Thanks to everyone on the board who gave advice and opinions. This was an amazing trip and it was greatly aided by the threads found here and the responses to questions. It is time for me to give back and help the next person who makes a trip. My wife thanks you for helping make this trip (and her previous to the Battle of Nations) a memorable one. When the battle moves to Castillo de Belmonte, Spain this spring, she’ll have me get your advice again.
We took our two Winechecks so we knew we could bring back 24 bottles as part of our luggage. We ended up shipping back one case (more later) but those Winechecks have more than paid for themselves. The two primary guidebooks we took with us and used on the trip were The Terroir Guide-Burgundy by David Downie and Touring in Wine Country-Burgundy by Hubrecht Duijker which were suggested by board members. Even though they were used and older, the addresses and history of the villages hasn’t changed that much. In fact, I can’t think of one instance where the information we accessed still was not correct.
12/4/2013 – Lyon to Laives.
We got in to Lyon about 11:30 am and went to Hertz to pick up our Peugeot 3008. This turned out to be a pretty good car once we got used to it. The built in navigation system was invaluable dealing with larger cities and getting us back to main roads when we decided to wander off into vineyards. We are spoiled with easy access to maps on our iPhones here in the US but that really wasn’t a possibility without some very different planning for wireless service than we did.
We drove into Lyon and were planning on finding a bistro for lunch but the set up for the Fête des Lumières was underway and it was pretty crazy. We got our bearings for Sunday but eventually decided to get on the road because we never found a single parking space in the city center.
We drove to Villie-Morgon and had the plat du jour in a little restaurant off of the square, l’Atelier du Cuisinier. (http://www.atelier-cuisinier.com) Since we arrived there about 1:25 this is what they suggested because of the time. Beef, vegetables and frites with a nouveau Beaujolais was a great lunch to start the trip. After lunch, we walked up the hill to the communal tasting room at the Caveau du Morgon.
Caveau du Morgon. (http://www.morgon.fr) I have heard about the Gamay based wines of Morgon but never had tasted them myself. The tasting room is in the cellar of a Chateau in the center of town and pours wines selected and labeled by the Caveau from collective voting of producers. There is a short movie that even with our limited French, was easy to appreciate. In addition, they have an area you can purchase wines of the village. There were three wines poured and we liked the 2011 Earl Didier Boréas Morgon Caveau de Morgon and purchased a bottle. Since I have seen multiple California winemakers post pictures of Marcel Lapierre Morgon on social media, I purchased a 2012 since I can’t seem to find it in Houston. The other producer recommended was Foillard so we grabbed the only one they had, a 2011 Régis Foillard Morgon “Domaine de la Rose du Py”. (3 filled)
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving through Beaujolais. We drove north on D68 though the villages of La Chapelle des Bois, Fleurie, Chenas and Les Deschamps and decided to visit Julienas since our daughter is named Julianne. Our daughter loves wine and would be thrilled that we brought her back two bottles of “her” wine. Based on the info in the books it looked interesting enough but little did we know of what was in store. We stopped into the Le Cellier de la Vieille Eglise (the cellar of the old church). The communal production and tasting room was housed in the old church that was deconsecrated in 1868. The stained glass was beautiful and there must have been a dozen locals gathered around the bar that was where the altar once stood. We tasted their wines and grabbed two bottles of the 2012 l’Association des Producteurs du cru Juliénas Juliénas Cuvée Fût de Chêne. (5 filled)
The sun was getting lower so we decided to make time toward our place for the evening, L’Atelier du Relais in Laives (http://www.atelierdurelais.fr) That turned out to be a good move since the fog rolled in quickly and made it a challenge to read signs. This is a B&B I found on Booking.com that was highly rated and is owned by an architect and a potter. We also arranged to have dinner there, which was well worth it. We had our first Kir of the trip followed by a delicious pumpkin and chestnut soup. That was followed by a dish of filet mignon, quenelles, mushrooms and olives in a sauce to be served over rice. After a cheese plate, we had a beautiful apple tart to finish the meal. This attractively decorated home was a perfect stop on our way north. The hosts Isabelle and Frederic were delightful and pointed us in the direction of a few adventures for the morning. If you need a place in the area, you won’t do better.
12/5/2013 – Laives to Dijon.
Before we left, our hosts wanted to see our Winechecks and gave us a bottle to fill a space from one of their friends who they purchase wine from for serving their guests. They gave us a bottle of 2010 Domaine du Long Cours Moulin-à-Vent. (6 filled).
