France Adventure – Thursday, May 22, 2014 – Quiet as Church Mice, For a Little While

Hello to all our friends of wine and cuisine.  Bonjour, les amis de vin et la cuisine.  Welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  We’re winding things up in Burgundy.  Today is our last full day here before we begin our transition to Bordeaux.

As we planned our trip, we talked about a visit to the Abbaye Notre-Dame des Cîteaux, a Cistercian abbey in Saint-Nicholas-lès-Cîteaux, about 15 minutes east of Nuits-Saint-Georges.  The Cistercian monks at the abbey produce a wonderful mild cheese that is widely available in Burgundy.  The cheese is called simply Abbaye de Citeaux.  It is a washed rind cheese made with unpasteurized milk from cows that graze on the grounds of the abbey.  Because the cheese is a raw milk cheese that is sold soon after it is made, it is illegal to import into the U.S.  We love the cheese and it pairs beautifully with Burgundy wine, another example of “what grows together goes together.”  The photo above is not one we took.  It is clipped from the Internet, explained below. 

After the morning sojourn to the boulangerie to pick up a croissant and baguette for Mary, we goofed off around the gite and moseyed over to Saint-Nicholas-lès-Cîteaux around 12:30.  We packed a picnic of cherries, charcuterie, cheese, the baguette for Mary, and a half-bottle of wine we had left over from the previous evening.  We stopped at a park and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the countryside, then arrived at the abbey at 1:30.  

The monks are at lunch or in prayer until 2:30, so we walked around the grounds.  A sign admonishes visitors to be silent.  So we were as quiet as, ahem, church mice.  Promptly at 2:30, the chapel bell rang and we went to the entrance to learn that the 2:30 tour was full and we needed a reservation.  Alas, we couldn’t stay that quiet for another hour, so we went back toward the Côte. 

We didn't get to see the monks or the cheese operation, which is why we didn't get to take our own photos.  The abbey was beautiful and I hope we can visit there in the future with better planning.

I’m always fascinated by the Hill of Corton and all the grand cru vineyards on its slopes.  Like many vineyards in Burgundy, there is a cross in the middle of Corton-Charlemagne.  There are small service roads the vineyard workers use to get up there.  I didn’t want to drive up there during working hours, but I managed to find the right road late in the evening a couple of days ago.  Here’s the cross, one of the iconic images of Corton-Charlemagne.

Adjacent to the cross, a clever vineyard worker or visitor fashioned a miniature vineyard hut on a rock wall.

I was hoping to visit Domaine Jean Chartron, a producer of fine white Burgundy in Puligny-Montrachet, but was unable to send an email requesting an appointment.  We just drove to the domaine, hoping they would be open to walk-ins.

We were greeted by a very nice lady whose name we can’t recall.  She is British and has lived in Puligny for 25 years, so we had a nice, relaxed conversation in English.  

She tasted us through a few wines that we enjoyed very much.  She had no wines to pour from before 2012 because of the severe effect of hailstorms on the yield in Burgundy during 2011 and 2012.

Dinner that evening was at Auberge Saint Martin in Bouilland, a small country village not far from Savigny-les-Beaune.  It’s one of those villages that is reached by a winding, narrow country lane that makes you think you’re lost.  Then, there it is.  It is nestled in a narrow valley between two ridges.  The main street is about the only flat part of town.

The restaurant is run by the chef, Didier Poulet and his delightful wife, who manages the dining room.  It was a bit chilly to dine on the deck overlooking the town.

Like always, we were the first to arrive.  By the end of the evening, there were more people.

The amuse was a cool and creamy spread of a yogurt with chives and dill.

We both started with a sensational entrée course of what you see here on this little specials board.  

It’s a cream-based soup of white asparagus and a little cake of pureed vegetables, carrot, zucchini, and celery.  How he dreamed up this dish is beyond us but it was delicious.

My plat was a ballotine de poulet, chicken stuffed with mushrooms, maybe pine nuts, and carrots, along with spring vegetables and crêpes de pommes de terre, potato pancakes.

