My girlfriend Marcia and I visited the Côte d’Or for the first time last week (2/1 to 2/8). Several postings on this board were helpful in preparing us for the trip, so I hope these notes might prove useful to anyone going there for the first time. This was our first “wine trip,” and we had no idea what to expect from barrel samples, knowing only that they are supposedly quite different and harder to interpret.
Some people here have reported disappointing trips to Burgundy, apparently because they didn’t book in advance and were therefore unable to visit wineries. Thus forewarned, I googled the sites and email addresses of about two dozen important (or favorite) domaines and sent them emails in French with the help of the google translation facility. Most wineries request that appointments be made by fax. Since I no longer have a fax, I decided to confine my luck to wineries that have entered the age of email. I wrote to them saying that we were admirers of their wines, were going to be in the Côte from February 1 to 8, and would like to pay them a visit. Nine said yes, three said no (Anne Gros, very nicely, Comtes Lafon, and Vincent Girardin said trade only). The rest (roughly a dozen) didn’t bother to answer, bit this suited us fine, since we didn’t want to make the trip a steeplechase, and four of the wineries I most wanted to visit said yes. Of the nine who gave us appointments, three were négociants (Bouchard Père et Fils, Louis Jadot, and Alex Gambal), always easier to visit because of their marketing cultures. Interestingly, four of the five small wineries who agreed to see us were in the Côte de Beaune, possibly suggesting that Côte de Nuits wineries have more of a chip on their shoulder, at least as far as non-trade visitors. And, unless you have special contacts, forget about the most legendary names (Romanée-Conti, Cmte de Vogüé, Coche-Dury, Henri Jayer, etc.); they don’t have websites and have no interest in receiving non-trade visitors. But there are plenty of other options available.
We had many excellent experiences and were warmly received everywhere; my sense is that, if you do your homework (I recommend Burghound’s “The Insider’s Guide to Visiting the Côte d’Or and Chablis”), plan ahead, and show some knowledge and enthusiasm about the winery and its wines, 90% of success is just showing up.
A note on scores: except in a few instances when fermentation seemed incomplete, I gave scores as a kind of shorthand for the combination of how much each wine impressed me and the amount of pleasure it gave me, not always the same thing…
A note on spitting and gargling: every place had spittoons (crachoirs), and we quickly grew used to them. Portions were generous and so, more often than not, what remained in the glass was poured back into the barrel. Locals have mastered the art of simultaneously gargling and inhaling, making a most unpleasant sound that we tried in vain to approximate through either gargling or inhaling, never both.
Day 1 – Friday, February 1
We landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris after an excellent Air France flight and located the Air France shuttle bus (1 hr) to the Gare de Lyon, where we took the TGV to Dijon (less than 2 hrs). In Dijon, we rented a Citroen C3 and drove slowly south to Beaune (1 hr) on the N974. It was cold and rainy; in that somber atmosphere, road signs for places like Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-St.-Georges were less uplifting than I expected. In Beaune, we got lost in the old city before finding our way to the hotel (Hostellerie le Cèdre, normally expensive, but has a low season deal). At the hotel, I was impressed with a bit of corporate generosity: because of a booking error of mine, they were expecting us the day before, and said they had to charge us for the missing day; when I explained that I had simply mixed up the dates, the receptionist said she’d speak to the manager and was able to reverse the charge. On the negative side, we had chosen this hotel because it was the only one listed as having a fitness room; we expected to work out daily to compensate for the wine bacchanalia, and were dismayed to find this so-called fitness room to be a small and unheated basement containing a solitary soloflex machine... You win some, you lose some, but next time I think we’ll rent the guest room at a good domaine like Anne Gros.
Tired from the trip, we picked up some sandwiches at a nearby pastry shop, and had them for dinner without wine.
Thought of the day: you gotta love a place that has a Parc de la Bouzaize, cities called Bouze-les-Beaune and Bouzeron, a restaurant called La Bouzerotte, and people with names like Yves Bouzette.
Day 2 – Saturday, February 2
Still bitter cold (by Brazilian standards), but a beautiful, sunny day. In the middle of the morning we drove down to Puligny-Montrachet, twenty minutes south of Beaune, and walked around the pretty town while biding time for lunch at Olivier Leflaive’s La Table d’Olivier. Several postings had recommended this lunch, and it did not disappoint. Olivier Leflaive was there to greet us at the door, and stopped by often to make sure we were happy. The facilities are modern, and not my taste in modern, but satisfactory. The famous Pascal Wagner, mentioned in several postings, is no longer there, but we were well received (in English) by Marie Chantal and Florence. The charcuteries were delicious, as were the cheeses, and the wines were quite satisfying, without being memorable:
WHITES
Bourgogne Aligoté 2006 7.30€
Chablis Les Deux Rives 2006 13.50€
Bourgogne Les Sétilles 2006 11.00€
Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Perrières 2006 23.00€
Rully 1er Cru Rabourcé 2005 15.00€
Chassagne-Montrachet 2005 31.00€
Meursault 2005 29.00€
Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères 2005 32.00€
PREMIER CRU WHITES
Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ Gain 2005 48.00€
Meursault 1er Cru Poruzots 2005 46.00€
REDS
Santenay 2003 14.80€
Pommard 2003 26.50€
PREMIER CRU REDS
Volnay 1er Cru Santenots 2003 29.00€
I didn’t take notes, but would say that, overall, the whites were fruity and refreshingly acidic, made with little oak (Marie Chantal said Leflaive uses no new oak, and leaves them in barrels for only six months). The first five were on the lighter side (the St. Aubin was my favorite), and the next three had more body. Only the two premier crus jumped into the 90+ point category, not so much from body or extraction but from rich aromatics. The reds were competent. We left with good memories but no wine, as the prices were retail and, in my opinion, a bit steep.
At night we had an excellent dinner at L’Ecusson, a restaurant highly recommended by Burghound. The first course was accompanied by a half bottle of 2004 Alex Gambal chardonnay. Very floral (acacia, rose petals) nose, followed by good acid/fruit balance but a somewhat hollow mid-palate, without much weight or structure. Score: 87. To be consistent, to accompany the main course we ordered another half bottle of Gambal, a 2004 Savigny-les-Beaune Vieilles Vignes. Light ruby color, very aromatic nose, but somewhat simple in the mouth, sour cherry and raspberry with light tannins and a bit more acid than fruit. Score: 86. We enjoyed our dinner at L’Ecusson and would recommend it for the excellent food and service, the superb cheese tray, and the extensive half-bottle list, though nothing was truly memorable and the prices are not low. The ambiance was a negative for me – a somewhat garish, Provençal-modern style that leaves something to be desired in a region with restaurants operating in the gorgeous stone-lined vaulted cellars of medieval buildings.
Thought of the day: why are Burgundy vineyards so fractured? I read that, before Napoleon, estates were kept intact because assets were always inherited by the eldest (primogeniture). The Napoleonic code established that they were to be divided equally among all descendants, leading to the fragmentation seen in Burgundy today. But why did this not lead to equal fragmentation in, say, Bordeaux vineyards? There must be other factors at play…
Day 3 – Sunday, February 3
Day 3 was a gastronomic day off, in anticipation of heavy tasting in the days to come. We visited the Hospices de Beaune (a gorgeous ex-hospital, particularly interesting for Marcia, who is a doctor), the famous Atheneum bookstore and the Beaune Wine Museum (boring). Later in the afternoon we visited the Clos Vougeot, a beautiful castle right by the eponymous vineyard, where the Tastevin association gathers twice a year to wine and dine and award the Tastevin seal of approval. Taking the so-called Route des Grands Crus, we drove through a who’s who of famous vineyards: Vougeot, Musigny, Échezeaux, Grands Échezeaux, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti, La Tâche... Quite a pilgrimage, each hallowed name provoking a little thrill.
Dinner was a simple but delicious cheese and fruit plate from the hotel’s kitchen, accompanied by a half bottle of 2004 Louis Jadot Clos des Ursules. I have some bottles of the 2002 stashed away, and have enjoyed earlier vintages of Ursules (a Jadot monopole since, er…, 1826), but not this one. Simple tart cherry aromas, more acidity than fruit in the mouth, very light tannins, unattractive mint and medicinal flavors. Stemmy! Score: 85.
Thought of the day: most restaurants in Burgundy (and Paris) offer a pretty extensive selection of half bottles, a very civilized practice that should be adopted stateside!
Day 4 – Monday, February 4
DOMAINE CHANDON DE BRIAILLES, Savigny-Les-Beaune
Chandon de Briailles is housed in a stately U-shaped chateau in the heart of the lovely village of Savigny-les-Beaune. Like the astonishing royal castle in Beaune that houses the headquarters of Bouchard Père et Fils, the walls at Chandon de Briailles feature interesting grotesque stonework (grotesque being a style of Gothic whose pumice stone esthetic derives from grottoes and Roman tombs). Claude de Nicolay-Drouhin, the young winemaker of the Domaine, greeted us warmly in English and, without further ado, took us down to the cellars. She told us that the 2007s are still undergoing malolactic fermentation, so we would be tasting samples from the 2006 vintage, which was about to be racked (by going up from the cellar to the ground floor) and bottled (by gravity, from the ground floor to the cellar) between next week and March. For the first (but not last) time in Burgundy, we heard the wines referred to as living beings when Claude said that we were going to taste wines that were “very happy” because still in their barrels, before the trauma of bottling.
2006 Savigny-les-Beaune – extremely tart and fresh on the nose, with aggressive tannins and a strong raspberry taste; definitely not wine as we’re used to drinking it, so for the first time I can understand empirically why critics give ranges instead of scores for barrel samples. Claude says that they use only old wood and oxidation is slow, so several months in the bottle will be required before this aggressiveness calms down.
2006 Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Fourneaux 1er Cru – similar but hotter (higher alcohol), more structured; longer finish, lots of very ripe fruit.
2006 Pernand-Vergelesses Ile des Vergelesses 1er Cru – cherry and blackberry on the nose, silkier tannins, more body and power but less fruit (at this point) than preceding wines.
2006 Corton Les Bressandes Grand Cru – less exuberant, silkier, elegant, finer tannins, rounder mouth feel.
2006 Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru – from soil with limestone only (no clay); according to Claude, this has a touch of the Côte de Nuits style (“Clos du Roy is the Chambertin of the Côte de Beaune”). She said this wine would take about 15 years to mature, and was very masculine and also full of ups and downs. “Just like men,” I joked, “no, like women,” she replied without skipping a beat. I have no notes on this one – at this point I was just surfing on the crescendo of differences between these reds, becoming less and less fresh but more and more structured and powerful.
