France Adventure - May 23, 2013

Bonjour, tout le monde! Hello, everyone, and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  We’re back in France to indulge our passion for the wine, food, people, culture, and geography of Burgundy.  We’ll be here for a week or so, then we’ll move down to Provence to explore there.

May 23 was a travel day.  We departed the evening of May 22 from Detroit and arrived in Paris at midday.  Unlike previous trips when we took the train to Dijon, we picked up the rental car this time at Charles de Gaulle and ventured out into Paris traffic.  The drive to Beaune was about four hours.  It was nice to not have to deal with the bus transfer to the train station and we didn't have to worry about missing the train in case of a flight delay, but we used that train ride in past years to sleep a little.  I was very fatigued on the long drive to Beaune and had to stop several times to keep from falling asleep behind the wheel.

We arrived at the gite in Magny-les-Villers and it was just as we left it a year ago.  That's the photo at the top of this post.  Marie greeted us with a big smile and immediately shared news of a nouveau petit enfant, a new granddaughter since we last saw the family!  Very exciting!  Marie's daughter, Séverine, also stopped by to say bonjour.  They're such nice people.  We saw Yves later and did what men do...we talked about the weather.  Spring has been cool and wet here in Burgundy.  Il fait froid!  It's cold!

We shopped for dinner at LeClerc, Marie brought over a bottle of wine, and Mary cooked up a delicious dinner of saucisse aux herbes (sausages with herbs), sautéed onions, peppers, and mushrooms, and home-fried potatoes.  We enjoyed a slice of Époisses, one of our favorite cheeses, for dessert.  We’ve almost stopped buying it at home because it’s so expensive, about $35 for a small round.  Here in Burgundy, it is €5, about $6.50.  Amazing!

The wine was a very nice, very young Hautes Côtes de Nuits rouge.  The Hautes Côtes is an area in the northerly rolling hills above the more famous vineyards of the Côte d’Or that slope down to the plains.  Hautes Côtes wines are less prized than the wines of the Côte d’Or, usually less complex, but often delicious everyday wines at a good value. 

 

Domaine Glantenet is a producer right here in our small town of Magny-les-Villers.  Here are my notes on our first wine of this trip to Burgundy.

  

Domaine Glantenet Père & Fils Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits 2011.  The wine was a pretty pale ruby, aromatic of red fruit.  The palate showed a smooth texture, medium body, fresh acidity, and mostly crunchy red fruit flavors of red cherries and berries and a nice mineral note that was wonderful with the savory flavors of dinner.  Nicely balanced, moderately complex, with medium length.  12.5% alcohol.  It is not exported to the U.S. and sells here in France for about €11.

 

 

 

 

 

We’re looking forward to a good night’s sleep and settling into our Burgundy routine tomorrow.  We hope you’ll follow us along our journey on Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian