Bonjour a tous! Hello, all, and welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog. After a stroll to the boulangerie for a fresh croissant for Mary, we hurried to make our only wine tasting appointment of the day, which was at Domaine Tollot-Beaut in the village of Chorey-lès-Beaune.
I acquired a bottle of Tollot-Beaut a couple of years ago, enjoyed it very much, and since then read several articles about the domaine. It is another relatively small but prestigious producer, old and multigenerational, now managed mostly by Madame Nathalie Tollot and a cousin and an uncle. They don’t have a website, nor do they welcome visitors who are not already customers, which she made a point of telling us. Determined as I am to experience great Burgundy, we wrote a letter to her by hand, telling her how we admire her wine and asking if we could visit, mailing it to her over a month ago. She appreciated that level of interest and invited us for a visit.
Once again, we arrived at a busy time. She was busy in the bureau, the office, and her uncle and cousin were busy on the labeling and packing line, just the three of them working there, a small family operation known around the world for its great wines. Madame Tollot was incredibly gracious and friendly, completely fluent in English, taking us to the cellar to taste through her most recent wines, patiently explaining the subtle differences in various vineyard sites and answering our questions. She closed by offering a taste of two mature wines, including a Grand Cru. It is a pleasant memory for us and we look forward to enjoying her wines in the future.
Across N74 from Chorey-lès-Beaune is the village of Aloxe-Corton, very beautiful and classically Burgundian in architectural style. Here you see the mairie, the town hall, with its multicolored slate tile roof that is specific to Burgundy, and the steepled church in the photo below.
Aloxe is home to the hill of Corton, distinctive for the Grand Cru vineyards on its slope and its crown of dense trees. The famous vin blanc or white wine Grand Cru vineyard is Corton Charlemagne, named for the king and emperor, Charlemagne, who claimed the vineyard as his own because it is where the snow first melts, indicating the most optimal sun exposure and best ripening of grapes. The Chardonnays of Corton-Charlemagne have wonderful depth, richness, complexity, and length that distinguish them from lesser vineyard sites.
I’d like to briefly describe the crosses you see in these vineyard photos. One is of a cross among the vines of Corton-Charlemagne, seen here in the photo on the left. Many vineyards in Burgundy have crosses within them or at the edges and many have been there for centuries, such as the cross in the photo below where I’m standing at La Romanee, placed in 1723. Monks of the Cistercian order managed the vineyards for centuries and believed God spoke through the earth. Crosses were placed as an expression of their faith and asking God’s blessings on the vineyards and the harvests. Over hundreds of years they learned that this area is perfect for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They didn’t plant a wide variety of other grapes, in part because they believed such diversity would interfere with the clarity of God’s message. They painstakingly determined that specific plots of land, called lieu-dit or climats, produced grapes and wines that were reflections of that specific place, a concept now termed terroir. Some of the vineyards are quite small, as little as a few acres in the case of vineyards such as La Tache in Vosne-Romanée. After the French revolution, the new government confiscated properties from the church and the nobility, auctioning them to new private owners, but many of these crosses remain as a beautiful reminder of the history of the land and the culture.
Continuing with the culinary and enology theme of the trip, lunch was at L’Etoile in Nuits-St-Georges. This is a spot we discovered a year ago and wanted to return. Mary loves the salade montagnard, which has jambon (ham), noix (walnuts), and warm pommes de terre, or potatoes, along with the usual salad greens. Most people in these little sidewalk restaurants have what might be called house wine with their lunch, often served in a small pitcher as you see in this photo. The wine is called Bourgogne Passetoutgrain which translates roughly to “every grape together,” not always with great attention to refinement or high quality. The result is a simple, inexpensive, fruity, sometimes slightly rough and tannic blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay. 
Nuits-St-Georges is one of the larger towns in Burgundy and has been developed to attract wine and food tourism. For our Georgia and Tennessee readers, think Gatlinburg, but with fewer Smoky Mountain snowglobe souvenir shops.
With no appointments for the afternoon, we decided to visit the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot. The “mother house” of the Cistercian order, it is massive and old, constructed beginning in the 10th century. It has a large interior courtyard with a sundial on the north wall and surrounded by the well, monks’ dormitory, and vat house. The vat house contains two original wine presses which date to the 16th century and two from the 18th century. “Le Bouchard,” a statue of a vineyard worker, stands in the courtyard of the vat house. The chateau is completely within the clos, which is a vineyard enclosed by a wall. Clos de Vougeot is the largest of the Burgundy Grand Cru vineyards, covering some 50 hectares, which in round numbers is about 125 acres.
Dinner was at Ma Cuisine in Beaune. The restaurant, operated by a husband and wife, Fabienne and Pierre Escoffier, is popular among Americans and other international tourists. There were several other Americans there and the couple seated next to us were British, spending a few days in Beaune on the way to their summer house in Greece. Fabienne handles most of the cooking, which explains the name. “Ma” is the feminine form of “my,” so the name of the restaurant could translate to “my cooking” or “my kitchen.” By the way, the masculine form for “my” is “mon.” If he was doing the cooking, the restaurant might be called “Mon Cuisine.” Mary sometimes calls me “mon marie,” which is “my husband.” I call her “ma femme,” which is “my wife.” Ok, there’s your French lesson for today. Back to dinner.
We were ready to build dinner around a white wine, so Madame Escoffier came to our table and discussed options. Mary caught me intently studying the carte du vin, the wine list. There is no printed dinner menu. Instead, it changes daily and is all on a chalkboard, which you can also see in the photo.
On the recommendation of madame, we started with coquilles St. Jacques, scallops lightly seared in olive oil, sprinkled with parsley, and nested in a salad of bitter greens…delicious!
Now for the wine. After a couple of days of fantastic Pinot Noir with dinner and tasting, we wanted to have a white Burgundy with dinner. I was ambivalent about a Chablis, which would be great with the scallops, or a Côte du Beaune, which might be better with the skate. Once again, we followed the recommendation of Pierre and chose a Puligny-Montrachet village-level vin blanc, which turned out to be an excellent suggestion. If you decide to travel to France and need advice on wine selections, I recommend following the suggestions of sommeliers or proprietors in the restaurants. They are completely knowledgeable of both wine and food and how they interact to complement one another. They impress me as being interested in the dinner experience, not trying to sell the most expensive wine. They do sometimes ask how much you want to spend so they will know the limits of what to suggest, but I have been quite pleased with all the suggestions. Here are my notes on the wine.
That’s our post for today. We hope you enjoyed it. Check back frequently at Cépage et Cuisine as we share more of our wine and food adventures in France. In the meantime,
Cheers,
Mary♥Brian
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