2006 Pernand-Vergelesses Ile des Vergelesses 1er Cru (white) – Marcia had read that in Burgundy (in general) and at Romanée-Conti (in particular) the habit is to drink white after red, and we encountered this here for the first time. Anis and pineapple aroma and taste, and very refreshing acidity. Delicious and, unlike the reds, open for business. Score: 90. Claude thinks that 2006, like 2004, is a particularly good year for whites.
2006 Corton Le Charlemagne Grand Cru (white) – for this we went to a separate cellar on the other side of the chateau; for me, the whites were the highlight of the tasting, in part because they were ready to drink and refreshingly acidic and fruity. Also, I hadn’t expected to taste any whites at Chandon de Briailles, much less ones with this class and finesse. Claude said that white wines were like a hobby for them since production is so small. Again, anis on the nose (“our signature,” says Claude) and citrus, with great elegance, body and structure, yet without a trace of new oak vanillin. Magnificent. Score: 94.
A very pleasant and enlightening first visit, with thanks to Claude de Nicolay for her generous reception (and much appreciation for her completely unaffected demeanor).
Lunch at Cellier Volnayisien
An excellent lunch in the heart of Volnay, in a beautiful underground cellar with vaulted ceilings. Hearty food to combat the cold, and a half bottle of 2005 Joseph Voillot Volnay Champans 1er Cru (red). The wine was, of course, way too young, with high acidity, fine tannins, and tart cherry, medicinal flavors. Not giving me much in the way of pleasure right now, but surely in a few years. Score: 87.
DOMAINE RAMONET-BACHELET, Chassagne-Montrachet
We drove south to the famous white wine village of Chassagne-Montrachet, where we had an appointment at Domaine Ramonet-Bachelet. Mme. Marie-Paule Bonnefoy, the wife of Alain Bonnefoy, who married into the family and runs the estate, greeted us and took us into an adjacent warehouse where she proceeded to open a succession of her 2005s. No barrel samples; this appeared to be a much more commercial situation, with prices placed directly in front of us (see below). We found the prices quite reasonable, with earlier vintages available for several bottlings with little price differences. The conversation took place in French, and was practical, with little interesting information. All Ramonet-Bachelet whites spend 14 to 16 months in a mix of 1/3 new, 1/3 medium, 1/3 old wood:
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Caillerets 1er Cru 18.80€ - fresh, with just the right amount of wood, mineral, citrus, nice body, good acid. Score: 89.
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot 1er Cru 18.80€ - similar, but with rounder mouth feel. Score: 90.
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Grandes Ruchottes 1er Cru 18.80€ - similar, but richer and more velvety. Score: 91.
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet La Grande Montagne 1er Cru 18.80€ - on the same level as the Grandes Ruchottes, perhaps more fruity and delicate. Score: 91.
2005 Bienvenues Bâtard Montrachet Grand Cru 65.00€ - anis on the nose, less acidity but more body. Needs time. Score: 91.
2005 Bâtard Montrachet Grand Cru 65.00€ - very similar, a touch of caramel, and an unctuous mouth feel. Score: 91.
2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot 1er Cru red 13.00€ - out of curiosity we asked to taste a red; nice surprise, excellent acid/fruit balance, delicious cherry and raspberry flavors. Score: 91.
DOMAINE MICHEL LAFARGE, Volnay
Later in the afternoon we drove up to Volnay for one of our most eagerly anticipated visits. We were fifteen minutes early but were greeted cordially by Chantal Lafarge, the wife of Frédéric Lafarge, son of Michel. A drab industrial elevator took us down to the basement where we tasted in two extremely old cellars (the smaller is from the 12th Century, according to a BWE post by Jackdaw05). We tasted several 06s from the barrel; Chantal Lafarge said they were going to be bottled in April, but all tasted absolutely ready to go (unlike the reds at Chandon de Briailles earlier in the day).
2006 Bourgogne – delicious tart cherry on the nose and mouth, harmonious, hard to believe this is a basic Bourgogne. Score: 89.
2006 Volnay – similar, with more mint. Score: 89.
2006 Volnay Vendages Seleccionées – from fields in the heart of the appellation; rounder mouth feel than preceding, slightly more complex. Score: 90.
2006 Beaune Les Aigrots 1er Cru – second vintage from this plot, purchased in 2005, in the process of conversion to bio-dynamic, but belonged to a grower who already used little in the way of chemicals. A significant jump in quality, absolutely delicious. Chantal said that when the family drinks this one at dinner, “the bottles always end up empty, an excellent sign.” One to look out for when bottled. Score: 93.
2006 Volnay Mitans – cherry, raspberry, and blackberry, more powerful, complex, less hedonistic but more structured. Score: 93.
2006 Volnay Caillerets – like the preceding, with a little bit more of everything, and a greater sense of purity and complexity. Outstanding. Score: 94.
2006 Volnay du Château des Ducs (a Lafarge monopole) – similar to the Caillerets, and as delicious. Score: 94.
2006 Volnay Clos de Chênes – all the qualities of the preceding two, yet somehow taken a step further. Absolutely memorable. Score: 95.