There were only three things specifically on the agenda today, stopping at the Caveau de Chassagne-Montrachet, checking in at Ame de la Terre in Ruffey-lès-Échirey, and having dinner at Chez Guy. We wandered back into the town of Sennecey le Grand to visit a shop we passed on the way in that looked interesting. We made our way to the castle at Brancion. (http://www.brancion.fr) Even though it was “closed” because it was the off-season, we could still drive up to it and wander around a little. It would have been great to take the whole tour. We remained on the back roads and determined that we weren’t going to make it to Chassagne-Montrachet before lunch so we decided to wander in to Mercurey. We got to the communal tasting room at about 11 and put 10 € on a tasting card and went to town.
Caveau di Vin Mercurey. (Le Caveau Divin – L'organisation de Défense et de Gestion Mercurey, Bourgogne) This tasting room uses an Enomatic system so it was a great way to taste some of the 60+ wines available since neither of us had any experience with wines from the region. The English-speaking guide was very helpful in having us taste a wine or two, having us describe what we though about the wines and steering us toward wines he thought we might like. It was also the first place we encountered tasting reds before whites – something we have never experienced on our trips to California or Oregon. It seemed to work well in showing off the wines and we didn’t question it when it occurred later in the trip. The “pours” were anywhere from .55 to 1.55 € and I think we tasted 10 wines in all. The three we liked best and ended up purchasing were a 2011 Michel Picard Mercurey 1er Cru Clos Paradis Récolte du Domaine Voarick (our consensus white), a 2011 Domaine Louis Max Mercurey 1er Cru Clos la Marche (Karen’s favorite red), and a 2012 Domaine Jean-Pierre Charton Mercurey Vieilles Vignes (my red). (9 filled) We asked the host for a restaurant recommendation and he sent us up the road to Auberge “Le Petit Blanc” in the neighboring town of Charrecey.
Le Petit Blanc. (http://www.aubergelepetitblanc.fr) We purchased the standard entrée, plat and dessert menu and were happy if not completely stuffed. Karen started with the Duo d’oeufs en meurette as the guy in the tasting room suggested. I ordered the Petit Blanc salad that had thinly sliced duck breast and confit gizzards, croutons, mushrooms, and quail eggs on a lightly seasoned bed of lettuce. I could eat that salad for lunch once a week for a year and never get tired of it. The main courses were a fillet of sander fish with rice and sautéed mushrooms for Karen and the traditional beef Bourguignon d’autrefois for me. Dessert was amazing. The big surprise to us was the wine. The 2012 Jean Baptiste Ponsot Rully 1er Cru Molesme from a 375ml was a real treat. I ordered a white since I thought it would pair best with everything but the beef (the server gave me a positive response) and this wine simply got better and better. It actually worked fine with the beef, which I never would have thought. We made a note to try to find a bottle or two to take back with us.
We then wandered through a few more back roads through to Santenay. On my wife’s previous trip, they stopped here and took a group picture in the square so it was neat for her to begin connecting the two experiences. Then we were on to Chassagne-Montrachet.
Caveau de Chassagne-Montrachet. (http://www.caveaudechassagne.com) I wanted to stop here to taste some whites. I’ve heard about white burgs forever but couldn’t say that I had one that made much of an impression. With Montrachet being one of the biggest names for whites, I wanted to see what we could find. They were pouring two whites and two reds while we were looking over the list of wines they had available for purchase. The whites were 2011 Domaine Thomas Morey Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Embrazées and a 2009 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Truffiere. Both of these wines were good – better than a majority of whites we have tried – but not earth-shattering. The first red was a 2011 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot. Now we were getting somewhere. This wine, even in its youth, was a wine that showed some real depth. Karen and I looked at each other and knew that we would be getting at least one of these. This wine will benefit from time but it already has a finish that will make you take notice. The second red was a winner based on the nose alone. The aromas that jumped out of the glass on the 2011 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos St. Jean are just what I love about pinots. Before either of us had a drop, we knew that this was a keeper. The mushroomy, earthy notes from the nose carry through to the palate. This would probably be considered the red of the trip for us. Time may change that perception but these wines were not only fantastic but also affordable.