Mary’s was filet de truite meunière, crème d'aligoté, trout meuniere in a white wine cream sauce with vegetables.

Both dishes were wonderful.  I declared mine to be the best I have experienced so far on the trip.  Aside from the quality, flavor, and complexity of the dish, the creativity, inventiveness, and presentation were great.  I mean, how did he decide to pair potato pancakes with a fancy presentation of chicken?  And how much care and time goes into arranging the wild asparagus over the carrot strips and zucchini in just that way?

Dessert was presented in the same manner.  Mary had a mousse of strawberries, topped by cherries, sliced strawberries, and gooseberry. 

I asked if they could prepare a fresh fruit dessert and Didier presented this lovely plate of sliced strawberries and other fruit with a branch of delicate acacia blossoms.

Of course, we had coffee and Madame Poulet brought these little coffee cookies.

We planned the meal around a white Burgundy because we’ve had a lot of hearty, red meat dishes.  The choice was this Domaine Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes 2012.  It was refreshing with vibrant lemon, apples, clean mineral notes, a creamy, smooth texture, excellent balance and good length.  It was delicious with the food choices.

Auberge Saint Martin is a place to come again, and so we will.

After dinner, we took a few photos of Bouilland at about 9:15 in the evening.  What a pretty little town.

That’s our post for today.  Tomorrow, we move to Saint-Saturnin in the Auvergne, about halfway to our Bordeaux destination.  We plan to just mosey along the backroads, stopping to take photos and experience the French countryside off the beaten path.  We’ll post again as soon as we can.  Please check back for more entries at Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian

France Adventure – Wednesday, May 21, 2014 – Le Travail des Hommes et Dieu

Hello, everybody.  Bonjour, tout le monde.  Welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  We’re continuing our culinary and cultural vacation in France.  The first week is here in Burgundy, then we’ll move over to Bordeaux.

Like almost every day, I began the day by going to the boulangerie in Ladoix-Serrigny.  Today’s choice for Mary was a lemon flan.  I’ve been getting her something different every day.

We hoped to visit a producer in Savigny-les-Beaune, Domaine Pierre Guillemot, but had no appointment.  The website says, “N'hésitez pas à nous rendre visite!”  Please don't hesitate to visit!  Savigny is just minutes from the gite and we looked for a lunch spot while we waited for our Domaine Guillemot visit at 2:00 p.m., which is when their sign says they open in the afternoon.

It was a pleasant day to dine a la terrace at a place called R … de Famille.  The domaine was just across la place from the brasserie.

We both had salads and a really nice Pierre Guillemot Savigny-les-Beaune blanc, seeing as how we could literally see their place while we were eating lunch and enjoying their wine.

I indulged in escargot en coquille, snails in their shells.  

There is a certain psychological flexibility that is required the first time one eats snails and picking them out of the shells especially requires a little leap of faith, but it’s my favorite way to consume them now.  I think they are better this way.

After lunch, we strolled over to the domaine, but doggone it, nobody was there.  The stairs down to the cellar were open and I even went down there and called out, “bonjour, bonjour!”  Nobody answered.  They probably couldn’t understand my French anyway.  The American colloquial expression, “pardon my French” applies quite literally to me.  Sometimes I’m surprised at how well I do and sometimes I feel helpless.  It does make a big difference, though, in how the French respond to foreign travelers.  If you just make a good faith effort to speak the language, even basic expressions, they appreciate the attempt very much and are almost invariably eager to try to help. 

A bit disappointed, we struck out for a drive through the countryside south of Beaune, getting off the Route Nationale at Pommard and passing through Volnay.  I was interested in seeing some of the less well-known villages of the Côte such as Saint Romain, Auxey-Duresses and Saint Aubin.  We've had wonderful wine from all three villages but have never been there before now.  I also reached out to two producers in Saint Aubin, unsuccessfully, about a visit.

The road that leaves Volnay quickly becomes very rural and rolling with the approach to Saint Romain.  

