France, Part 2 Beaune

I'd like to start off by saying part 2 was seriously delayed due to travels throughout the United States, for that I apologize, there are now even more things to write about, I first have to finish the France trip.

We arrived in Beaune after a short but awesome tour of Chablis.  We drove into the city center of Beaune, which is still surrounded by the old fortress walls.  The streets inside the old city center can barely fit cars let alone pedestrians.  After waiting for some friends to arrive from Switzerland, we headed to our first Beaune brasserie. Good, but not great.  I had a seafood pizza with escargot and other goodies, but the crust was more like pie crust than pizza crust.

Our first wine tasting event took place at the Marche aux Vins in Beaune near the Hospices de Beaune.  The cost is 10 Euro per person, depending on the day, you taste about 15 wines and you also get a sommelier tasting cup for the tour that you get to keep.  The tasting is in the caves underneath Beaune that were once part of the church which still exists across the street.  You taste trough the major areas of Burgundy finishing with a grand cru, and various premiere crus.  Overall a great experience, a must when visiting Beaune.

An awesome cellar, I tried to get behind the bar!  

 

After Marche aux Vins we headed to the Musee du Vin de Bourgogne which is in the former Palace of the Dukes of Bourgogne.  The place was quite impressive and another must while in Beaune.  The palace houses the history of wine in the Burgundy region.  

Old grape press

After a long day of tasting wine and bumming around Beaune we turned in for the evening, napped, and then headed out to the streets of Beaune which included a dinner, and various watering holes (I just don't recall this evening and there are no pictures to remind me!)  The next day was great, the epitome of France, the weekend market!  Sprawling blocks and blocks and blocks of Beaune was the Saturday market full of vendors, vegetables, fresh fish, meats, truffles, foie gras, the works!!  Pictures do this more justice than we trying to write.  

yours truly enjoying a jambon and gruyere crepe

Up next, the heavy tasting and back roads driving through Burgundy.  

France, Part 1 Chablis (the Wine)

As many of you know, I am finally back in the good 'ol United States after a month long adventure traveling through France.  As you can imagine I had zero time to update this blog even though there were so many times that I wanted to.  I can think of no other way than to start with the wines of France, the people I met, the wines we tasted, and the regions we went too.  I will follow up with the cities we visited and focus on each of them.  This will be a great way for me to document in writing everything I can remember from the trip.  You see I began to write everything down, I had the urge too, I always do.  However, after a week or so in France I decided to stop, sort of coming to a conclusion that writing everything down was distracting from the immersion of France.  After all, I never go back and read my entries anyway.  On to our first stop, this was after about five days in Paris (which I will talk about later).

After a nightmarish pack up of our place in Paris and pick up of our rental car that included a broken sandal and Mike getting pinned in the Metro with one bag in front him and one on his back, in the turnstile, then shaking frantically to get out of it, not funny at the time, funny now.  After about a four hour drive, our first stop was Chablis where the grape variety is all chardonnay.

If you are used to American chardonnays with their fat oakey roundness, you would be certainly surprised with Chablis.  The same grape is expressed in a tight, laser focus, austerity that would zap the oldest tasted buds and a mineral punch, primarily due to it's kimmeridgian soil (a combination of sea shell fossils, and  limestone).  With age is wine Chablis wines become fun.  I was introduced to this with a 2007 Louis Michel et Fils, Vaudesir (Grand Cru), which I happily purchased, the wine began to show this forest floor, pine needley, almost mushroom bouquet.  I have never found this in a white wine and it absolutely fascinated me.  Our visit with Louis Michel et Fils was certainly my favorite visit.  Guillaume, the vigneron at Louis Michel, really took the time to explain Chablis and his story about how he made it back to the family business which was a common story throughout our trip.  To keep it short, Guillaume was working in Paris, had a nice job etc.. then one day while on a severely crammed metro, hugging a pole, and feeling like a sardine, that is when he decided that the hustle was enough, phoned is Unkle, and said "I'm coming back!"  I also shared a Rochioli chardonnay with him, which, while different than Chablis, he appreciated the bright acidity in such a warm wine (referring to ripeness), and said he would share it with his family and friends. 

Chablis is a beautiful place!

Grand Cru vineyards in back ground

Had the freshest sausages here, hand stuffed for sure.

I sort of started in reverse order, our first meeting of the day was with William Fevre, a fairly large producer in Chablis.  I was shocked to find out that most (large) houses are using oak and a lot of it.  Not necessarily new oak but it was quite evident to me with the Fevre wines.  I don't know how I don't have pictures if this, I swear I took them, but a sign of things to come was our visit with Fevre.  Walking into the little tasting room, our host, said, welcome, lets hop into the van and go to the vineyard..... a little stunned, not used to this compared to tasting in America.  I was excited!  We spent about an hour walking the grand cru vineyards of Chablis, rubbing my hands in the soil, and talking about the vines and what makes Chablis, Chablis.  Overall, a great warm up to things to come on our trip.