Hello, everyone, and welcome! Bonjour à tous et
bienvenue! Here’s another
installment of Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog. We’re in France for another wine, food, and
cultural adventure. We’re off to Chablis
today and, once again, I appreciate how coffee in America is more available in
a better selection. I enjoy a nice
coffee while driving a long distance, about an hour and a half up the A6
autoroute, in this case. We stopped at
the Casino convenience store in Ladoix-Serrigny on our way out of town and I
got this coffee to go, le grand café crème emporter. It is an espresso-sized portion
of coffee from an automated dispenser in a clear plastic cup. Whatever, we’re on our way.
We arrived at our first appointment, Domaine
Tremblay, a bit behind schedule. Madame
Tremblay was not present, but a cellar worker, whose name we cannot remember,
was completely gracious and polite. She
explained the domaine holdings, discussed the family, and began opening bottles
for us to taste.
Chablis is on land that was previously
covered by the ocean millions of years ago.
The resulting fossils, clay, and limestone comprise a soil known as
Kimmeridgian. The soil, among many other
factors, imparts a mineral, racy, fresh quality to the wines of Chablis. The northerly latitude makes ripening of
grapes more difficult. Oak barrel aging
is used judiciously or not at all. This
all adds up to wines of great acidity, elegance, minerality, sometimes a saline
or oyster shell quality, that pair well with seafood, especially shellfish, and
light fare of poultry and Asian food.
The tasting of wines of Domaine Tremblay began
with petite Chablis, which doesn’t necessarily have grapes grown on the
Kimmeridgian soil, but has the excellent character of Chablis at a low price
and immediate drinkability, and progressed through Chablis, Chablis premier cru
of various vineyards, and Chablis grand cru.
Altogether, she tasted us through 10 wines. This brings up the need for spitting while
tasting in France. It is completely
normal and expected, in contrast to California, where most tasters
swallow. That can cause problems over
the course of a day, as you can imagine.
When tasting 10 wines at a single estate, spitting is essential. There is no social discomfort about it at
all.
Below are a few photos of the seven Chablis
grand cru vineyards. From left to right
they are Bougros, Les Preuses, Vaudésir,
Grenouilles, Valmur, Les Clos, and Blanchots. Looking at them in these photos, I can’t tell
exactly where one stops and the next begins.
That’s another perfect illustration of the concept of terroir, the concept of the taste of the
place. Soil, subsoil, aspect, moisture,
drainage and exposure all contribute to distinctive characteristics from
vineyard site to vineyard site that can be appreciated in the wine.
To the right is a photo I took from a road that
goes to the top of the hill between Les Clos and Blanchots. The view is down the rows of Blanchots. Blanchots is the easternmost and steepest of
the Chablis grand cru vineyards, has very rocky soil as you can see here. Its aspect allows it to catch the morning sun
to the greatest extent of the seven grands cru, and less exposure to the
afternoon sun.
In contrast, this is a similar view down the
rows of Les Clos. It is less rocky and
is southwest facing, which allows it to catch the warmest afternoon sun. A taste of wines from these two sites, all
Chardonnay, of course, from the same vintage year, vinified in the same method
by the same producer, show wines of different character and flavor.
I think these next two photos are interesting. They show the soil characteristics where a
road was cut across the top of Les Clos to allow access for vineyard
workers. You can easily see the chalky,
almost white limestone soil and subsoil.
In this photo, looking west from the top of Les Clos, you
see the premier cru vineyards on the other side of the town of Chablis. These vineyards produce stunning wines, but
they are east facing, ripen with more difficulty, and produce wines of less
complexity and power than the grands cru.
On the other hand, the village and premier cru wines require less aging
and can be approachable much earlier, not to mention at a much more affordable
price.
After our tasting visit at Domaine Tremblay and the trip to
the top of Les Clos and Blanchots, it was time for lunch. We happened onto this beautiful rhododendron
on the way. 
As you have discerned by now, meals in Burgundy are an event. Today, we visited Les Bistrot des Grands
Crus.
Mary had a simple salad of tomato and mozzarella.
I started with œufs en
meurette au Pinot Noir, eggs poached in a sauce of Pinot Noir. I love this dish, one of my Burgundy
favorites. The tangy acidity of the
Pinot Noir, the onions, herbs, and the eggs combine for a sensational flavor
experience. I would love to learn to
prepare this at home, but Mary is just not interested.
The main course was called Pocheuse á la Chablisienne, fish stew in a base of Chablis
wine. I’ve never had anything like
this. It was warm, hearty, but not
heavy. The flavor combination of trout,
eel, and salmon and the vegetables and herbs was amazing. I tilted the bowl at the end to spoon up the
broth. Wow!
