Wine, Women & Songs

Dijon is a large city. Driving through the city, we were glad that we had decided to give this a pass and had made Beaune our base. The hotel was nice and after checking in we walked around the city center. There are a lot of people walking around. The place is lively and shopping is good. Bunch of designer shops with names that one has never heard of. There were some really handsome clothes. It made me want to go to Paris and see what they have there if Dijon is like this.

Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne in Dijon

There are some nice large squares and old churches. We bought some macrons to take home and then made our way to the restaurant for out final vacation dinner. Like all French meals, this was a two hour affair. But we were fine with it. Had no where to rush to. Tomorrow morning we get up at 6:30 AM to drive to Paris and that, as they say, will be that.

Finding a little difficult to say farewell to the vines, we decided to do one last circuit of degustation in some of the villages. Driving up, we first stopped at Aloxe Corton. The cave was pretty nondescript and so were the wines. Moved right on to Pernand Vergelesses. And from there bade good bye to Cote de Beaune and crossed into Cote de Nuits. I wanted to taste some wines from the Grand Cru region of Echezeaux. That region is in the village of Vougeot.

Pretty valley of Cote de Beaune

Vougeot is a pretty village. As we drove into the village we found out that a marathon was in progress through the village. This is a once in two year marathon race that starts in the town of Marsannay (little south of Dijon) and makes a circuit through the main villages of Cote de Nuits and ends back in Marsannay. Vikram and I walked in and watched the runners. There were some serious runners and then there were some dressed as pirates, Easter bunny, cross-dressers, bumblebee, etc.

Marathon runners in Vougeot

In the village of Vougeot we had our most rude encounter with a man in a caveau for Domaine Pierre LaForest. That ass declared that he will only let us taste wine if we will buy any. We told him that we are here to taste and to buy. Hearing this he let us enter. We looked around and Vikram asked to taste a 2005 Gevrey Chambertin village wine (€30). It was an okay wine, the fruit was not very obvious and the tannins were strong. Not a typical 2005 as we had tasted. That vintage was a superb year with lively fruit and good drinkability. We did not feel like paying €30 for the bottle of village wine. We told the guy thanks and no thanks. He got all bent out of shape and made a fuss that we have to buy a bottle. He was very obnoxious and gestured for us to leave. At this, annoyed with him I left, but Vikram stayed to make a point with him. When Vikram finally came out, I found out that they had a fairly heated discussion. Apparently, the guy said that his wines are good and we don’t know what we are talking about and should buy the bottle. Vikram told him that he will buy if he liked the damn wine. The encounter ended with Vikram putting down €2 to shut the guy up.

Chateau de Vougeot

By then it had started to rain, and we drove out of Vougeot and went to Gevrey Chambertin for lunch and to watch the marathon stragglers. It was around 4:00 PM and finally out Burgundy sojourn was drawing to an end.

Saturday morning is a big market day in the City of Beaune. In the main city square there are stalls of all kinds. It is like a combination of flea market, farmers market and art fair. Vikram and I checked out of our hotel and loaded the luggage into the car. Then after a decent breakfast at a brasserie at the square, we wandered into the throng. There was a fair size crowd. The weather was overcast and windy. It was easily in the mid-fifties. Both of us were wearing jackets. I was wishing I was wearing the wool jacket.

Beaune market day

Vikram wished to purchase some wine glasses with names of the different villages with their crest on them. He found a shop and plunked down for six glasses. I wanted to buy some regional cheeses for Rema and found a frommagerie. The board on the shop said it belonged to the famous frommager Alain Hess. We met M. Hess himself as he was the only one who parlez vous Ingles. Having bought some cheese, I went to a bebe clothes place to buy a present for my bebe – Rhea.

It was getting to be a little after noon when we headed out of Beaune. Farewell Cote de Beaune, it was good, it was fun. The vacation is drawing to a close as we headed to Dijon for the last night’s stay.

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.

On Wednesday, Vikram and I had basically hit Cote de Beaune’s main villages and purchased some wines. On Thursday, we made our way to Cote de Nuits. We drove to the tourist office in Gevrey Chambertin to find out which of the vineyards are accepting visitors and are giving tasting. Harvest is especially in full swing in this region being to the north. The office had a map which showed the vineyards in the main villages. But after calling around in the morning we did not have any luck at all.

Walking in Gevrey Chambertin

We walked and drove around hungering for a drop of free wine, but got none. It was finally after 2:00 PM, after lunch, that our luck changed and we ran into some caves where degustation was on.  We went to all the top villages and sampled wines there.  The people were generally helpful and willing to show and talk about their wines.  The landscape was very pretty and we stopped often to take pictures.

In Chambole Musigny

Our thirst quenched, we purchased at least one bottle from each of the main village appellations as we made our way south back to Beaune.

The weather held up and the sun poked out a few times to offer some brilliant sunshine and photo ops of some value. We wrapped up the day a little earlier than on the day before.

Rows of vines

For dinner we went to Le P’tit Paradis. This was a restaurant recommended by Wine Spectator. It had begun to drizzle a little and had gotten quite cool as we made our way there. Both of us put on light jackets for the occasion. The restaurant was in a dark, quiet lane and would never had chanced upon it otherwise. Dinner turned out to be excellent!