There’s a combe there that to both Mary and me was a more visually obvious indication of a combe and its dejection cone. than the Combe Lavaux in Gevrey-Chambertin.  You can easily see the rocky combe and the ancient cone-shaped flow of the earth below.  Saint Romain is nestled right in the cone on that steep ascent.

Leaving Saint Romain, the road becomes very narrow.  I’ve described these in the blog before.  When we started visiting Burgundy years ago, we would take these roads and think we were lost.  The thought would be, “This is not the right way.  This isn’t really a road.  This is somebody’s driveway.” 

Then, around a few curves, there’s a town with a church, a mairie, the mayor’s office, and a clutch of homes and farm buildings.  Here’s exactly such a village, Évelle, a picture postcard example of a rural French village.  The photo is taken from Baubigny, a similarly beautiful hillside village.  Here are a few photos from Baubigny.

Around a few more bends in the one-lane lane, here’s La Rochepot, which we learned later is pronounced “roashe-poe” with a long ō sound in both syllables.  “Roche” means “rock”, referring to the limestone outcroppings that are common in the hills.  “Pot” is the name of a prominent family from the area.  The view from the road is typical, the large church tower and the collection of red tile rooftops.

Then, around a turn on the way back toward the Côte d’Or, here’s the Château de la Rochepot, a castle and fortress from medieval history.  It’s amazing to see, perched up there on the hillside above the village.  It immediately creates the vision of a wealthy, well-connected member of the pre-revolutionary French nobility who literally lorded over all the paysans below.  We wished we had the time to tour the castle as it’s probably fascinating.  The photo below is a zoom version from the roadside.

Back on the Route de Grands Cru, we drove through the rarified vines of Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet.  We’ve tasted only a few wines from these vineyards.  One of the most magnificent Chardonnays we’ve ever experienced was a Bâtard-Montrachet, a vineyard given by the lord of Puligny to his son who was conceived with the lord’s mistress.  We’ve never actually tasted a Montrachet itself.  They’re usually several hundred dollars per bottle.

Here’s a photo of Mary from a few years ago, sitting on the wall around Montrachet. 

And here’s a photo of Montrachet at the gate to the Bouchard Père et Fils parcel.

On a lark, we stopped at Bouchard on the way back through Beaune to ask about the Montrachet and check their price.  Here’s a photo of the moat around the huge Beaune chateau.  The size of the fortress is impossible to capture with a photo or even looking at an aerial view on Google Maps.  The heart of the city and the caves beneath are enclosed by the ancient walls.  This photo is just a tiny part.

Bouchard’s price for a bottle of Montrachet was €490, which converts to about $700.  Needless to say, they don’t pour it for tourists who walk in off the street.  We talked about it and decided we would gladly chip in on a bottle with several friends who could share it.  A bottle can offer a one-ounce tasting pour to 25 people, which would get a tasting down to somewhere around $25 per person.  That’s still ridiculous for what amounts to a swallow or two, but it’s probably the only way we’ll ever get to taste it.  But I wonder, is it really that good?  The very nice person at Bouchard described it in contrast to Corton-Charlemagne, which we’ve tasted many times and have in our cellar at home.  Based on her description, I might prefer the Corton-Charlemagne.  Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

By now it was about 4:00 p.m. and we decided to make another try at visiting Domaine Guillemot.  We drove back to Savigny, parked on la place, and walked into their courtyard.  A door was open and there they were, Pierre himself and Madame Guillemot!  

They speak no English at all and Monsieur Guillemot is hearing impaired, so they summoned their grandson, Vincent, who conducted the tasting.  He is the eighth generation of the Guillemot family to manage the estate.  We told him we became familiar with their wine through Kermit Lynch in Berkeley and have numerous bottles in our collection now. 

Vincent was delighted as we progressed through the tasting.  Descending into the cellars, Madame Guillemot cautioned us about the low ceiling and pointed to the sign, which means, “watch your head!”

Mary took a few photos in the cellar as Vincent and I were talking.