Our afternoon appointment was at Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre in the
nearby village of Fontenay-prés-Chablis.
We were greeted enthusiastically by Nathalie and Gilles
themselves. It is a two-person
operation. Their family has owned
property and worked in the wine business in Chablis for over 200 years. They own about 42 hectares (105 acres) of
vineyards of Chablis, Chablis premier cru, and Chablis grand
cru. Until 2004 they sold all their
grapes and worked for another producer, but began making their own wine at that
time.
In contrast to the old, old cellars and winemaking
facilities of long established producers, Nathalie and Gilles have a modern new
facility with all the newest equipment.
She gave us a tour of their facilities and tasted us through
a selection of her wines. She was
completely gracious, even emailing us later to wish us a happy memory of our
visit to Burgundy.
We like to return from Chablis to Beaune on the backroads,
meandering through the small villages along the way. It is so beautiful. The roads are often little more than country
lanes, sometimes like someone’s driveway.
Here is a typical example, Highway D312, slicing through blooming canola
on both sides.
Here we’re leaving the tiny village of Villiers la Grange,
interesting because of the solitude and the natural setting. We stopped to photograph the town sign and
the cows, then noticed a small monument on the side of the road.
We love Burgundy and we love France. We get all caught up in the wine, the food,
and the culture, which is fine, but this brief experience brings into sharp
relief events that occurred not so long ago.
The inscription reads with translation as follows:
ici le 9 juin 1944 (here June 9, 1944)
fut lachement torturé (was cowardly tortured)
par le boches (by Boche)
le maquisard (the maquis)
le maquisard (the maquis)
CHAMBOULEYRON Roland (Roland Chambouleyron)
19 ans (age 19 years)
De S.T Sauveur (savior of S.T.)
“Boche” is a slang term used by the French to refer to
German enemies, not only during World War II but throughout their long history
of military conflicts. “Maquis” were French
resistance fighters during the war. The
monument memorializes a young resistance fighter who was captured, tortured,
and killed near the placement of the marker in Villiers le Grange. Thank you to our host, Marie, for assistance in interpretation and the history of the tragedy.
Ok, back to happier thoughts. Continuing along the country roads, each
small village is a postcard. Here’s a clos, an enclosed grazing area for sheep
in Tormancy. The image evokes a quiet,
peaceful, village, which is exactly what it seems.
This photo is at Guillon, a bridge over the Serein
River. Serein is translated to serene.
Our drive paralleled the river for an hour or so and it is a slow-moving
quiet stream along the way.
I’ve mentioned before that Époisses is one of our favorite cheeses. The French, being French, name many of their
products according to the location where it originates. Pinot Noir is called Bourgogne rouge, Chardonnay is Bourgogne
blanc. Cheeses are named the same
way...Brie, Roquefort, Camembert, etc. 
Époisses is an old medieval castle town in Burgundy and
where the cheese is produced. In this
photo you can see the remains of the castle and the moat surrounding it. We visited the shop at Fromagerie Berthaut,
the most famous producer of Époisses, but it was basically nondescript and only
a retail shop, so we didn’t take pictures.
Farther along, we passed through the much larger medieval
castle town of Semur-en-Auxois, ancient and beautiful with castle ruins and an
enormous cathedral.
At last, we’re back in our gîte in Magny-les-Villers.
Here’s our hosts’ dog, friendly and nosy, checking on us.
We stayed in and Mary cooked a delicious dinner of saucisse et légumes, sausage and
vegetables, followed by a little Camembert and Délice de Bourgogne, a triple cream cow’s milk cheese produced
nearby, hence the name, and sometimes called simply Delice cheese.
The wine was a bottle of Vosne-Romanée village-level wine we
acquired the previous day while visiting Vosne.
As we learn more about terroir, we have come to appreciate the
complexity and elegance of the wines of Vosne-Romanée, even at the village
level, not to mention the higher categories of premier cru and grand cru.
Domaine François
Gerbet Vosne-Romanée Aux Réas 2008. This
wine offered a wonderful perfume of earth, red fruit, and dark fruit. The palate was so smooth with medium body and
acidity and with a texture that was mouthfilling and coated the palate with a
kind of velvety richness while still elegant and delicate. The flavor profile showed cherry, berries,
plum, spice notes, and freshness. It was
wonderfully complex, balanced, had medium length, a good value for the
price. 13.0% alcohol. Wonderful.
That’s about it for today, our Chablis day. We hope you enjoyed it and that it heightens
your interest in Burgundy. Check back
again soon for another post at Cépage et Cuisine. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment