beginning to soften. A quite enjoyable visit and tasting, I would consider stopping here on a future trip as an alternative to staying in Beaune.
As we headed back north to Calais and the channel tunnel, this time listening to an eclectic music selection of Greek and contemporary Brit pop tunes, I reflected on our whirlwind visit and tastings and was pleased with the results. We met several interesting and fascinating Burgundy winemakers, saw the geography of the region and had first hand exposure to tasting through the various winemakers’ explanations of terroir, got to barrel taste many wines, and learned about the controversial 2003 vintage. Personally, I enjoyed many of the 2007 reds I tasted, and assuming prices are reasonable, I intend to buy some to open while my 2002s and 2005s age. I am not so certain about the 2006s, mainly as I do not want to buy any more wine which will require years of cellaring. Did I succeed in my goal of convincing the notorious Rhone-lover Nicos that Burgundy might make a worthy detour on his way to and from Chateauneuf? Perhaps … time will tell.
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