Day 3 - on the road to burgundy
We woke up at the butt crack of dawn to catch our 7:20am train to Dijon. Grabbed some croissants and other baked goods from Du Pain et des Idées right when they opened at 7am. Piping hot fresh croissants out of the oven in Paris = dream breakfast.
Here’s us running toward Gare de Lyon
https://imgur.com/a/1SkXnMa
Why you ask? Cause someone cough G called the uber to Gare de Nore. Once we arrived at Gare de Nore we turned right back around to Lyon. Ran into the station. By the time we figured out where the train was leaving from (with wrong instructions from the workers),the train was pulling away as we approached the platform =(. The next available train wasn’t until 11:30am and unfortunately we had to miss our appointment at Genot Boulanger and lunch because of it.
Got to the station in Dijon at 1pm, met up with our friend Icy and zoomed down to Domaine Roulot for our first stop.
My favorite white burgundy producer and a treat to taste through their fabulous 2017 lineup. Love the Domaine Roulot Zaltos!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt7VUK4ndqS/
After saying our goodbyes we headed to check into our Airbnb. Being that I’m a glutton for punishment and we didn’t have lunch, I dragged Ryan and Tyler to Dilettante. Ordered their incredible cheese and meat plate and washed it down with 2013 Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre and 2015 Overnoy Poulsard
The Raveneau had a really strong tropical element going on. A bit out of balance as it was abrasive and too forward. Hard to really drink.
On the other hand the 15 Overnoy Poulsard was a sweet strawberry fruited, energy infused , easy to drink wine. Of course had some carbonic going on. Not terribly complex but really easy drinking. We saved half the bottle to see where it’d go the next day. It turned horribly swampy the next day which was unfortunate.
https://imgur.com/a/v7Qlb7i
Gathered all the troops as Colin had made his way down from Paris. Tyler fell to the Bubonic again so skipped out on dinner. We headed back to Meursault to begin dinner at Le Soufflot.
Soufflot is doing really interesting food. They are trying to present a finer course of dining in Burgundy, with that modern edge. Some dishes were really successful (beet/pork belly was divine) while others were pretty mixed for me. It’s a quick 5 course tasting meal.
We debated long and hard what our one bottle from the “Rare” page would be. 2009 Liger Belair La Romanee? 2016 Coche Dury Enseigneres? 2015 Mugneret Gibourg Ruchottes? We settled on the 2011 D’auvenay Narvaux as our rare wine of choice.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt1VmaFHfMw/
To accompany the wine, we ordered a 2013 Vatan and a magnum of 2002 Selosse Millesime
The first bottle of the Vatan was completely oxidized. The somm came by, took a whiff and immediately took it away. The second bottle was slightly advanced as it showed far more honey than it ought to, but it wasn’t so terrible to have them replace at the great price it was for on the list.
The 2002 Selosse was a take it or leave it wine. You either like the style or you don’t. It was fabulously rich, nutty and yeasty. Filled with ripe powerful pitted orchard fruit with chunks of strong abrasive acidity running through. It’s one of those wines where the oxidative nature is so powerful you ask yourself is it correct? but the immense amount of bubbles, acidity, ripeness of fruit shows the quality of the wine.
https://imgur.com/a/oa1eQIk
After dinner, Ryan dropped us off into Beaune as he headed back to the AirBnB to sleep. I promised Gaurav that on this trip he’d drink some well priced Rousseau Chambertin and I’d be damned if I didn’t fulfill that promise to him. Fortunately Icy and Colin were also up to the task.
We walked over to La Maison du Colombier and settled into one of their comfortable sofa lounge areas. We also adopted a stray by the name of John. John was also eating at Soufflot , but by himself and we saw him again at Colombier by himself, so we offered a place at our table for him! Hopefully John had a good time, but we’re all instagram friends now!
We placed our order for wine and chowed down on one of my favorite dishes of this trip, Veal feet stew with mushrooms. That yummy cartilage with chunks of baguette.
https://imgur.com/a/D6KNbVj
First wine to hit the table was a 2015 Rousseau Chambertin. But we didn’t order a 2015, we ordered the 2013?? But the benefits of Colin being a frequenter of the establishment meant we had our choice of a few vintages at the same pricing. How could I say no to trying the 2015!?
The wine is a powerhouse. Waves and waves of powerful ruby red berry fruit accompanied with spice and black licorice. Disturbingly silky as it glides down the palate. Like a tsunami the wine just hits and hits and covers the mid palate and just consumes the finish.
I asked G if it was to his satisfaction, his only response was a wide eyed facial expression and a smile.
Next up was the 2008 Comte Liger Belair Reignot - woo this is a plump, dense wine. Full of dark ripe fruit and a hint of sweet chocolate. Starts to pick up a rougher texture as the wine builds up and starts to really build into the full bodied hulk. Has the stemmy quality of the vintage, which I feel actually helps lean out the exuberance of the dark sweet fruit. Oddly showing a touch of browning on it, which I’m starting to get on some of the earlier vintages of the domaine.
Then we veered toward some white wines to end the night. I saw a bottle of 2014 Hubert Lamy Criots- Batard-Montrachet Haute Densiti and knew I had to order it. G’s never tried the wine, Colin just had the marvelous 2013 a week before so I said we ought to try the 14. Seeing how amazing the 13 was, I couldn’t wait to see what Lamy did with 14.
I was not disappointed in the least. If you’ve never tried the new style of Lamy’s Criot you’re really missing out. The wine is all encompassing. It is a stellar bottle of chardonnay at its pinnacle. Pure clean white fruit set with hints of exotic lychee and wood spice. There’s so much energy behind every sip in the wine, the intensity almost overwhelms the palate as everything about the wine is amped up to a 11 on a scale of 1-10. I believe it’ll only get better as it settles in but it’s so damn good right now.
I asked G how he felt about the wine and his look was a look of shock. One of “wtf is this and why haven’t I ever had it before?”
Finally we ended with a 2007 Dagueneau Buisson Renard . Woodland fox on the label dressed in an aristocratic fashion? You got me. Really tasty ass wine, love the flint, spice and citrus peel on the nose. The palate has this infusion of straw, lemon, cream, spice on an easy drinking acid spine.
We had ran into Tim Kopec and Daniel Johnnes a couple of times on this trip and they dropped us off the remaining few ounces of a fantastic bottle of Green Label Chartreuse from 1985. Just love the intoxicating nose of spiced leather, wood, licorice.
We all left with a big smile and a great end to our first night in Burgundy.