Another reco for Terre d’Or. We stayed there in October, 2011, and greatly enjoyed it. Has gotten a little more expensive now, but if it fits the price range, I wouldn’t hesitate.
It’s worth it to spend time in the Cote d’Or to get a feel for things, but I agree with your point. There’s a wonderful world of scenery, people, wine and food in the Beaune Hills and south of Chassagne-Montrachet.
RT
Take a good GPS with you if you’re planning to visit the Hautes Cotes…other than Piemonte, I’ve never been more consistently lost than when I’ve visited the hamlets on the Hautes Cotes…and tried to get back to where I was staying…This is all pre-GPS.
Logistical question:
What airport would you fly to? Paris then connect somewhere?
then what? rent a car and drive? how far from the airport etc?
Paris is the only sensible arrival for someone coming from U.S. It’s about a 3 hour drive to Beaune from CDG, would take a lot longer by train, getting into Paris, getting train, transfers, etc. You could potentially take the TGV to Lyon and rent a car there to come back north, but that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, unless you want to spend some time in Paris first, and avoid driving out of Paris (not fun). Another possibility is flying into Geneva, and rent your car there (but do it on the French side of the airport). A bit shorter drive from there to Beaune. OTOH, if your flight would go through LHR (e.g. on BA), might make more sense to fly to Lyon and get a car there.
I flew direct from LA to Frankfurt (Lufthansa) and then caught a connection to Lyon. Rent a car in Lyon and it is just over an hour from Beaune (or 45 minutes from the Northern Rhone). Avoided all of the Paris traffic.
Brian, that’s along the lines of what I was suggesting at the end of my post, probably shouldn’t have led with “only sensible” 
Cheers
Yeah, I assume they will spend most of their time on the cote but I strongly recommend they take a day or two to explore the surrounding countryside. Both my wife and I agree that it was the best part of our trip. (not that I didn’t love walking the vineyards and meeting producers)
Berry, we’re going for a week this October. Will be our second trip, so looking to explore a bit more. What are your favorite surrounding places?
I am happy for them to host them for a visit if they wish, I’ll be around the week of the 8th if they are still in town.
La Miotte, Caves Madeleine, Les Comptoirs des Tons Tons & Auberge du Clocher for lunch/dinners. Vins de Maurice is my favourite wine bar right now as Maurice is delightful individual.
DRC and Leroy feel they don’t have to bother? Stuart, have you visited either? I have visited both and they were the kindest and most humble of domaines, très gentile, and not at all like you intimate.
alan
Auprès du Clocher
Address: 1 Rue de Nackenheim, 21630 Pommard, France
Phone:+33 3 80 22 21 79
Since I’m a BurgVirgin I’ve been considering this tour: France Tour Schedule in France | French Wine Explorers
This is a superb opportunity for the wine connoisseur to taste all 32 Grand Crus of Burgundy, including the quintessential Romanée-Conti . The best of the Côte d’Or, with the finest estates of renowned appellations like Vosne Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chassagne-Montrachet and more. Your luxury tour in Burgundy includes the historic 4-star Hotel Le Cep in charming Beaune, guided tours of the Hospices de Beaune and Clos de Vougeot, and wonderful gastronomic meals.
Any thoughts on that?
Seems a bit on the pricy side for a 5 day trip and I would wonder which and how many domaine you really get to visit. More info needed…
Well, you visited with some heavy hitters who arranged those visits, Alan, didn’t you?
I have never visited…I wrote directly to the domaine, and tried to twice to visit DRC, once in 1988 and once in 1990…both times they gave me some b.s. about being too busy and being asked too much. Ms. Leroy told me in 1988 to try on a later trip; … so, in 1990, I sent them a copy of that letter, and was refused again…with a form letter…from their US importer, Wilson Daniels.
That is the ONLY domaine I tried nicely to visit and was refused. I tried in the the same way (personal letters or faxes) with Rousseau, Roumier, LeFlaive, Lafon, Henri Jayer, Georges Mugneret, Hubert LIgnier, Sauzet, Carillon, Daniel Rion, Niellon, Ampeau, Mortet and Roulot and others (including Jacky Truchot who we had called and stopped to visit first in 1985!) on those 1988 and 1990 trips. All sent gracious replies and I visited all of them in 1988 and in 1990, too…and most of them again and again and again…in addition to others. (And, I still have those wonderful responses from those estates in my tasting notebooks from those two visits…I appreciated them so much…and, frankly, was somewhat astonished at just how receptive they were…to my wife’s letters…albeit in French.)
Maybe it was just a coincidence…that the two times I tried with DRC they told me “no”. But, given the very different response from ALL of the others above, I still think they felt they didn’t have to bother. (And, I have never bought a bottle of DRC, though I’ve bought many many from all of the above!) And, I know of two other Burg enthusiasts who got similar responses in that era…one , who attended a tasting I led in Philadelphia, asked for my help after being turned down… ![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
I’m sure they are kind, gracious, etc…to those they let visit…though, in that era, Robert Parker and others were “banned” from visiting…judging from the receptions at the places we did visit then, which cemented our enthusiasm for those estates for life.
Forget Terre d’Or, go and stay at fellow board member Anthony Hall’s fabulous Chez Hall in Meursault. http://www.burgundyman.com. Su and David who look after the property are English and have a good knowledge of the region.
Timely topic…
A group of us are going to Burgundy in mid-summer. A Bordelais friend has offered help, but said that our planned 1 week stay would be “long”. I am interested in opinions about the length of stay in Burgundy. Additional info – none of us are very knowledgeable about Burgundy, but, having admitted that, we do own 1000’s of bottles of Bordeaux.
Our trip to burgundy was the most amazing experience I have had. While we visited many amazing places the best experience was actually from Jean Michel Guillon. He was an amazingly gracious and generous host. He offered to open anything for us which I did not know how the respond to so I picked a few bottles. Whenever I asked about another wine he just opened it for us. When he didn’t like the way the recent Mazi Chambertin was showing he got a couple older bottles to show us. He even gave us a gift for coming (in fact we are drinking one of his bottles we purchased there while shut in for the blizzard tonight).
One thing I would strongly recommend is visiting some different kinds of domains to get a sense of the different types of producers. We visited Bouchard (large and corporate) , lamarche (family owned but large stately type manor), and Guillon (tiny producer making wine in a garage) all in one of our days there which was a great look on the range of producers. When we go again I will only visit the smaller producers but for a first trip I highly recommend seeing the varied styles.
Chablis
Auxuree (sp?)
Châteauneuf
Tournus
Nolay
Autun
Cluny
I’d ping some locals for better details.
I don’t have a lot to add to the outstanding recommendations. Last visit we stayed in an apartment in Beaune. For about the same price as most local hotels, you get a nice kitchen, living room, dining room, etc. Some good options on VRBO (where we found ours), and I’m sure elsewhere.
Last comment would be to think about taking the TGV from Paris to Dijon, then renting a car. We made the tragic error of renting a car in Paris and driving through sleet and ice, dodging endless lines of trucks in the dark…
Of course it was all worth it.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Oh, and take a GPS unit with you.