My wife and I, we like to go to « La Percée du vin jaune » a very popular event in Jura, when the millesime of 6 years and three months before is commercialised after opening the barrels, strictly closed for such a long period. This year, we will drink the 2000 which will appear for the first time.
We have our habits by Chateau de Germigney, a lovely hotel in Port Lesney, and we take every year the same room, a big suite decorated in a very nice fashion.
The hotel has the bad habit to open only on the first day of the “Percée”, so we have to spend a night somewhere else before. I choose one by internet in Dole.
My daughter and her man meet us in this hotel, so we will be four for three days.
As we arrived first, I asked to see our room. There are big (called big) rooms, but on the National road, or medium (called medium) rooms, on the rear side. I ask to see the medium rooms and with my wife, we decide to take separate rooms, as it seems impossible that two human beings can live in such a volume.
But if it is impossible to live for two people, it is not a paradise for one. I go to the toilet. The door opens inside. The distributor of paper is metallic, with sharp edges, and very badly situated. Will I jump or will I let my legs be cut into pieces? I go inside. At a certain moment, it becomes justified to go out. Then, opening the door requires to have spent some years in a Chinese circus, to adapt a position which would be difficult even for a starving snake.
Let me just before mentioning the wines of the trip talk about the shower.
If you have ever seen a film with policemen chasing bad men, at one moment you see a policeman saying : “hands up, keep cool, move back, stick your body to the wall, nearer, nearer”. This is exactly what I had to do if I wanted that my shower does not transform my bathroom into a swimming pool, as the separation made of glass of the shower has the format of a stamp.
I said the next day to my wife and children : “this hotel is an hotel where never a client asks for the same room as last time, because no one is stupid enough to come back again in this place”.
But Dole deserves a visit, as we went to a restaurant “Le Bec Fin” which is a fantastic restaurant. Romuald Fassenet, “meilleur ouvrier de France” (this is a diploma given to the best cooks, that chefs like Philippe Legendre chef of Le Cinq or Eric Fréchon, chef of Bristol have got) is the chef of the place and has recently got one star in the Michelin guide. This is justified. If you are in the region, run to this place which deserves the trip. But sleep on the pavement, as it should be cosier than our hotel.
In a lovely pedestrian part of the city, in the street where Pasteur was born, in a very old house, we have a nice table. Catherine Fassenet welcomes us and I order a champagne Henriot Cuvée des Enchanteleurs 1988. This champagne has an extreme quality. Absolutely complete, diverse, fruity, expressive, it belongs to the best champagnes of a great year. I adore it. I take it with scallops with delicate beetroots, association of earth and sea, which fits perfectly to the Henriot.
Then it is a Cote Rotie La Mouline Guigal 1999 which goes with a “lièvre à la royale”, cooked in a prefect way. The Mouline is glorious. It is so direct, easy to understand, but so rich, complete, filling the mouth with a will of pleasure. A very great wine.
Romuald came to talk to us. He is intelligent, and will succeed. I see him as a great chef for tomorrow.
By a nice sun we leave our hotel without a tear and we arrive in Chateau de Germigney. A completely different world.
With my son in law, we go to the “Percée” in Salins, a small town, completely transformed to receive 50,000 people. 70 wine makers will pour their wines to visitors.
I am more interested by the auction where very old Jura wines are going to be sold.
Before the lunch, we check the wines, and when it is done, we go and wander in the town. We eat 24 oysters with a Chateau Chalon 2000 made in Salins, and it is absolutely gorgeous : the taste of nuts of the oysters is developed by the yellow wine that I find very deep, smoked, intense.
Then, we come back in the auction room.
It is the first time that I have – for some minutes – been in the situation of a “people”. The journalists were queuing up to make interviews of me. Incredible. The organisers of the events had surely said that for the previous years I had been a big buyer. So, as they were asked to write, I was an easy subject. And I was happy to talk, as while I was talking, I was not buying. I was sparing money during these interviews which occurred during the sale.
Then, it was the time for the big bottles : a 1911, a 1893 and a 1865 Chateau Chalon.
As I had bought very few wines before, due to insane prices (yes, the word insane can be used – private joke), I got the 1911 without not much competition, I leaved the battle field concerning the 1893. So, it was time to fight for the 1865. I fought, and I won.
Pictures taken by the journalists. The next day I was in all the newspapers brought in our room for breakfast. I was the star of the hotel.
What I realised some time after the sale is that there were awfully high “reserve” prices. So, around half of the 356 lots were not sold (including the 1893, so all the rare bottles which were really acquired were by me). And for the 1865, I had absolutely no opponent. And the auctioneer, whom I know, let me believe that I had an opponent, and raised my bids until I reach the limit price to let the bottle be sold.
I said to the organisers (and I had said that many days before the auction), that such evaluations were stupid. They will certainly adapt a new strategy for next year.
Anyway, I wanted it, I had it, I am happy.
When we came back to our hotel, it was time for Dom Pérignon 1998. Lovely champagne full of white flowers and pink fruits, we had it with a rather scholar food, lacking of a real spirit, which was present the day before. On a chocolate dessert we drank a Maury Mas Amiel 15 years of age. A pure delight.
The day after, the women were not in the mood to be in the crowd of the “Percée”, so we made tourism in the lovely region.
After a lunch with a Chateau Chalon 1997 Fruitière de Voiteur, and some visits, we came back to the hotel and played cards in a gothic room of the castle. To play cards with a Dom Perignon 1998 and toasts with foie gras is not a punishment.
We had ordered the day before to get two chicken of Bresse cooked in a special way with “vin jaune”. And, when it was time to order the wine, I had suddenly a miraculous idea : I ordered Yquem 1989.
The sommelier, who knew that I had bought some precious bottles looked at me as if I had become mad. The chef who heard what I had ordered was convinced that it would not work, so later when we had the course, I went to the kitchen to let the chef taste the wine with some chicken meat. He accepted the fact that it was heavenly delicious.
We have had a combination which was delightful, the Yquem 1989 shining with a taste of honey, caramel, burnt sugar.
I asked the chef to prepare some grapefruit for dessert. This time my decision was bad, as the Yquem 1989 was absolutely not in the mood to cooperate with citrus fruits. It was in its caramel day.
The day after, I paid a visit to a wine maker who is a friend and I fulfilled my passion to buy. I bought a 1865, a 1895, another 1911, a 1929 and other wines. I am so in love with the really old Chateau Chalon that I “insanely” bought them.
In family, this was a lovely week-end.