1999 Volnay Vendages Seleccionées (from half bottle) – I had read that Lafarge thought his 2003 would not close down and were drinkable early, so Chantal went around looking for a bottle of 2003. Unable to do so, she found a half bottle of 1999 Volnay Vendages Seleccionées. Though a relatively humble wine in the Lafarge lineup, it showed eloquently how age adds layers of complexity to what we had just tasted, allowing us to make a more intuitive projection of what would one day happen to the superb barrel samples we had just tasted. Chantal Lafarge was very gracious, with an impish yet simultaneously deadpan sense of humor, and seemed to warm to us as our enthusiasm mounted. It must be hard to deal with the constant question mark involved in receiving new visitors, and it is amazing that the Lafarges continue to do so. We thanked Mme. Lafarge for a memorable tasting, and she graciously thanked us for making it so easy (we spoke French throughout).
Dinner at Ma Cuisine
Probably Beaune’s most celebrated restaurant, rated “Not To Be Missed!” by Burghound. Perhaps we had excessive expectations because we found the food to be very competent but nothing special. The unsmiling owner, Pierre Escoffier, treated us civilly but distantly, like someone doing their job without much care to whether we were happy or not. The wine of the evening was also a disappointment: from a terrific list, we chose Jean-Jacques Confuron’s Nuits-St.-Georges Les Boudots 1er Cru. I like Confuron’s village Chambolles, and knew that their Boudots was considered exceptional by Burghound in 2005 and 2006, so I figured the 2002 might be a good bet for current drinking. Classic pinot cherry and raspberry on the nose, more acid than fruit in the mouth, somewhat unbalanced. As the evening progressed, instead of opening up, the wine progressively lost its fruit, ending up as a glass of acidity. A disappointment. That goes for the restaurant too. When I commented with a local vigneron that I had been underwhelmed by Ma Cuisine, he replied dismissively “ils sont mediatiques”. Score: 85.
Thought of the day: thanks to the smoking ban, none of our dinners were marred by neighborly fumes. What a relief, and what a change from the France of yesteryear…
Day 5 – Tuesday, February 5
BOUCHARD PERE ET FILS, Beaune
At Bouchard, our first négociant, we were received warmly by the vivacious Anne Lavirotte, a vigneron's daughter, who gave us a tour of the headquarters building, nay, castle, with moat and seven-foot walls and dungeons and iron bars. She explained that the King of France had built this castle – the Château de Beaune - to show the Duke of Burgundy who was in charge, and later donated it to the city of Beaune, who sold it to the Bouchard family during the Napoleonic period. The first Bouchard started out as a textile merchant, and would travel through Burgundy, where he developed an interest in wine, on his way north to Flanders. Later he began to deal in wine, and that eventually became the family business. The winery’s reputation flagged until it was bought by Joseph Henriot, a champagne maker, in 1995. The new winemaker, Philippe Prost (pronounced Prô), revived the winery’s fortunes, and it has been making well-regarded wine under his stewardship. Ms. Lavirotte took us on a fascinating tour of the extremely old cellars where the Bouchard family’s collection is kept, containing over 50,000 bottles dating back to the 1950s. There is also a collection of extremely rare older bottles dating as far back as 1846. According to Ms. Lavirotte, all the wines in the collection are tasted at (staggered) 25 year intervals; whatever is bad is thrown out, and whatever is still good is topped up and recorked. The sightseeing part of the tour ended in the extremely ornate Bouchard gardens, from which we proceeded to an elegant tasting room, where three bottles of red and three bottles of white had been left open by invisible attendants. Here, again, we tasted red before white, something Ms. Lavirotte said they prefer to do in Burgundy.
2005 Monthélie red – tart cherry nose, very acidic and alcoholic in the mouth, somewhat simple flavors but very young. Score: 87
2005 Beaune Marconnets 1er Cru red – a touch of barnyard on the nose, with nice cherry flavors and good tannin mouth feel. Elegant, with potential. Score: 89.
2004 Chambertin Clos de Béze red – Ms. Lavirotte said that we were lucky in what the invisible attendants had left for us to taste, but this bottle, open since the day before, was a disappointment. Tart cherry on the nose, harsh acidity in the mouth, unbalanced. No score because possibly tainted.
2005 Meursault white – butter and mineral nose, pleasant white flower perfume in the mouth, sweet, but a bit fat. Score: 87.
2004 Meursault Genevrières 1er Cru white – more vanilla oak on the nose, again white flowers, with some pepper burn in the mouth, possibly from the higher alcohol. Score: 88.
2004 Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru white – according to Anne, another generous gift from the attendants; more wood than the two preceding, young but harmonious, rich mouth feel, fennel and butter, good body and acid/fruit balance. Definitely more special. Score: 90.
Lunch at Comptoir des Tontons
Simple but good food, accompanied by 2004 Alex Gambal Savigny-les Beaune white; simple but fresh and lively, good fruit, perhaps too much acidity at this point. Score: 87.
DOMAINE TOLLOT-BEAUT, Chorey-les-Beaune
Fifteen minutes late for our appointment (we got lost by following one of those “shortest routes from X to Z” internet instructions), we were greeted very hospitably by the somewhat shy and reserved Nathalie Tollot, who took us down to the domaine’s cellars. Nathalie said that her 2006s had just been bottled the previous week, so she was concerned that they might not show well because “the wines don’t like to be bottled” (again, the sentient being analogy). Also, it was quite cold in the cellar, and the coolness would exaggerate the tannins and the acidity. Earlier vintages of Tollot-Beaut have been accused of using too much new wood; Nathalie said they use 1/3 new wood, 1/3 wood used once, and 1/3 wood used twice, and the results tasted balanced to me (the brochure says 1/3 new wood for village wines, 50% for 1er crus, and 2/3 for grand crus). Nathalie and her two cousins, Jean-Paul and Olivier, represent the current generation in charge of the domaine. When I asked who the wine maker was, Nathalie said she didn’t see them as having one, as “all the decisions are made in the field.” In explanation, she said that Jean-Paul and Olivier spend their the days out in the fields tending the vines so that all the work of making the wine good takes place “out there.” When I interjected that someone must decide things like, say, how much to destem, she said they always destem 100%, suggesting that factors that are variable for others, such as the amount of new oak and how much to destem, are predetermined at Tollot-Beaut, where variations from year to year reflect the weather more faithfully than if a greater degree of “manipulation” took place during the vinification process. I have some 2001 and 2002 Corton Les Bressandes and like the Tollot-Beaut house style, but the tasting was negatively affected by the low temperature at which the wines were tasted. We tried to heat them up by holding the bowls in the palms of our hands, with little effect.
2006 Savigny-les-Beaune Les Lavières 1er Cru – cherry nose, tart cherry and raspberry taste, very fruity in the mouth, some mint. Score: 88.
2006 Savigny-les-Beaune Champ Gevrey (monopole) 1er Cru – similar to preceding, a bit more structure. Score: 88.
2006 Beaune Clos du Roi 1er Cru – from gravel terrain with very good drainage (advantageous in humid years). Fruity but subdued. Score: 89 (for potential).
2000 Savigny-les-Beaune Les Lavières 1er Cru – tart cherry nose with a hint of barnyard ; mint and cherry in the mouth and, of course, showing better than the 2006s, but needs at least 4/5 more years according to Nathalie (who thinks the 1990 vintage is drinking particularly well now). Score: 89.
2000 Aloxe-Corton Les Vercots 1er Cru – same tart cherry nose, but more complex flavors of mint, tobacco, and leather. Like this better. Score: 90.
1999 Aloxe-Corton Les Fournières 1er Cru – very aromatic and powerful nose of cherry and raspberry, very fine tannins, mint, leather, currently a touch too much alcohol in the mouth. Score: 91.
1995 Aloxe-Corton Corton Les Bressandes Grand Cru – the cellar remained cold, but Nathalie had warmed up to us (and to the exercise; she said she hadn’t tasted the three preceding wines in a while, and was happy to do so) and brought out something to taste blind (“aveugle”). This was clearly much older, mature, with a funky and attractive smell of moldy cheese below the usual cherry and raspberry. Score: 91. Since I like Tollot-Beaut’s Corton Bressandes and Nathalie had mentioned the 1990 vintage, I put two and two together and guessed Les Bressandes 1990. Wrong by five years, but still…
That evening we rested and had cheese and bread in the hotel. No wine, except for what was left of the Clos des Ursules from two days before. I was feeling overdosed; no matter how much you spit out, you always end up swallowing some…
Thought of the day: why don’t more Burgundians seem to like and make dessert wines like Jean Thevenet’s wonderful late harvest chardonnays from the Mâconnais? Is it because their production is already so small that they can’t bear the thought of even more minuscule botrytised yields?
Day 6 – Wednesday, February 6
ALEX GAMBAL, Beaune
An unusual winery, started as a négociant business by the American Alex Gambal (pronounced Gamble) in 1997 after moving to Beaune and studying viticulture locally. Together with some English wine buyers, we were taken around the facilities by the knowledgeable and charming Sophie Laronze, wife of winemaker Fabrice Laronze. The winery buys most of its grapes and vinifies them (60% white/40% red) in their modern and spotless facilities. All bunches are 100% destemmed and alcoholic fermentation takes place entirely in stainless steel. The 2006s were bottled by gravity last week, with no filtration and some fining, the norm at Gambal. Fabrice Laronze decides when to bottle according to the lunar cycle; apparently it affects sedimentation. We tasted the 2007s, which are still undergoing malolactic fermentation, an experience I particularly appreciated since all our other barrel tastings were “post-malo.”
2007 Chassagne-Montrachet village white – from two suppliers, using 30% new wood; citrus, oak and mineral flavors and tons of bitter green apples; so, that is what malic acid tastes like!
2007 Puligny-Montrachet village white – also from two suppliers, mineral and citrus, tons of malic acid.
2007 St. Aubin Murgers des Dents de Chien 1er Cru white – from a one year old barrel, cloudy in the glass, oaky on the nose, citrusy and, of course, very acidic in the mouth. The grapes for this were picked very late (the Gambal staff is on hand starting in July to help the growers and determine optimal picking time). Despite the malic acid, something about this suggests tremendous potential.
2007 Corton Le Charlemagne Grand Cru – again from two suppliers, 4 barrels total, a mix of new and two-year old (average 50% new). Very fine nose of grapefruit, with an attractive mineral tang.
2007 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Cuvée les Deux Papis – from vines owned by Gambal, this name refers to how, in viticulture school in the late 1990s, Gambal and a Dutchman were the two oldest students, and were known as “les deux papis.” This is the second vintage for this wine. Good structure, nice barnyard nose, a bit ammoniac, but promising.
2007 Chambolle-Musigny village red – again ammoniac nose (think rotten eggs, in a nice way), leather, cherry, bracing acids and fine tannins. Both reds had much less malic acid flavor than the whites, perhaps this is the norm. Again, promising.
