Bar Trip # 1 - Burgundy Wine Region

Our home for the week!

A few weeks after arriving in Europe, we had a great visit from Stacy and George.  Stacy is a good friend from law school - I wouldn't have made it through without her.  

We rented a house in Change, France through Homeaway.com.  Homeaway.com is a site we always use to book vacation homes.  It was a wonderful place, a former winemaker's home, complete with fireplace, pool, sauna, and a washer and dryer!*

Hospice de Beaune

 The first day we were there, we visited the Hospice de Beaune, a charitable hospital in Beaune, France, which operates to this day.  Hospice de Beaune also owns 61 acres of vineyard, many Grand Cru and Premiere Cru.  A very important wine auction is held in November of each year, and this charitable wine auction sets the prices for wine of the region for the next year.  The Hospice de Beaune has a beautiful glazed tile roof, which is common in the region.  We all remarked that we did not think that this would be the architecture of French countryside, and looks more like something from Germany. 

We also attended a Burgundy Wine class at Sensation Vin.  It was an interesting class to learn about the wines of the Burgundy region.  Our teacher taught us the basics that we already knew - how to taste, etc. and had some very useful charts in addition to the basic wine wheel.  She also taught us how to read a Burgundy label, and about the terroir of Burgundy.  It was quite interesting. 

The Cellar

The next day we took the 'Prestige' wine tour at Patriarche Pere et Fils with sommelier Jean-Michele.  I fully encourage going on specialized wine tours such as these if you really want to learn about Burgundy wine.  The normal wine tours are 10 Euro/person and you go on a self guided tour of the cellars, taste the wines set out for guests, and receive a tastevin for which to taste.  These were used back in the day to help winemakers taste the wine.  Now, its a kitschy tourist thing.  According to Jean-Michele, they are given out to ensure that the individuals taking the tour won't get drunk.  

Our Wine Tasting

Our group with Jean-Michele

Jean-Michele took us on a private tour of the 13th century cellar.  It was amazing!  They have over 3 million bottles of wine, the oldest from 1907.  (If I remember correctly) At the end of our tour, we had a private tasting with Jean-Michele in a candle-lit private room in the cellar.  The whole cellar had very low light in order to protect the bottles.  We tasted 8 interesting bottles of Burgundy, from Village to Grand Cru.  It was a wonderful tour and at the end we were each given a bottle to take home.  The tour costs 40 Euro, but the bottles given to us cost 35 Euro, which brings it down to the cost of a normal self-guided tour. 

The next day we did a similar tour at Marche aux Vins.We did the 'Best of Burgundy' tasting.  It was interesting, but we liked the wines at Patriarche better.  That night, we had a wonderful picnic (mostly cheese) in the world famous Montrachet vineyard. 

We drove around the Burgundy region - in both the Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune.  The area is beautiful - many rolling hills with vineyards as far as the eye can see and beautiful little villages. 

 

We visited Clos Vogeout - one of the larges Grand Cru plots in the region and even helped harvest grapes!  We were there during harvest time and asked some pickers of we could help them for a bit.  It was great fun, but I probably would not like doing that for more than 30 minutes.  

We also visited the Romanee- Conti vineyard, one of the most famous wines of the world, and definitely the most famous of Burgundy.  They only have 1.8 hectares and produce about 450 cases per year (about 5,400 bottles).  Each bottle costs about $6,000!  We did not try any while we were in Burgundy.  

The last night of our Burgundy trip we took a tour of Domaine Monnot Roche.  The owners were the agents of the owner of the Homeaway house and showed us around the home when we first arrived.  We asked if we could visit their winery, and they were happy to oblige.  They presented many (many, many, many) of their wines and even treated us to a Burgundy specialty - gougeres.  Little cheese puffs with spices.  Delish.  After our tasting they took us on a tour of their winery, we saw the barrels, the fermentation room, aging room etc.  We purchased wine and they let us label our wine ourselves (we weren't very good).  They even let us taste the 2009 Burgundy (great year) straight out of the barrel! It was a wonderful way to end our trip.

Next Post:  The Cow Festival!

* How things are different in Europe # 2:  There are very few dryers here - most everyone line dries their clothes.  Great in general, as we normally do the same back in the States, but sometimes you just want a freshly laundered warm towel or to shrink your jeans back to size.