Warning - long thread ahead . . .
Thanks to everyone who offered advice and tips in my other thread before my trip. I’ve summed up below my experiences, including a visit to Louis Jadot, a tasting education at Sensation Vin, three wine shops I visited, and a tasting lunch at Olivier Leflaive. I also posted hereabout my restaurant experiences in the area.
I visited Burgundy in early October and it turned out the harvest had been completed in early September, earlier than usual due to early flowering of the vines in the spring. It was unseasonably warm (about 20 C/ 70 F) and perfect weather. We wanted the opportunity to see the vineyards and get a sense of the layout, so we biked from Beaune to Santenay on Le Tour de Bourgogne à vélo (Cycle tour of Burgundy). This was an amazing experience—and I was in ultimate geek mode hauling out Johnson & Robinson’s World Atlas of Wine far too often from my bike rack to check the position of the village and 1er and Grand Cru appellations we were passing through, reading descriptions of the soil composition and how such distinctiveness translated into the wine—thank goodness my bicycling partner is as much into wine as I am and this wasn’t the good-natured sacrifice required when I haul out my far more enormous Official Military Atlas of the Civil War when trapzing around the mid-Atlantic region in the United States. The bike trail is laid out excellently and the views are wonderful (and we were there as the vines were changing color, so as the sun moved toward setting at the end of the day, it truly looked like the Côte d’Or). I am very much a spatial learner, so having the opportunity to do this really provided a useful foundation for wading into Burgundy’s incredibly complex classification and divisions. Evidently they have not constructed (though they have planned) the bicycle route through the Côte de Nuits, so we did that section by car (appropriate anyway, as the distances are longer). Great fun getting sense of the landscape. Along with our bike trip, we did the following in our attempt to experience Burgundy.
Louis Jadot http://www.louisjadot.com
Let me say it upfront. I do not like the label of Louis Jadot. Specifically, I do not like the little cherub face which reminds me of the doorknocker which turns into the face of Jacob Marley in the musical version of Scrooge starring Albert Finney. That association, probably combined with a bias toward thinking that large producers tend to produce less interesting wines, made me less than enthusiastic about seeking out a visit there. But, hey, I was going at a time of the year when everyone would be busy with the vinification, Jadot was kind enough to accommodate me, and last month’s Wine Focus indicated that many think Jadot a worthy producer. The punch line is that I left the experience being far more impressed than I had been before.
I mistakenly parked the car near the old town, not realizing that the room where the tours are given lies a good distance outside of town away from the Jadot offices in the old town. So we arrived late, frustrated, sweaty from the walk, and fearful that we had missed our one appointment for the trip and wasted some poor person’s time. When we arrived, however, our guide was far more than gracious—completely understanding and still eager to share her time with us.
We started with a great overview topomap with lights marking Jadot’s holdings for red and white vineyards (I love maps so this was a good start). We then proceeded into the main press room which was like something out of the Wizard of Oz or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is a huge circular room of fairly new construction (about 10 years old) that has a ceiling pipe system in place. We walked up on the raised platform in the middle of the huge room and were surrounded by two concentric circles of wooden tanks. The pipes rotate and the winemaker can pour the wine into whatever vat he chooses. It is hard to describe, but it was totally cool—certainly a bit more technological than the Burgundy standard, but still quite a trip. It felt like being a musical conductor standing up on that platform.
We then proceeded down into the cellar where the barrels were resting. Our guide grabbed a crowbar, corks to mark what barrels she had opened, and some glasses and we proceeded to do a barrel tasting. She picked the particular wines somewhat at random—based on the questions we were asking, the way the conversation was progressing, and to demonstrate something that she was talking about. Though I do not recall all the particular designations, we tried something like one or two village level wines, two or three 1er Crus, and one Grand Cru for both red and white.
As we had spent the previous day bicycling from Beaune to Santenay in the Côte de Beaune, this was an incredibly useful experience, allowing me to match the wines with the areas that I had just seen. She provided superb guidance in talking about the wines, helping us to put them in context both within Burgundy and how they might develop over time. I won’t really speak to the quality of the wines, as I find barrel tastings somewhat akin to eating the cookie dough for me—everything edges toward yummy. But the differences among the wines were stark and very revealing for me to understand the major distinctions that folks use when generalizing about different wines. This was a very impressive experience and our guide was well-informed, engaging, personable and quite frankly the best person I have ever encountered in that role in my winery visits. All the wines we tried were from the 2006 vintage which will either be bottled or released (I can’t remember which) in September 2008.
I can’t remember which wines we tried were village appellation and which were 1er Cru, except that the first wine for both reds and white was a village appellation.