From bottle:
2005 Bourgogne chardonnay – good oak, mineral and butter flavors, very fresh. Score: 88.
Alex Gambal greeted us before the tour and chatted with us amiably afterwards. After ten years, he feels the winery is becoming sufficiently well-established (80% of production is pre-reserved) for him to be able to finally take a step back and enjoy wine and wine collecting like he used to. We bought a few bottles as a souvenir of our visit, including an intriguing experimental dry white wine called blanc de noirs, made 100% from pinot noir.
Lunch at l’Incontournable in Beaune
We decided to take a chance on this restaurant, located at 29, rue Carnot, former site of Caveau Saint-Gilles, a restaurant recommended by Burghound. Under the ownership of chef Robert Lavier since November, 2007, it is housed in a gorgeous underground cellar. The food was delicious, the service attentive, and the ambiance excellent. The chef came by our table every few minutes to check up on us, in marked contrast to the indifference at Ma Cuisine. This ended up being our second favorite restaurant in the Côte d’Or, losing only to the Caveau des Arches. No wine, from fatigue.
LOUIS JADOT, Beaune
I cut my teeth on Jadot Mâcon-Villages and Beaujolais-Villages, and have always preferred the Jadot style to that of Drouhin, at least at the entry level. So this visit had a sentimental side to it, even though the size of the operation was such that any warm and fuzzy feelings were out of the question. The Jadot headquarters are in Beaune, but tours are given at the large and modern winery built just outside of town, in the Route de Savigny. We were taken around by the very personable Stéphane Thivat, whose main funtion at Jadot is account representative for France. After a tour of the ultra-modern, arena-like enclosure where the wines undergo alcoholic fermentation, Stéphane took us to the huge underground cellars, where row upon row of neatly-lined barrels of 2006 reds awaited bottling (the whites had just been bottled) and the 2007s were undergoing malolactic fermentation. Stéphane described 2007 as a difficult vintage. Since Jadot uses 40 to 60% new wood for grand crus, they own a large nearby cooperage (Tonnellerie Cadus), from which two out of every seven barrels go to Jadot. First we tasted some red 2006s in the cellar:
2006 Santenay Clos de Malte – expressive nose of cherry, raspberry and leather, spicy and tart in the mouth, quite ready and delicious. Score: 89.
2006 Beaune Clos des Ursules 1er Cru – more subdued nose, mainly cherry, tasting sweeter and more fruit-forward than the Santenay. Promising. Score: 89.
2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles St. Jacques 1er Cru – darker color, more density on the nose, some burnt sugar, caramel, possibly banana. Rounder mouth feel, delicious. Score: 91.
Then we went up to a ground floor tasting room where we tasted some additional wines from bottles:
2006 Mâcon-Villages Grange Magnien – fruity, fat, needs more acid. Score: 86.
2004 Meursault Blagny village white – very nice, buttery nose, citrus, acid and possibly truffles, and a flower I happen to know well called Queen of the Night. Score: 90.
2005 Volnay Clos de Chênes – light ruby color, cherry and crème brulée nose, tasting of tart cherries, raspberries, with some smokiness. Very nice, but I was spoiled by Lafarge. Score: 89.
Dinner at Caveau des Arches, Beaune
This was our favorite restaurant in the Côte d’Or. The underground cellar is absolutely gorgeous and beautifully lit, and the service was exceptionally efficient and warm. The food was absolutely the best we ate on our trip (I have notes on all the food, but kept them out of this already-too-long trip report). The wine list was amazing, even more so than Ma Cuisine’s. There was even a Romanée-Conti section, with prices no higher than seen at wine stores (DRC has a Vosne-Romanée 1er cru, and it was “only” 180€). Since we ordered mostly seafood, we went for a bottle of 2004 Coche-Dury Meursault village white, hoping to catch a whiff of the Coche-Dury mystique (though I know some people on this board are not fans). The oak was overwhelming on the nose, making me expect the worst, but the taste did not confirm this: good fruit/acid balance, good body, nice balance of citrus, fennel, and wood, with the citrus element growing with oxygenation and warmer temperature. Not bowled over, but quite good. Score: 89.
Thought of the day: in an interview, Albert de la Villaine of Romanée Conti declared that Burgundy is not about pinot noir or chardonnay but about terroir, these grapes being used only because of their suitability as vehicles for expressing terroir. So, throughout the trip, I kept thinking that the whole point of using these instead of other grapes in Burgundy is that they are, intrinsically speaking, relatively bland, and do not impose much in the way of intrinsic characteristics that might interfere with the expression of terroir. Pinot is a small and delicate grape with less color, tannin and pippiness than the other noble red grapes. Chardonnay, when vinified in stainless steel, seems to have less personality than Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc, its main asset being the synergy that it demonstrates with oak. So, when folks in Burgundy say that putting the name of the grape on the bottle is misleading, perhaps they have a stronger point than I had previously supposed.
Day 7 – Thursday, February 7
DOMAINE JOSEPH VOILLOT, Volnay
On our last day in Burgundy, we drove back down to Volnay for a tasting at Domaine Voillot. Jean-Pierre Charlot, son-in-law of Joseph Voillot, has been in charge since the latter’s retirement in 1995, building a considerable reputation in his own right. He also taught many of the younger winemakers and domaine owners their trade for over twenty years at the Beaune oenological institute. Charlot said we would taste some 2007s from the barrel down in the cellar and 2006s from bottles up in his office. At one point he volunteered that 07 was a “red fruit” vintage while 06 was more a “black fruit vintage.” A stocky man with a sly and irreverent sense of humor, we hit it off from the start, despite my French.
