Friday - Lower Cote de Beaune
By Friday I think we were better attuned to the pace of things in Burgundy. We knew that not much is going to happen in the morning. Although most caveau claim that they open by 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM for tasting and selling, they are rarely so. We knew that we should just drive about and take in the sights of vineyards and the villages in the morning and any real tasting will have to be in the afternoon. We first drove to Pommard which like every other village has narrow lanes. Reminded me of the lanes in old Delhi or in Meerut. See the photo below - that is me behind the wheel of the car.
Narrow lanes of Pommard
The villages are largely similar. Smaller ones are just a collection of houses huddled around narrow and super narrow lanes. A little larger ones have a square around which there is a church and/or a hotel with a tourism office and shops, etc. The next village we went to - Mersault was a fair size village with a colorful hotel and church and shops. Vikram and I did our degustation there and had our lunch sitting in the car.
After that we drove to the next village - Puligny Montrachet. That one is the only one with Grand Cru land in the south Cote de Beaune - though it is for white (blanc) wines. On the way we stopped off and took a couple of pictures. Check this one out:
Pretty Vineyard
In Puligny Montrachet we went to a caveau de degustation of Domaine Jean Chartron (estd 1859), It was being operated by a transplant Brit woman. She told us that they are all sold out for most vintages and they generally sell out to private buyers before they bottle their vintage. Vikram tasted their wines and he declares it was the best whites he has had in a long while, maybe ever! He purchased one bottle.
By then we were getting a little tired, the sky was overcast and it was threatening to rain. We decided to hit the last village of Chassagne Montrachet. There is a cooperative wine store over there that sounded promising. And it was. We each bought a bottle and we lucked out, as they sold us boxes and packing material for taking the wines back with us Stateside.
Back to Beaune we checked into Hotel des Ramparts. It is a nice hotel, but three hotels in four nights was getting there. We will need to go to yet another hotel for Saturday night as Ramparts does not have availability - sorry monsieur, it is not possible!
Hotel Des Ramparts
Dinner at Le Gourmandin was disappointing. The pork was tough, but foie gras was good. Dessert was a chocolat concoction, which was good. Noe back in the room - it is time to sleep.