For whites we tried, Santenay, Puligny-Montrachet, Mersault, Chassagne-Montrachet, and Corton-Charlamagne Grand Cru. For the reds we tried Savigny-les-Beaune, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Gevrey-Chambertin, Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Ursules, and Echézeaux Grand Cru.
Overall, I really can’t think of a better experience at this point in my Burgundy education than the wonderful opportunity we had to follow up a visit to the villages of Burgundy to the wines that come from those villages. Louis Jadot knocked the ball out of the park.
Sensation Vin, 1 rue d’enfer, 21200 Beaune, 33 (0)3 80 22 17 57 http://www.sensation-vin.com
We just popped in here and took a look around. We learned that they offered guided tastings but were just about to close. We came back the next day and signed up for a one hour tasting featuring six wines. As the tasting cost 18 euro per person, we feared this might be quite a ripoff, only six wines for 18 euro? But, as it turned out, the experience was much more engaging and educational than a mere pour-and-sip session. The woman who ran the tasting for us (and it was just us) spoke excellent English and immediately started peppering us with questions to gauge what kind of experience and knowledge we had with wine, with the French AOC appellation system and with burgundy in particular. This was great and made it much more interactive than we had expected. Rather than just launching into a general overview that might be appropriate for most people who walk through the door, she tailored the session toward our level of knowledge and experience.
She offered a great overview of the different types of producers, levels of wine classification (regional, village, 1er and Grand Cru), grapes and vinification techniques in Burgundy. For this she used a really cool overhead powerpointesque projection system with superb maps. We then moved onto the tasting and evaluation session. She allowed us to choose the proportion of red versus white (we went 2 white, 4 red) and served them to us blind. We would talk about the wine, paying particular attention to how old we might evaluate the wine to be and what type of year (hot/cold) it might be from. The wines were then unveiled and we had to guess which wine was which.
This was a very neat experience, as most of the wines I have, I have at home one-at-a-time. The opportunity to evaluate, compare, and dissect wines side-by-side with someone knowledgeable to guide the way was educational and enjoyable. All the wines were quite decent, and though they are available for purchase, we were more interested in (and the experience is tailored to feel like) trying-to-learn rather than trying-to-buy. The one thing I think would have been a great focus would have been to give more attention toward capturing the different terroirs of Burgundy, whether comparing villages, 1er or even Grand Crus.
The tasting we experienced gives you more of a general wine knowledge of identifying aging and vintage characteristics using Burgundy wines rather than a particular attention to the distinctions within Burgundy itself. It would be a great idea if they offered something like that as an advanced course. Nonetheless for someone like ourselves with an interest in wine who wants a bit more focus, I think this was a great experience and I highly recommend it. The more one is prepared to participate, however, the more I think one will get out of the interaction.
Caveau Rateau (Caveau Municipal), Chassagne-Montrachet
This is a wine shop and tasting room that offers the wine of the local producers. The experience was a bit confusing for me and it probably would have worked better if I had gone later in the trip when I understood more. They offer you a huge wine menu with tons of selections to choose from (noting that the cost is 10 euro for 4 wines without a bottle purchase). But when you start asking for pours, they start informing you that wine after wine is not open—which of course is completely fine, one does not expect them to have 80-100 bottles open at any given time. But it would be much more efficient to have a chalkboard or something similar to list what wines are open that day.
Add to that confusion the fact that oftentimes the producers I had been recommended as reliable or particularly good oftentimes share their last names with other less interesting domains in the area. So me trying to keep all this straight was quite confusing. Although we ended up finding something we liked, I think a better strategy would be to go in with something that you want to accomplish, for example, you want to experience the difference between 2 1er Crus, 2 producers, 2 years, whatever, and then focus on that. Our more hunt-and-peck approach wasn’t so enjoyable, though I think the place actually offered bottles from a number of respectable producers. I think this is one of those times where switching to a try-to-learn rather than try-to-buy mentality could be more helpful, at least when you are as new to learning about Burgundy as we are.
Le Cellier de la Cabiote, 11 rue de l’Enfant, 21200 Beaune, 33 (0)3 80 22 56 15 http://cellier-cabiote.com/
I found this to be a nice wine shop with a good selection to my uneducated eyes. There were some interesting producers I saw there that had been recommended to me. Excellent staff who gave me extended guidance and provided very helpful responses to my numerous questions. I enjoyed the experience of shopping there, the selection was not huge, but it varied and offered a bit of an eclectic selection.
Denis Perret, 40 rue et Place Carnot, 21200 Beaune, 33 (0)3 80 22 35 47 http://www.denisperret.fr
Not much to say about this place, except that if you are looking for any of the scores of Louis Jadot which are harder to find, this would be the place to look. They only offer the wines of the five major producers of Beaune: Bouchard Père et Fils, Chanson, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Jadot, and Louis Latour.