So now we have an issue. Nine of 24 spaces in the Winechecks are filled, we have found wine we would like to purchase in quantity, and there are three plus days left on the trip. We decided this would be worth shipping a case back. So we buckled down and spent the bucks to ship back six of the Jean-Marc Pillot, three of the Fontaine-Gagnard and three of the Jean Baptiste Ponsot Rully that we had at lunch. They will arrive some time in the spring. While we were filling out the paperwork for the transaction, we were poured a 2011 Domaine Bernard Moreau & Fils Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets that was very good. We emerged with 15 open spaces remaining in the Winechecks.
A side note here. We drink enough high quality pinots from California and Oregon that the reds we tasted on this trip reinforced our impressions of what great pinots can be. To be sure, there are differences in the new and old world pinots but the similarities of the wines we experienced were evident. The whites on the other hand will compel a recalibration of both of our palates. My expectation of what chardonnay can deliver at multiple price points will now have to change. I will still enjoy some new world whites that show some Burgundian leanings like the Zepaltas Hanzell Chardonnay, but I’ll be much more interested in taking chances and looking for values in France.
Then we did as many suggested – visit the vineyards specific to wines we tasted. So we decided to visit Clos St. Jean and Morgeot. Clos St. Jean is just behind the village was easy to find. It marked the first of many trips to specific and random picturesque vineyards on this trip. Morgeot is off of the main road back toward Santenay and sits in front of the Abbaye de Morgeot. Ironically an abandoned building sits in the center of the vineyard that my wife realized she stopped and took pictures of on her previous trip. Little did she know that she took pictures of a vineyard we would eventually purchase wine from on this visit.
We worked our way north to Beaune and around Dijon to Ame de la Terre. (Welcome | Âme de la terre - Chambres d'hôtes - Dijon - Bourgogne) This is a great place to stay. Simone is a great hostess, an excellent cook and she knows her stuff which resulted in some excellent recommendations. There is a great wine shop on site that we probably should have taken better advantage of based on what we know now. The only issue we could make is Ruffey-les Echirey is a little farther away than we would have liked as it was 30 or so minutes to Beaune depending on traffic. The value is a steal at the price I found at Booking.com. After getting checked in we headed to our dinner reservation at Chez Guy.
Chez Guy. (http://www.chez-guy.com) We arrived a little before 7 and wandered around Gevrey-Chambertin where we saw a shop we wanted to visit when it was open. They also had a really cool poster for a concert by the Trombones of the Cote d’Or I had to capture for my colleagues back home. Since this is the off-season, we were the only diners until about 7:45 when a table of four was seated next to us. About 8:45 a large group began to form and finally all of the two-dozen diners arrived just after 9. We started with Kir aligote as an aperitif. The amuse bouche was a smoky cauliflower soup paired with a herring mousse. We ordered a bottle of the 2009 Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos St. Jean, which confirmed for us that we like and will look to purchase pinots from this vineyard. It also set up a lesson we learned later on the trip. Karen had the foie gras while I went for the escargot soup. The broth in the soup was incredibly complex. Karen’s plat was a veal chop with gnocchi and mine was a lamb chop with an eggplant confit. Both the veal and the lamb were as light as I have ever tasted. Desserts were a Grand Marnier tart and a trio of sorbets. This was a wonderful meal and would return again.
12/6/2013 – Côte d’Or Day 1
We started the day with a great breakfast at Ame de la Terre that was quite a spread. I had a version of muesli that was held together by yogurt that was delicious.
Chandon de Briailles. (Accueil - Chandon de Briailles, Vins de Bourgogne) We started the day with a 9 AM appointment. Claude de Nicolay conducted our visit and she led us down in to the cellars to do the tasting. There we tasted four pinots, the 2011 Savigny-lès-Beaune, 2010 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Fourneaux, 2009 Pernand-Vergelesses, and the 2009 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile des Vergelesses. Even though it is years away from being the wine it will become, the Ile des Vergelesses was the most impressive wine of the lineup to us. We purchased three of those (12 filled) and plan on losing them in the cellar for a while.
We had some time to kill before our next event so we drove around Savigny-lès-Beaune and were somewhat shocked to see a collection of fighter jets through a section of wall that had fallen. It turns out that the Château de Savigny-les-Beaune houses multiple collections including 80 fighter jets. We drove toward Pernand-Vergelesses so we could see the Ile des Vergelesses vineyard. It really does resemble an island. We drove to Premeaux-Prissey for our next appointment at 11.