The typical thing here seems to be a fixed menu where you get - Le Entrée (a thing between appetizer and entrée), Le Plat (the main course) and dessert or frommage. If one were to get this three course a la carte it would be like 50 euro. But in fixe menu it is half that. So both last night and tonight I did the fixe thing and both nights I was happy for it.

Tomorrow, we plan to head south of Beaune, to some of the lesser villages. Been fun so far.

Burgundy Map of Vineyards

All of red Burgundy, which is all pinot noir grape by the way, is grown in the strip of land south of Dijon for about 40 kilometers. The top half of this strip is called Cote de Nuits (pr: Nui) and the southern half is called Cote de Beaune (pr: Bon). The city of Beaune is in the top quadrant of the Cote de Beaune and is quite centrally located to tour the entire Burgundy.

The wines within each of these two regions are categorized by the village where they are grown. And then they are categorized by quality wherein the top wines are Grand Crus, then come Premier Cru, Village Wines, Table Wines and then finally swill.

Cote de Nuits is where most of the Grand Crus are. The famous villages there being:

Gevrey Chambertin; Morey St Denis; Chambolle Musigny; Vosne Romanee; and maybe Nuits-St-George.

Cote de Beaune has some Grand Crus but mainly Premier Crus. Grand Cru are in the village of Aloxe Corton and Puligny Montrachet.

Five hours in afternoon were spent bouncing from one village to the other. We drove to Pernand Vergelesses, Premeaux-Prissey, Nuit-St-George, Chambolle Musigny, Gevrey Chambertin, Vosne Romanee and Morey St-Denis, before it was dusk and degustation was done for the day.

Wine Cellar

We purchased more bottles from Dufouleur Pere & Fils, Domaine Roin and Domaine Daniel Roin & Fils. Wine tasted and done we made our way back to Beaune. It had begun to rain a little by then. It had been decent day weather wise. Sun had peeked through here and there, and it had not been that cold. Now after a dinner we will call it a day and tackle Thursday - our Day 3 in Burgundy with fresh gusto.

Sitting in a vineyard

The first stop was a vineyard - Chateau Chorey in Chorey les Beaune. Got there. Nice place. The proprietor was not there, though and when he got there in his Volvo he said - cé impossiblé. Harvest season - so busy - so au revoir.  So off we went hunting again.

In the village of Aloxe Croton in the Cote De Beaune we arrived at Domaine Comte Senard. There we spent over an hour and half sampling wines and discussing vintages with the wine grower. Domaine Comte makes several Grand Crus and Premier Crus, and also village wines. The pecking order of the wines being in that order. The last is of course the table wine… and ummm… cooking wine, I suppose as well. Here is a photo of Vikram and me in the tasting room of Domaine Comte Senard.

Domaine Comté Sénard

We both purchased three bottles each - yes, we are big spenders! And then it was on to the next ‘degustation’ - or a wine tasting.

We got a late start of the day owing to being tired from jetlag. Got up at 1:00 AM in the morning and lay tossing and turning. Then went back to sleep at about 3:30 AM. Had breakfast at a patisserié.

Patisserié

Checked out of Hotel Central and set out to explore the vineyards, drink some wine and buy some bottles. Hopefully will not drink too much - after all I do have to drive the stick shift car. But whqt the hell it is all in Fun! Fun!

The weather is a bit cold and the sky is overcast. I am quite glad I brought sweaters for the trip. I also came prepared with a windbreaker and a jacket. Hopefully won’t need either of those.

After a brief delay the AA flight 42 deposited me at the Paris airport at 9:00 AM on Tuesday.  A little haggard, I met Vikram at the airport and we rented Opel Zafira.  A blue one; stick shift.  I am the designated driver.  A few hiccups we set off from the airport (hiccups like we couldn’t figure out where the hand-brake of the car was!).  It was raining a little, but we rolled out of Paris on the way to Beaune.

We lunched in Auxerre.  I forgot to take any photos there.  Auxere is a quaint little town, full of history, apparently.  Lunch was good.

Arrived in Beaune at about 3:00 PM.  The hotel is a little disappointing.  Room is small but the hotel is really centrally located.  Hence the name of the hotel - Hotel Central!  We decided to find another one for the next night and fixed up Hotel de la Paix.

On the way to looking at the rooms in Hotel de la Paix, we saw this beauty salon called Bollywood Instutut.

Bollywood Institut in Beaune

Anyway, we walked around the town and visited a couple of “caves” (places which have wine tastings and sell wines as well.  Pretty neat.  Vikram purchased a bottle.  We sat at a wine bar and drank some more wine while deciding on the plan of attack for Wednesday.  A quick dinner and back to the hotel room for sleep.  It has been a long day.

Below is a photo of me in front of a fountain in Beaune town square.

Beaune Square

Flying to Paris on Monday (9/30) by AA flight from Chicago.  Landing on Tuesday (9/30) at 8:40 AM.  Vikram will meet me at the airport and we plan to rent a car and drive to Beaune - the wine capital of Burgundy.  Five days in Beaune should be loads of fun and relaxing.