When in Burgundy, drink wine

Day 6: All day wine tour


Sleep is one of my favorite things and it came easy in this apartment. After the sauna and a shower, I slept until the alarm went off at 730am.  It was an early start but for a good reason: Wine!  I had enjoyed the documentary, A Year in Burgundy, and wanted to see the real thing for myself.


Patrick with Burgundy Discovery picked us up in front of the Dali Museum in a black VW minivan at 9am for our all day Grand Premier Wine Tour.  There were three others on the tour with us: enthusiastic wine student, J, from DC; and wine aficionados, M&K, from Chicago who were on their third wine tour.


Patrick is 1/2 British and 1/2 French and fluent in both languages and cultures.  He started by giving us packets with information about Burgundy's wine growing regions, why the terroir is so important, how to read a label, etc.  He also talked a bit about these things.  I wished he'd given a longer background introduction, truly, as it was hard to read while the van was in motion.


His first stop was by this sign which details the terroir and what lots are Grands Cru, Premiers Cru, Communal, and Regional.  The labels in the packet showed this too.

Patrick drove us around the vineyards and villages which were teeming with people because it was harvest time.  We actually saw one of the "homeless" guys we'd noticed the day before getting ready to start picking grapes! 


We passed the headquarters of Romanée-Conti and J yelled excitedly because the man himself was out in the street directing the workers.  He snapped pictures while the rest of us snoozed.  I really know next to nothing about Burgundy wine (or wine in general, other than I love drinking it!) so didn't understand the significance until later.


Romanée-Conti is apparently the most prestigious and expensive wine in the world. It's almost impossible to get a bottle unless you're very much in the know.  And I know I'll never be in that know. It was cute to see how excited J was.  He hopes to taste those wines one day. 

Romanée-Conti vines

These produce the most expensive wines in the world

As we were leaving the Romanée-Conti vineyards, Patrick spotted some Asian people eating away on the grapes.  He angrily told them to stop, that was they were doing was illegal.  They were not contrite, said they had permission, and continued on with their disgraceful behavior as we drove away.

Our first tasting was at the less prestigious (as compared to Romanée-Conti!), Noëllat winery.

We first toured their cellars, which definitely smelled like mold.

This tasting table was down in the cellar but we thankfully tasted the wines in the modern store above. 

We tasted, I think, 5 wines.  I didn't love any of them.  No one bought any bottles.

From Noëllat, we drove around for awhile looking at the beautiful vineyards and workers busy picking grapes.  Patrick pointed out how in what looked like small garages, people were actually making wine.


Our next stop was at Domaine D'Ardhuy which is a monopole winery run by women.  Our guide had a heavy accent, was nice, gave us a history of the winery and a tour of the small old cellars.  We tasted 5 wines (I think).  These were more to my taste and I bought a delicious white.



Domaine d'Ardhuey

A nice red

The enthusiastic J bought several wines. He said he'd cellar them for awhile but the price and quality couldn't be beat.  We bought a bottle of the Savigny Les Beaune Clos de Godeaux white.  The reds, all from the pinot noir grape, were ok but a bit too light for my palate. 

Delicious white; we bought it.

We're so not good at selfies :)

The next order of business was lunch.  Patrick drove through some back roads to a cute village--I didn't get its name--and an empty, very casual, restaurant--also didn't get its name--where we had a nice, not great, lunch.  He chose a big bottle of red wine for the table--it was just ok. A white might have been better.  Once that bottle was gone, there was no more (and I could've used another glass).

Lunch menu

View from the restaurant

Husband's ham terrine starter

Good salad for me



The fish was tasty

Husband's duck

The chocolate cake was delicious

Husband liked the sorbet

After lunch, we got back on the road.  It seemed to take a long time to get to our next destination, Domaine de Villamont, in Savigny-les-Beunes.  Patrick was not very talkative.  He did answer our questions and explained about being in the higher elevations which was not conducive to good wines and that some of the vines were for cassis. 


We paused to get a good luck at the human pickers with the mechanical picker nearby.  Patrick explained that the mechanical picker shook the vines which, in the long run, decreased their viability and production.  Thus it's the less preferred method of harvesting the grapes.

Harvesting the grapes

Mechanical grape "shaker"

Domaine de Villamont was teeming.  The grapes were being trucked in and workers were sorting them. We went into the modern tasting room while Patrick talked to someone to get permission for us to watch the process.  As we waited, we took pictures of the grapevines next to the parking lot. It was a very pretty setting.



Permission to wander about the production area where the grapes were being sorted and dumped into huge metal vats was granted.  It is a fascinating process, much of it done by hand, and very like what I'd seen in the A Year in Burgundy documentaty.

Hand sorting

They go on the conveyor belt into a big bucket

What's left is sold or composted

Not sure what this is for

The bucket

The vats

He put dry ice on the grapes

He rolled the grapes to the vat

Then sent the grapes up to the vat. No gloves!!

New French Oak barrels for white wines

Office area to keep track of things

A few more steps and it'll be white wine

We headed downstairs to the cellars, which were incredibly extensive.

This was a display about the terroir.

There were thousands of barrels of wine.

People pay wineries to age their
Hospices de Beaune wines 

Red wine barrels have chestnut around them

We tasted another 5 wines (I think).  These were probably my favorites of all.  We ended up buying one bottle of a 1er Cru Red which we enjoyed during our time in Beaune.

Cheat sheet for tasting wines

Patrick dropped us off close to the apartment and that was that.  It was a long, mostly enjoyable day.  We learned a fair amount about wine and I certainly understood the labels better, which helped me choose wines more confidently.  Not sure I would do the tour again, though.


Back in Beaune, we set about relaxing before dinner.  The apartment was kinda perfect for that.  Husband and I facetimed with family back home.  My parents liked the apartment and our view. Mom noticed a tiny car getting a parking ticket! 


We ended up at Piqu'Bouef for dinner. It had a lively atmosphere and open cooking area.  We didn't have a reservation but were sat promptly by the window.  Service was very good.  The food was quite tasty.  We both enjoyed our meals and would return.

Delicious risotto with scallops for me

Steak and baked potato for husband

We sat chatting with two friendly and interesting gentlemen, brothers-in-law, from England who visit Beaune every year to buy wine. They invited us along to drink at a jazz bar but we were too stuffed and passed.


We noticed some of the buildings were lit up (nothing like Chartres magnificent light show) as we walked back to the apartment.


Takeaways:
1.  Burgundy wine is complicated.  And some are really good. I love wine.
2.  I don't think I'd do the all day wine tour again.  There was a lot of wasted time.  I wanted more unprompted information (not just in a packet of handouts) about what we were seeing and doing, particularly on the long drives.


Next: It's time to see Beaune