Domaine Michèle et Patrice Rion (Welcome | Domaine Michèle et Patrice Rion) There are multiple estates that contain the Rion name. Maxime Rion conducted our tasting and was a very engaging host. We tasted their 2010 Bourgogne, 2009 Nuits Saint Georges Vieilles Vignes, 2009 Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillières and 2009 Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Les Terres Blanches. We thought all of the wines were excellent. The Clos des Argillières is produced on the hillside above the estate and has a cranberry like tartness that combines with an earthy note that is pretty compelling. We snagged two of these as well as one Les Terres Blanches. (15 filled). This white has a little pinot blanc in the mix and is bottled with a screw cap. With all of the issues I’ve read about premox, it is nice to see the issue is not being ignored.
We grabbed a couple pictures of these vineyards on our way to Nuits Saint Georges to get lunch at the Café du Centre on the recommendation of Nicholas Harbour. Great choice. My sandwich was at least 18” and really hit the spot. Karen’s salad had what must have been six to eight ounces of smoked salmon with herbed fried potato rounds, sour crème and chives on top of a bed of lettuce.
We spent the rest of the afternoon stumbling around the villages and vineyards between Nuits Saint Georges and Dijon. We paid a visit to the vineyards of Romanee Conti, La Tache, Les Malconsorts among others. We found that shop in Gevrey-Chambertin and wandered across the street to a little wine shop associated with Chez Guy. We looked for the 2009 Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos St. Jean that we had at dinner the previous night and found one on display, laying on a dark shelf. We didn’t see any others and asked the salesperson for help. It was the last one so we bought it and took it with us. (16 filled) It wasn’t until later that night when we were shifting some bottles that we realized that this bottle was a white instead of a red. We compared the picture of the bottle from dinner to the one we purchased and found the tiny print in the lower right corner that was the only difference in the labels. While I‘m sure I won’t be disappointed with the purchase, it was a lesson learned.
Dinner that night was back at Ame de la Terre. Simone prepared gougères, and a wonderful selection of salads followed by a quiche and then a cheese plate. Dessert was a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. The wine we had were a 2011 La Soufrandière Pouilly-Vinzelles and a 2011 Domaine Rollin Père et Fils Pernand-Vergelesses rouge. Both wines were enjoyable wines that were solid values.
12/7/2013 – Côte d’Or Day 2
Today after breakfast which included French toast in France, we headed to the market in Beaune. The only place I’ve been that is anything close is the Westside Market in Cleveland, Ohio. Between the stalls and the shops we bought a few things to bring back. Then we headed north to Aloxe Corton.
Domaine Comte Senard. (Welcome at Domaine Comte Senard) We had a lunch tasting scheduled at noon but the reservation encourages an early arrival to tour the vineyard and visit the cellar. In the cellar we learned how the Domaine hid wine from the Nazis and saw bottles with a heavy growth of mold. This is a much more structured presentation akin to Napa and would be a great choice for someone expecting that type of experience. We typically avoid these types of experiences in Napa in favor of the smaller intimate settings but we thoroughly enjoyed this and would easily recommend it when you add the quality of the wines you get to taste. We returned to the dining room where we selected two different wine flights knowing we would be sharing. Karen was poured six wines and I was served eight. As some of the wines overlapped in the three flights in which they were poured, I’ll describe all of the wines poured by flight.
Flight 1 was served with a seafood terrine and consisted of three whites. They were a 2011 Bourgogne Blanc, a 2011 Aloxe-Corton and a 2011 Grand Cru Corton. All of these wines were delicious but the one that stuck out to us was the Aloxe-Corton that was made from 100% Pinot Beurot, a cousin of Pinot Gris. The Corton was my first ever Grand Cru and it was strong but probably not 30€ better than the Aloxe-Corton on this day.
Flight 2 was served with Beef Bourguignon and Gratin Dauphinois and consisted of three pinots – a 2011 Aloxe-Corton, a 2007 Aloxe Corton 1er Cru Les Valozières and a 2005 Corton Clos Des Meix Grand Cru Monopole. Now we were getting into some really beautiful wines with just enough age to shed their baby fat. The Clos Des Meix was a standout and it was nice to grab a bottle with just a little age on it.
Flight 3 was a cheese course that included our favorite cheese of the trip – a Brillat Saverin. The wines were two reds and a white – a 2005 Corton Les Paulands Grand Cru, a 2000 Corton Les Paulands Grand Cru and a 2008 Grand Cru Corton. While the pinots were great, they were overshadowed by what is clearly the best white wine I have ever tasted. This was the wine I was hoping to find on the trip – a white burg that knocked my socks off. This was the first wine I would rate as a 95 or higher that I have tried. I get the allure now.