La Table d’Olivier Leflaive, Place du Monument, 21190 Puligny-Montrachet 33 (0)3 80 21 37 65 http://www.olivier-leflaive.com
I had heard good reports from folks who visited the tasting lunch at Olivier Leflaive and I looked forward to the opportunity to not only try a variety of burgundy wines but also to pair them with food in a relaxed atmosphere. The experience was a bit different than I expected and my impressions were a bit mixed. The photos I had seen from others who had attended before showed a rather intimate dining room encased in an older house on a main square in Puligny-Montrachet. The lunch we attended (and I don’t know if this is a permanent move or was just for that day due to high demand) was in the complex owned by the winery on the opposite side of the square. Rather than cozy, country, and rustic it was sleek, modern, and reminiscent of a Napa Valley tasting complex (complete with Olivier Leflaive ashtrays!, Olivier Leflaive spa soaps!, Olivier Leflaive bathrobes!, Olivier Leflaive diningware! all available for purchase). I would say there were approximately 40-50 guests for the lunch—most in large groups, we were one of two couples that attended.
Pascal Wagner is the name of the man who runs the show—and he is a work of art. It would be appropriate to call the experience Pascal’s Table, as his guidance and expertise are as much a part of the experience as the wine. He is fluent in French, German, English, Brazilian Portuguese and who knows what else. He is not a salesman in this context but a facilitator. He oozes charisma as he jumps up on a table to layout the next wines that are being poured. Pascal has an excellent ability to educate, to communicate his passion for wines and for understanding all the intricacies of terroir and place in Burgundy. There is no doubt in my mind that the tasting lunch at Olivier Leflaive has been as much a success as it has due to the efforts of Pascal.
That being said, I think I probably caught on a bit too late in the wave—the lunch has become quite popular and although Pascal has the wherewithal to communicate his passion even in a larger group, I missed the intimacy and the more one-on-one attention I think was more typical when the lunch is held on the other side of the square with fewer people. Pascal is very accommodating and seeks out opportunities to stop by your table and chat, but we felt like it was more of an environment where one had to compete for his attention—especially whereas the rest of the room was filled with larger groups.
The lunch was expensive, with the Grande Dégustation (15 wines) costing 49 euro per person. The food was rather mediocre—an excellent Sélection de Charcuterie to start off the meal, but a tired chicken, gravy, and white rice main course, decent cheese plate and weak airline-style coffee. I really wasn’t expecting much on the food front, but I think they could have worked a little harder for the price. The wine pours were fine and it was interesting to see how the wines paired with food. You often have 3 pours in front of you at a time, so it is neat to have the opportunity to move back and forth between them to catch the differences. I particularly enjoyed the first half of the tastings where the wines were mostly village-level wines from different villages in the Côte de Beaune. Paired with Pascal’s excellent guidance, this gave me an enormous opportunity to recognize the different characteristics of the different appellations which are sometimes within a stone’s throw of one another. That part rocked.
The second part, however, where they pour the 1er Crus and the Grand Cru was much less useful and educational. Though Pascal gave a good intro, it would be hard for me to say what lessons I learned (whereas in the first half, it was really useful and I still remember the stark difference between a village Mersault and a village Puligny-Montrachet). It would perhaps be more helpful if the wines selection were more structured (perhaps comparing different vintages of the same 1er Cru or different 1er Crus from the same village—assuming Leflaive’s portfolio allows such comparison). In any case, 14 decent pours (11 white, 3 red) of decent stuff, but nothing earthshaking for me. For someone completely new to Burgundy wine like myself, it can be a useful experience to learn about the wine and terroir, but the price is high and I wish the experience had been a bit more intimate. Nonetheless I enjoyed the experience and I certainly got something out of it.
The wines we tried were as follows, all except the Rully (Côte Chalonnaise) and the Chablis were from the Côte de Beaune :
Dégustation Sélection
2004 Chablis Les Deux Rives
2005 Bourgogne Les Sétilles
2005 Rully 1er Cru Rabourcé (Côte Chalonnaise)
2005 Saint Aubin 1er Cru Dents de Chien
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet
2005 Mersault
2005 Puligny-Montrachet
Grande Dégustation
2005 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ Gain
2005 Mersault 1er Cru Poruzots
2002 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Chaumées
2001 Vaudésir Grand Cru (Chablis)
Vin Rouges/Red wines
2002 Monthelie 1er Cru
2002 Pommard
2002 Volnay 1er Cru Santenots
