Caroline's Travels Part One

During the first half of May, my partner and I paid a long overdue visit to France’ s Burgundy and Rhone regions.

Part One – Burgundy.

The weather was beautiful, with cool nights, and sunny 24̊C during the day. On Monday 2nd May, we took the 10h00 TGV from Paris to Dijon, which took one and a half hours. There, we were collected by our Swedish friends, Hakan and Eva, and found our way to our hotel in Pommard, Clos du Colombier, situated 6km outside the beautiful, historic city of Beaune. This is perfectly placed, as it is in the countryside, but only 10 minutes drive from the city for hearty dinners after long days of wine-tasting.
After dumping our bags, we went down to Corgoloin, where we were welcomed by Mireille and Denis Santiard, of Domaine d’Ardhuy. There, we tasted beautiful white wines which had deep fruit, but which were showing more minerally, floral tones in their youth ( Puligny Montrachets, Clos des Langres Monopole Blanc, Corton-Charlemagne….)
Their reds have super colour, black and red cherry, earth on the nose, with some of them having deep slate, mineral and even liquorice…… ( Clos des Langres Monopole, Corton Hautes Mourottes, Clos de Vougeot….)
We had a delicious lunch of Jambon persilee, gorgeous fresh ham, three salads and of course the most delicious cheese and baguette.
From there, we went down the road to Domaine Gachot-Monot , where Jean-Pierre and his son received us. Straight down to the barrel cellar we went, where we tasted some very good red wines, all 2009’s from the Cote-de-Nuits. Their Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “les Poulettes” comes from a 2.5Ha vineyard, of which they own 0.25Ha and the yield is five barrels. A beautiful wine, with deep Pinot forest-floor, cherry aroma and flavour, with a lot to evolve with age. The Nuits-Saint-Georges “Aux Crots” 2009 had structure, depth, freshness and an immediate charm due to supple tannins, even at only 18 months of age. Their ordinary Cote de Nuits-Villages 2009 was great value ( ARP R210). We will be receiving some of their wines in August.

The next morning, Tuesday 3rd May at 10h00, we arrived at Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint-Denis. Virginie Taupenot received us, and she we tasted seven wines, starting with the very good Saint Romain 2009., which has a deep, fruity nose and on palate, medium body with firm, dark fruits and nice tannins for medium term ageing.
The Gevrey-Chambertin 2009 was classic, filled with charming, supple, dark fruits and good balance.
The Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveau is a vineyard of 45-60 year-old vines, growing next to Grand Cru Musigny. Whilst obviously very young still, it already offers a deep mixture of red and blackcurrant fruits on the nose, and on palate it filled the mouth with gorgeous fruit laced with fine tannins. One to buy and mature.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru La Riotte 2009 offered a nose of beautiful framboise fruit, a little dark cassis and a hint of spice. A stunning, balanced wine which will turn out to be quite something in five to ten years time.
The Mazoyeres-Chambertin 2009 has a deep nose and flavour of mixed berry fruit, amazingly intense, integrated, deep and earthy, whilst at the same time superbly charming and elegant.
The Saint-Romain Blanc 2009 is grown on rocky soil, and the minerality shows in the wine, as well as white flowers. It is a round, supple wine, with mild acidity – a super wine which we do stock (2008).

That evening, at 17h00 we drove down to Domaine Jacques Prieur in Meursault, who are well-known for the fact that they own vines in the five most renowned appellations of Burgundy: Chambertin, Musigny, Clos Vougeot, Corton-Charlemagne and Montrachet. We were received by Martin Prieur, who immediately launched us on a cellar tour, and a tasting of 2009’s from tank, just prior to bottling. Later, we tasted some 2009’s which had been bottled already:
Beaune-Greves 1er Cru: A deeply charning wine, with good depth and breadth of flavour, full of ripe fruit.
Beaun Champs-Pimont 1er Cru: Comes from soils with more clay – more red fruits on nose and palate, rustic and more tannic on palate but nevertheless very good.
Meursault Clos de Mazeray: Generous nose, deep, almondy. Palate ripe and round, acidity a touch low, but with aeration in mouth, it comes through. Will be superb for early drinking.
Beaune Champs-Pimont Blanc: Also from clay soils, which make for Chardonnay with more glycerol and less acidity. Has a lovely minerality on the generous fruit, and a hint of saltiness. Super.
The 2008 of the above wine, was so different! Crisp, clean, Granny Smith apples!
After our three-hour tour and tasting, Martin’s wife Josephine was ready for us in their beautiful home, where she had a delicious selection of hams, cheeses, Jambon persillee, potatoes au gratin and salad ready. Martin brought more bottles out, but I was taking no more notes……………late that night he drove us along a back road (?) to Pommard, and we had a vineyard tour as well, as we were driving past some of the most famous vineyards in the world.