We purchased four bottles, one 2011 Aloxe-Corton blanc, a 2005 Corton Clos Des Meix Grand Cru Monopole, and two 2008 Grand Cru Corton. (20 filled) It’s definitely the first time I threw down that kind of money on a white wine and I don’t think it will be the last. While we were checking out, we were shown the “corks” that were being used in the bottles. The Ardea seal (http://www.ardeaseal.com) in being used by Comte Senard as well as Olivier Laflaive and Ponsot. We left there as happy campers and returned to Savigny-lès-Beaune to meet with Nicholas and Colleen Harbour.
Maison Harbour. (http://www.maisonharbour.com) We set up a visit with fellow Berserkers Nicholas and Colleen Harbour. They have done what many of us dream to do – leave our current jobs and start a winery. They chose to do it in Burgundy. I would encourage anyone to start at the beginning of their blog and read forward as it really shows the path of starting from the beginning. We got to see their entire operation – the tanks, the beautifully restored press and the de-stemmer. There are great pictures on their site. We then went to their newly restored cellar where their very first vintage is in barrel. Some of their Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru En Remilly was still bubbling away as it was fermenting in the barrel. We sampled everything they had in barrel and discussed their new challenges of bottling, marketing, shipping, importing and selling their wines. There couldn’t be two nicer people and I hope that this works for them. For now, I’ll dream vicariously through their blog and wait for word of their initial release. They were expecting guests later that evening so Colleen left to prepare and we walked with Nicholas up the hill along the Aux Guettes, Aux Clous and Les Serpentières vineyards. From there we could see across the valley. In fact we could see the Mont Blanc in the distance something he said only occurs a few days a year. When I came home and looked it up, it’s roughly 120 miles away as the crow flies. Pretty amazing.
After wandering back down the hill and saying farewell to Nicholas, we headed back the Ame de la Terre. Simone suggested a couple of different restaurants and we selected a seafood restaurant in the middle of nowhere. In Texas, we would say that the Arc-sur-Tille was not only too small to have a Dairy Queen, it didn’t even have a stoplight.
Les Marronniers d’Arc (http://www.restaurant-hotel-les-marronniers.fr) This was a surprise for us. The portions were huge and the value was outstanding. After the amuse bouche, Karen had the Escargot Ravioli in a dill sauce and I had the plateau de fruits de mer. These were some of the most flavorful oysters I have tasted. The sheer number of periwinkles made it pretty filling. I had a fillet of Sander and Karen had a huge mound of mussels. Our desserts were outstanding. The wine was a 2011 2010 Domaine des Marronniers Chablis 1er Cru Montmains which I wish I could find here. Really crisp with nice levels of acidity, it was a great wine for the meal.
12/8/2013 – Last day back to Lyon.
We slept in a little, packed up the car and got on the road about 9:15 am. We drove to Beaune because we wanted to focus on the villages and vineyards south of Beaune. There are some incredibly beautiful views on the back roads. We wound our way all of the way down to Santenay We finished our wine purchases for Karen’s parents who were watching our kids while we went on the trip. The Cave des Vieilles Vignes (http://www.cavedesvieillesvignes.com) is open on Sundays and has another shop in Meursault. We finished the drive to Lyon, checking in at the NH Airport hotel since we had a very early flight the next morning. We returned the car and got ready to head downtown on the Rhone Express.
The Fête des Lumières (http://www.fetedeslumieres.lyon.fr) is a pretty amazing festival. It was cold and the crowds were huge (1.5 million estimated that night) but it was pretty cool to be in attendance. We had no clue it was happening when we made our reservations but I decided to search for festivals that might be occurring while we were there and we fell right into this one. We saw about a dozen of the installations before we headed back to warm up and get ready for our early flight.
The trip home was slightly more eventful than we wanted when our flight from Frankfort to Dulles was 108 minutes late and despite Global Entry (which made it lightning quick to go through customs, recheck bags and pass through security), we sprinted and arrived at our gate to see our flight to Houston pulling away. So we spent Monday night in a hotel eating delivery pizza, watching Monday Night Football and worrying that we wouldn’t get out on Tuesday since they were closing all of the local schools and telling government workers not to report. We found out that our two Winechecks made the original flight, our clothes caught the flight to LAX and caught the red-eye to IAH and thankfully we were all reunited when we finally arrived Tuesday afternoon.
This was a trip that any pinot lover needs to take. We hope to make this trip every four or five years. Thanks to everyone who helped make this a memorable experience for Karen and I.
