I don’t think we have a thread for Burgundy. I do know that there are many questions regarding Burgundy so I thought I would start one after a recent quick trip.
Le Soleil - A restaurant and small Inn from the Simone Bize family. It is the one restaurant I hit every time. Simple food made from excellent ingredients. A mostly Natural wine list with a good selection of Bize wines.
L’Arche Des Vins - Wine bar with small plates. Excellent large wine list. Loud house / disco / tech music but it seems to work. Young energetic staff that could not have been more nice. I look forward to going back. On busy nights reservations are required.
La Dilettante - Stopped by here for a quick lunch and it was exactly what we wanted in the midst of tastings. Simple food with an Asian flair. Excellent mostly natural wine list. This will definitely be added to the rotation.
La Cabotte - A wine oriented restaurant in Nuit St George. Great wine list. Wine prices were all over the place. The food was good French country food. The food alone would not bring me back, the combination of the food and wine would.
La Maison du Colombier - Stopped by close to midnight and they did seat us and served us cheese which was very nice. Per usual they did not have the first three bottles I chose, same thing happened on my last visit. We did not eat a full meal. On my last trip I did and it was ok but not at the level of Le Soleil or La Dilettante which is more my preferred style of eating. I would come back for the combination of food and wine.
La Ferme de la Ruchotte - I finally made it here! I have been dreaming about this place for many years! It is exactly how I like to eat which is as close to the source as possible. We did the Chef’s table which is an extraordinary experience. It is basically a small table for 2 or 4 in the back of the kitchen where you get extra dishes. In our case one of the extra dishes were frogs and whoa were they incredible. We really clicked with the Chef, everything about this place is wonderful and we are already plotting a return visit.
A few words on wine lists and pricing. The prices are all over the map. It is near impossible to find a “deal” on any higher end bottle at a known place frequented by tourists or wine people. In many cases the wines are more expensive than inflated U.S. retail prices. Most places are only working with the recent vintages and have very little depth.
I am sure there are still some under the radar spots but they are getting harder and harder to find.
La Ferme de la Ruchotte is always the first reservation I make. I’ve been lucky to have had many different dishes over the years. Wines from Dujac were always well priced. Hopefully they still are.
Definitely agree on lack of depth these days. Mostly very young wines and oftentimes they will be out of the older vintage listed on the list that you want and offer a newer vintage.
And while I would agree pricing is not as good as I’ve heard it used to be, I didn’t find it even close to US retail except on certain producers like DRC. We found quite a bit of the higher end bottles at much less than we could buy the wines at retail in the US or UK. Whether it’s a “deal” or not depends on how much of a deal you are expecting.
Le Soufflot (Meursault): very good wine list at excellent prices, there is a page on the wine list that includes rare wines at great prices and it’s the one that changes most frequently, a few wines I saw there: Coche Dury Meursault (170€), Fonsalette (90€), Coche Dury Meursault Rouge (120€), Roulot Meix Chavux (120€), Mugneret Gibourg Vosne Romanee Colombiere (120€), Roumier Cras (300€), Dauvissat Sechet (75€), La Closerie Beguines (160€), and the list goes on… food is great as well.
Anthocyane (Beaune): quite new, very good food, great wine list as well, for example: Les Horees Fichots (140€), Prieuré Roch NSG VV for less than 300€, and I don’t remember much more…
I recommend it a lot.
To add from my experience, I had a good time at Le Montrachet Restaurant @ Como Hotel. Their wine list is available online for anyone interested, but as a naive drinker of white burgundy, I was pleased with some of the bottles I was able to try (2014 Jean Chartron Batard & Chevy, in particular).
To extend to Champagne, Le Parc restaurant was also great. We were able to get Dom Perignon by the glass at a very fair price, and a 2002 Margaux by the glass via Coravin (USD$80 for a half pour)
Obviously not unknown, but Lameloise is a good value for lunch. I don’t know if they still have the Sunday lunch special, but if they do, it’s a huge bargain.
A wine store in Beaune, Vivavin, has an amazingly eclectic selection, with some old bottles and fair prices. When Pierre Einaudi bought the Commanderie de la Bargemone in Provence, which my company has represented for over 3 decades, I stopped at Vivavin for a magnum of 2000 Einaudi Barolo which I gifted him.
No, you’re not in Burgundy for Barolo, but they also have allocations from dozens of top Burgundy producers.
I know a lot of folks stay in Airbnb or the like but looking for something a bit more for a sans-kids getaway this summer. The new Chateau de la Commeraine looks quite nice, I’ve also heard Como Montrachet is worth a visit. Anyone been to either or have other recs that have pool spa etc (and hopefully good lists)?