From barrel:
2007 Volnay Vieilles Vignes – tart cherry nose, reminds me of church incense. Good structure, promising.
2007 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru – correct acidity, good fruit, rounder tannins than preceding. Good structure. Charlot pronounces it more “feminine,” with apologies for the sexism.
2007 Volnay Les Champans 1er Cru – funky nose, more rustic. But delicious, soft, balanced, cherry and red fruit flavors.
2007 Volnay Les Caillerets 1er Cru – again the funky nose (from reduction, says Charlot), harder tannins, from calcareous soil. Good acid/fruit balance. “More demanding,” says Charlot.
2007 Volnay Les Brouillards 1er Cru – sweeter, perfect acid/fruit balance, lovely tart cherry flavor. Charlot says “not typical Volnay, more like Pommard.”
2007 Pommard Les Pèzerolles 1er Cru – acid and tart, less distinctive than the Volnays, good but not great IMHO.
2007 Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru – funky nose, more body, refined and complex, delicious.
2007 Meursault Les Chevalières white – again, white after red: from 5 yr old barrel, no oak on the nose, nice acidity and minerality, quite good.
2007 Meursault Les Cras 1er Cru white – again from 5 yr old barrel, delicious acid and mineral flavors. Charlot gives us a taste of the same wine maturing in a new barrel, and it tastes quite different, with way too much butter. Since he only makes 3 or 4 barrels of white, one will usually be new oak, which he does not want to overdo, so that the proportion of new oak will have to vary from 25 to 33%.
During the barrel tasting, Charlot would take our glasses, cover them with the palm of his hand, and shake them up and down vigorously to open up their flavors. So much for swirling. Up in the office we proceeded to taste several 2006s from bottle. Charlot mentioned more than once, with a chuckle, that we were the first to be trying these after bottling, even before Allen Meadows, who was coming by in two days. Charlot likes Tanzer and Meadows best, more than Rovani. Pouring the wines generously, he asked us to pour the leftovers into a big sangria jar, which was full to the brim by the end of the session. What a waste! He gave us a chart showing the average age of the vines for each of his parcels, and an excellent book called La Côte de Beaune Au Grand Jour (by C. Fromont) with extensive information about each Côte de Beaune vineyard.
From bottle (Charlot said these should wait three more months for the SO2 to dissipate; I was surprised to learn that SO2 is injected into the wines at three or four stages in the vinification process, not just prior to bottling):
2006 Bourgogne Pinot Noir – I found this tart, acid, with not too much fruit.
2006 Volnay Vieilles Vignes – richer aroma on the nose, blackberry, mint, eucalyptus and dark fruit flavors. Delicious, and a huge step up from the preceding (Charlot shrugs off the difference, saying that basic Bourgognes are not supposed to be all that special).
2006 Pommard Vieilles Vignes – less aromatic, sweeter, with less acid, lighter style than the Volnay.
2006 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru – Charlot says we are drinking bottle no. 1 of this… milky in the glass, an aromatic powerhouse. The taste, in contrast, is refined and delicate. Harmonious and delicate. Again Charlot calls Fremiets feminine.
2006 Volnay Les Champans 1er Cru – also cloudy in the glass, with more alcohol, more cherry, darker fruit than the preceding. Delicious and refined, subtle. Charlot calls it masculine.
2006 Pommard Clos Micault 1er Cru – also cloudy, with complex nose of chocolate and cherries; more sweet fruit than acid, but very good.
2006 Pommard Les Pèzerolles 1er Cru – from a plot closer to Beaune, tart cherry nose, delicate and refined flavors. Charlot calls it spicy, and good for restaurants because it goes with many different kinds of food. Score: 88 At this point we express surprise at how expressive these wines are, despite their recent bottling, and Charlot says he is surprised too.
2006 Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru – cloudy in the glass, blackberry and pepper aromas, more acidic than sweet, nice tannins, tastes very alcoholic. Charlot comments that he sees the same feminine-masculine duality between Pèzerolles and Rugiens that he sees between Fremiets and Champans.
2005 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru – on a roll of almost embarrassing (to us) generosity, Charlot opens a 2005 Fremiets to contrast the vintages. Wonderful cherry nose, but mouth-puckering tannins, overpowering the fruit. Charlot says these strong tannins are a recent development, and that this wine should be put aside for a long time before drinking. Even the 2002s should be forgotten for several years more.
This was a very gratifying visit, and we were extremely grateful to M. Charlot for his warmth and generosity. Among his many interesting comments, I’ll just mention a fear that global warming will destroy the terroirs’ tipicity (“England will start to make good wine”) and, even more dangerous, the economics of production on his scale may prove unattractive to the subsequent generation: Charlot claims that the return-on-assets (ROA) for wine making at his level is around 2%, so that his children and grandchildren, unless they also inherit a passion for winemaking, will prefer to sell the vineyards and earn a higher return with much less work by putting their capital in the bank. When I suggested that selling out his production so rapidly might mean that he could raise his prices and, consequently, his ROA to a level more acceptable to the younger generation, Charlot shook his head with something close to aversion, saying that he didn’t make wine for the money, and wanted it to be accessible. Human, all too human! When I asked, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, what he thought about my fledging theory that pinot noir and chardonnay were cultivated in Burgundy because of their blandness instead of their character, because that neutrality made them ideal vehicles for terroir, Charlot said he wouldn’t go so far but could see how, for people outside Burgundy, such an extreme way of putting things could drive home how fundamental terroir is to them, something he thinks isn’t sufficiently well-understood by outsiders. Charlot expects to be in New York for a tasting at Chambers Street Wines at the end of March, and anyone close to Manhattan (alas, I will be away) should not miss the opportunity to meet this captivating man.