On Wednesday 4th, Hakan and Eva collected us and we went to Domaine Jean-Jacques Girard, who is in Savigny-les-Beaune, and we tasted nine wines, all from the excellent 2009 vintage:
Savigny-les-Beaune Rouge: Nice ruby-crimson colour; nose fruity and appealing, palate has soft tannins, good fruit, easy to drink. It could retail for R150 – great value.
Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru les Serpentieres: He makes only twelve barrels of this wine – nice fresh cherries on nose, on palate nice and firm, broad, with a masculine touch, though fine. With three – four years, will be lovely.
Savigny-lers-Beaune1er Cru les Lavieres:  Fifteen barrels only. Different to the above wine, more floral on the nsoe, slightly lighter in body, very refined.
Volnay Vieilles Vignes ( old vines planted in 1959 ): Has a complete flavour, which is totally balanced, full of cherries, soft acids and supple tannins. Very feminine.
Aloxe-Corton: Good, deep nose of fruit and terroir, already appealing. In mouth, generpously fruity and supple. Will be very good with age.
Pommard Vieilles Vignes: Very attractive nose of fresh cherry fruit again, and although charming now, it is full with good tannins and is nowhere near showing its colours. Buy to age.
Then we went to white wine –
Pernand-Vergelesses “les Belles Filles”: All round, it has a fresh, floral, balanced, mineral character, and its excellent.
Savigny-les-Beaune: Even more floral on the nose, delightfully crisp, very good minerally depth with a long, long finish. Superb.
Pernand-Vergelesses “Sous Fretilles”: Appealing, chalky, minerally depth on nose, with excellent intensity on flavour. Brilliant core of classic Burgundy white wine. Long, clean finish.

Later that day, thanks to Hakan and Eva, we had the good fortune of being able to visit the cellars of Dominique Lafon, where we were met by the octogenarian legend himself, Henri Lafon.  He came down the steps of their beautiful chateau in Meursault, where he has been living since 1956 when he took over the estate. The glasses and essential pipette were ready at the door to the cellars, where we went from barrel to barrel tasting many, many 2009 wines – too many about which to make notes at this stage of the day!  His son Dominique runs the estate these days, and their wines are known to be outstanding. We were not disappointed by one of them!  An exciting moment was when we were taken down to the archives, where the bottles are covered in ancient mould growth.

That night, Ray and I had dinner at Bistro de l’Hotel de Beaune, where we had their famous Poulet de Bresse for two. The waiter carves the roasted bird with amazing dexterity at the table, which is an entertainment in itself. To complement the delicious, tasty, succulent chicken, we drank a bottle of Savigny-les-Beaune les Lavieres 2009 by Tollot-Beaut, which was superb after it had been decanted for half an hour. It was disappointing that their wine glasses and the decanter were grubby and not polished! My French is not good enough to complain diplomatically, and not wanting to spoil our marvellous day in Burgundy with a Franco-African argument, we left it. ( The bill came to €147 ).

The visit to Burgundy left us immediately planning another trip, with more appointments lined up, as we feel now that we saw only some flakes of snow on the tip of the iceberg – a two-week sojourn is necessary soon!

We will be importing certain of these wines, which will arrive in August. We will advise by newsletter. The 2009’s are highly sought-after, and sold out to regular customers already, but we managed to reserve some bottles here and there.