Last night I went for dinner to Bistrot Bourguignon in Beaune. The welcome wasn’t the friendliest at first, but eventually they warmed up a bit. Food was excellent (sauteed scallops with a garlicky potato presse), service was a tad slow, but the wine list… Fantastic read at relatively reasonable prices. I saw this on the list and jumped at it for 42 Euros.
-2008 Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru la Forest
At first sip, all I could think of was precision, precision, precision. Oh, and YUMMY. At first it smelled rather simple, a light mix of crisp lemon and cheese. But as it breathed, gorgeous aromas of lemony seashells, lemon meringue, lemon zest and hints of light cheese notes wafted up from the liquid. Medium-bodied, it was both oily and light on its feet, like a mid-weight boxer on ice skates. Really lovely, with a long, long, long and extremely spicily crisp finish. Did I mention precision? To say this was cut sharply would be putting it mildly, but it carried itself with regal grace. A true beauty, I took my time with her and enjoyed the wine with the main and the dessert, which was a plate of beautifully stinky cheeses.
God Burgundy rocks.
Cheers!
My thought, too…at least is compensates for the infanticide on the Dauvissat…to a degree. This wine sounds like , given the necessary age, it will be a beauty. I will try mine in 7-8 years, but am hopeful based on Michel’s sacrifice…and Vincent’s impeccable track record.
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BTW, I should add that the wine was outstanding with the cheeses. I prefer white Burgundies or high-acid whites with cheeses, so this was a match made in Heaven. And yeah, the cheeses (all local, unpasteurized and absolutely STINKY) rocked.
Frankly, I think Dauvisat Chablis and epoisses is the best match for that cheese.
RE: unpasteurized: I’m curious how you know. It’s pretty tricky to figure out. Some companies (Bertheau and Germain) I thought only make pasteurized now…for ease of selling. And, the best one, IMO, the Gaugry version from Comblanchien makes both. (I was excited to see their propietary version: L’
Amis du Chambertin in the US until I saw that it was pasteurized. I wrote to the Gaugry’s, who had told me during a great tour/visit in 2001 that they’d “never” use pasteurized milk even if it meant never getting to sell legitimately into the US. They responded…well…things change.
So, I wonder how you could tell…what you had was raw milk?
Well, it said so on the menu, and I really didn’t have any reason to question their veracity. Oh, and that last cheese on the right isn’t Epoisses, it’s Citeaux. Who knows, maybe I was duped, but frankly they were outstanding and I was swooning quite nicely (probably a combination of the delicious cheeses AND the bottle of wine…).
Envious Michel. I have been drinking the last few vintages of Dauvissat La Forest and have been completely smitten. It is a great relative value in his lineup.
Thanks for the note! We opened one back in October with 3 other ‘08 Chablis’ blind and everyone spoke about the “precession” and “laser” focus of the flavors as well as other similar comments to your note.
If you are still in Beaune, you can buy Raveneau for roughly the same price as Dauvissat and Fevre at “Caves de la Madeleine”. We either had the '07 or '08 Forest there. I personally prefer Dauvissat to Raveneau…
Frankly, I don’t think it’s as big of deal as I used to think it was. I’m not sure most of us could tell the difference. The marc de bourgogne is what gives it its real stink, not the milk. For that reason, I much prefer the ones that are affine in Chablis or aligote or something less pungent. Same underlying cheese; different dip.
I was just curious…who is really making raw milk epoisses these days and how much of it on restaurant plates is made from that. I guess my real curiosity is what % of the epoisses and espoisse-related cheese is from l_ait cru_ these days in France.
Thread drift, but I agree, there’s not much raw-milk Epoisses anymore from what I can see, and I only know of the 2 big name guys making it. There’s probably a few tiny producers lost in the woods somewhere, and I’d love to find them, but I don’t see them in the stores. Even the high-end artisanal place in Beaune only carries those 2.
Going to Gourmandin tonight, I’ll see if I can find out more info about the Epoisses, you’ve piqued my curiosity (and hunger).
The “best” one I’ve found is the Gaugry/Laiterie de la Cote. It used to be in the tiny village of Brochon, but then moved to a modern facility on the old RN 74 in Brochon, where they do tours , etc. (In 2001 they had me and a friend all garbed in hospital scrubs and masks, etc. and gave the two of us a two hour tour of everything at the old place. My info is that Gaugry, which has the propietary cousin, L’Amis du Chambertin, and other cousins, makes both. How much of each and where each is sold, who knows. The US gets only the pasteurized versions…as, I think, does the EU. I’m curious whether the raw milk version is sold in very few places now?
As far as I know, the Germain and Bertheau versions are all pasteurise. That’s why they’ve been widely available in the US for years. The Gaugry stuff is more recently available in the US.
The tour at the “new” facility in Brochon is, I’m told, worth the effort, though it is all behind glass-- if you have the time and the interest.
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