Lunch at Picq’Boeuf, Beaune
Indifferent food, and we passed on wine. Well-located but mediocre.
CLAUDE ET CATHERINE MARECHAL, Bligny-les-Beaune
In 2004 and 2005 I ran through two cases of Maréchal’s simple but delicious 2002 Cuvée Gravel (red), and love their Savigny-les-Beaune whites, which are hard to find, so I had written asking for an appointment. Since I got no reply, I just thought I’d look for their bottlings in Beaune, but was unable to find them anywhere. On an impulse, I picked up the phone and called to ask if they sold wine on the premises. Claude Maréchal picked up and told me to come by in an hour. When we got there, he wanted to give us a full-blown tasting, but we had an appointment at Confuron and could not stay. We quickly tasted the 2006 Savigny-les-Beaune white and took two bottles, being somewhat overburdened with other bottles picked up during the week. The 2006 Savigny-les-Beaune white is a bit of a scorcher, with extremely high alcohol. Not to be touched before at least 2012. When I commented on the high alcohol (the bottle only said 13.5%), Maréchal said the level was actually 14.9% because many of the grapes were botrytised. At my surprise, he explained that botrytised grapes were to be avoided in red wines but not in whites. In passing, I mentioned that I loved Jean Thevenet’s Cuvée Botrytis dessert chardonnay, and did not understand why more people did not make late harvest chardonnays in Burgundy. Maréchal laughed, saying that he had learned to make wine from Thevenet, an uncanny coincidence. As a souvenir of our visit, Maréchal generously gave us a bottle of his 2003 Pommard and off we went to our last appointment. Overall, I got the impression, from the idiosyncrasy of his wines and their absence in local stores, that Claude Maréchal is something of an outsider in Burgundy, a bit of a square peg, but an interesting one to follow.
DOMAINE JEAN-JACQUES CONFURON, Premeaux-Prissey
Our last appointment in Burgundy was also the only one in the Côte de Nuits, at a producer with a fine reputation for bio-dynamic Chambolle-Musignys and Nuits-St.-Georges. We arrived at the same time as Sophie Meunier, ex-student of Jean Pierre Charlot and daughter of Jean-Jacques Confuron, and her black Labrador came barking at us until he understood that his mistress was not feeling threatened (there seems to be a tradition of Burgundy dog stories in other postings). Sophie greeted us very amiably and took us down to the cellar, where a few bottles stood waiting for us.
2006 Côte de Nuits-Villages Les Vignottes – bottled in early December; almost no nose, but sweet and fruity, with good acidity. Simple but tasty. Score: 88.
2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Fleurières village red – some barnyard on the nose, more acid than fruit, medium tannins. Score: 87.
2006 Chambolle-Musigny village red – funky nose, smoother, rounder mouth feel and soft tannins, elegant cherry and raspberry taste. Score: 88.
2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Aux Boudots 1er Cru – from a plot near Vosne-Romanée, smells of soil and undergrowth, with sweet cherry taste. Very balanced, delicious. Score: 89.
2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Chaboeufs 1er Cru – best of tasting, similar nose to Boudots but more density, more complexity, and excellent acid/fruit balance. Delicious. Score: 90.
Before we left, Sophie Meunier gave us a set of useful fact sheets on each of her bottlings, each containing a rendering of the soil composition and other information about origin, location and vinification process. A short but pleasant visit and a nice way to end our tasting journey.
Dinner at Café de l’Hotel de Beaune
To celebrate our last evening in Beaune we went to this elegant, modern restaurant in the stylish Hotel de Beaune. The food was very good but pricey, without the excellence of Caveau des Arches. We drank a bottle of 2001 Chandon de Briailles Pernand-Vergelesses Ile de Vergelesses 1er Cru red. Dark cherry color, aroma of olives, taste of cherry, pepper and tapenade, acidity slightly stronger than fruit; a bit tight in the beginning but began to open up very attractively after about 30 minutes. Score: 89.
Thought of the day: while Prohibition in the US led to Byzantine web of legislation (thankfully being eroded daily) that prevents individuals and stores from importing wine directly and requires businesses to obtain expensive licenses to sell and serve liquor, in Europe just about any business seems able to sell wine. Perhaps because an expensive license is not required, and also because selling wine is no big deal, restaurants in Europe don’t charge the huge (100 to 200%) markups habitually seen in the US. In fact, Beaune restaurants charge prices roughly on the same level as I saw in Beaune stores, as if they were wine shops themselves, a position that makes much more sense to me. A restaurant owner in New York told me that, for him, the food only covers his expenses, and he can only make a profit by selling wine. Forgive me for whining, but if European restaurants can survive without charging double or triple for wine, why can’t American ones do the same? And why is it, in contrast, that American wine stores, despite all the red tape they have to face, are often able to sell European wine for lower prices than you see in Europe? Is it just the beauty of competition, of which there is less in Europe? So many questions…
Thanks for reading, I hope this account gave some of you a taste of what it was like to be in Burgundy for a week.