As we were finishing, he retreated to the back of the cellar and returned with a dusty bottle of 1991 Les Serpentieres, a Savigny-les-Beaune premier cru, to open for us.  We felt so privileged that he would open a 23-year-old bottle for visitors who just walked in without an appointment.  The wine was amazing.  The primary aromas had given way to those wonderful secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors that come only with bottle age and ideal storage conditions of a Pinot Noir, those earthy, savory, meaty, forest floor qualities that express the uniqueness of the vineyard site.  It was a memorable tasting experience.

I timidly asked Vincent if we could meet his Grandpère et Grandmère for a photo and they happily obliged.  They are vignerons from a small Burgundy town, but for us, it was like meeting celebrities. 

On the way back to the gite, I wanted to pass through the village of Pernand-Vergelesses and go up to the hilltop to take some pictures.  We stopped at l’eglise Saint Germain with its distinctive bell tower and glazed tile roof.  The oldest part of the church dates to the 12^th century.

Just inside, this typed message is found, translated as follows:

This church is a place of contemplation, 

The place of prayer,

The place of gathering for the Eucharist.

We trust you: 

Do not disturb the silence,

Respect their destination.

With your eyes and your heart,

Look at the beauty of the work of men. 

Through them, 

Search for the discrete presence of God.

This visit is in you

As a moment of peace.

 

You can see the crypts in the floor with Latin inscriptions.

At the top of the hill stands the statue of A Notre Dame de Bonne Esperance, Our Lady of Good Hope.  The Roman numeral date inscription reads IXXI, which would be the year 911.  I don’t know if that is when the statue was placed or if it denotes a memorial of some kind.  To me, it seems to be too well preserved to be more than 1,100 years old.  Perhaps it has been restored at various times over the centuries.

The view from the statue looks down onto the village of Pernand-Vergelesses and onto the Hill of Corton on the left and the hillside of Pernand-Vergelesses on the right side.  The view from up here is an object lesson in terroir, the French concept of how one place produces a different expression of the same grape than another place, even closeby.  Here’s a video to illustrate.

We had an appointment at 7:00 p.m. with Marie, Yves, and their son, Florent for an aperitif.  We looked forward to the occasion with great anticipation.  It allows us into their home to talk about family, our trip, and their lives.  We’ve done this a few times during our France travels and we always come away with the understanding that no matter our life experiences and where we live and what language we speak, we have more in common than differences.

Precisely at 7:00, we emerged from the gite to find Florent in the cherry tree, picking fresh cherries for the gathering.  Talk about fresh and local!  

Florent is a pleasure and his English language skills really help with communicating with Marie and Yves.

Yves is affectionately known to most people as Bidou. He is retired and spends his time around the house and with family.  Here he is with Charlotte, age 14 months, daughter of Florent and the youngest petit enfant, grandchild.

Until her bedtime came, Charlotte was the star of the show.

We spent a delightful couple of hours chatting over nibbles of cheese, saucisse, jambon, fresh cherries, Champagne and local wine.

I asked Florent about the Comblanchien incident in World War II and how the war affected life in Burgundy.  He offered a really interesting perspective on the question.  He said that Americans always want to talk about the war, which he understands, but it is not a topic that the French like to discuss.  Aside from the hardship of the war years, the postwar years were very hard economically.  Moreover, French who were perceived as too passive or not sufficiently active in the resistance during the war were ostracized after the war, leading to a certain distrust in some communities.  I would suppose this has diminished with the passing of time and the generation, but Florent led me to believe that long lingering hard feelings make the wartime and postwar years a topic that is generally avoided in typical conversation.

Dinner in the gite was a cassoulet de Savoie that we bought at Claire Naudin’s marché gourmand over the weekend.  Just a heat and serve dinner, it was delicious with white beans, sausage, duck, and a rich sauce.

We paired it with a Savigny-les-Beaune we bought from Chantal Martin a couple of days earlier.

It’s a young wine with lots of fruit aromas and flavors, red cherries and berries, a little earth, and a nice, fresh, mineral quality.  It was a delicious way to end a wonderful day.

That’s our post for today.  Thanks for reading us.  We’d love to hear your comments.  We’ll keep posting whenever we have time so keep checking back for more at Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian