Bonjour à vous et à tous. Hello to you and to everyone. Welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine
and food blog. Monday was a busy
day. Like almost every day, it began
with a quick trip to the boulangerie for Mary.
Here’s our boulangerie down the hill in Ladoix-Serrigny.
This view also shows our
rental car. We came all the way to
France from Detroit to rent a Ford Focus.
Here are a couple of
views of Ladoix in the early morning along the Route Nationale.
I drove through the
vineyards of the Hill of Corton on the way back to the gite.
This marker denotes the grand cru Domaine Prieur parcel of
Corton Bressandes, one of the larger climats
of the east facing portion of the hill.
Here’s a note from Mary
about her tartelette framboise. Brian
volunteers every morning to go get something for me from the boulangerie and
it’s always a nice surprise. This tartelette had a beautiful layer of
raspberries over a lovely flaky crust. It
was nice and sweet but not overly so, less gooey sweet than what we would find
in the U.S.
We had two tasting
appointments for the day. The first was
at Domaine Gerard Raphet in Morey-Saint-Denis.
Domaine Raphet is highly regarded and some of his wines are at least
affordable. Several requests for tasting
at some domaines were politely declined because small family producers are very
busy in the vineyards at this time of year and because yields the last few
years have been very low due to hailstorms.
We were glad to get in to see Domaine Raphet.
My correspondence to arrange the visit was with Madame Sylvian Raphet, so we looked for her when we arrived at the
11:00 a.m. appointed time. We walked
into a door where a man was working in a packaging production facility. Assuming we were in the wrong place, we
walked out quickly. The man followed us
and we introduced ourselves. He
introduced himself as Gerard Raphet!
This is a perfect example of the nature of many Burgundy estates. The average size is about six hectares, which
translates roughly to 15 acres. Their
entire income is derived from these small amounts of land. Like all farmers, they are at the mercy of
the weather and can lose most of a crop to events like storms. Most of the work is done by the family with
some seasonal help for picking and pruning.
Monsieur
Raphet escorted us to a room they had set up for tasting. He was polite enough, but spoke no English at
all and was pretty businesslike. I’m
sure he had a great deal of work to do.
He tasted us through several wines without too much attempt at
conversation and answered our questions as best he could. He owns several parcels in village, premiere
cru, and grand cru vineyards, including small amounts of Clos de Vougeot, Clos
de Bèze, and Charmes Chambertin. Clos de
Vougeot is the largest of the grand cru vineyards in Burgundy at 125
acres. A “clos” means the vineyard is
enclosed by a wall on at least three sides.
Clos de Bèze and Charmes Chambertin are two of the grands cru in
Gevrey-Chambertin and are among the most prestigious and highly sought red
wines in the world. I was surprised and
delighted to taste them and they certainly did not disappoint. He gave us the name of his U.S. importer and
we resolved to try to find his wines upon return home … if we can afford them.
Near the
end of the visit, Mme. Raphet appeared and what a delightful person she
is. She also has pretty fair English
skills, which made communication much easier.
They
indulged us in our touristy requests for photos. You can see Gerard is dressed for work, not
sales and guest relations. The
experience didn’t last long, but it was authentic and we very much enjoyed
meeting them and tasting their wines.
We drove
north from Morey-Saint-Denis on the old road through the grands cru of
Gevrey-Chambertin. Here’s Clos de Beze
(pronounced “bezz”).
Turning left up the
slope we came to the famous premier cru vineyard of Clos St. Jacques. This vineyard is interesting for several
reasons, including the consistency of its high quality because it is owned by
only a few producers.
This
photo is of the Combe Lavaux. I took the photo just on the other side of the stone wall of Clos St. Jacques. A combe is a geological
formation caused by changes in the earth’s formation, such as a giant rockslide
or landslide or a series of such events.
The displaced earth flows downward into what is known as a dejection
cone. The resultant shape of the earth creates
a narrow valley that is also called a vale or a hollow. I’m not knowledgeable about this but I think
it is distinguished from a canyon by the fact there is not a stream or river
running through it. There are many
combes in Burgundy. The relevance to
wine is that the flow of air and temperature is influenced by the shape of the
land and the content of the soil by the dejection cone.
We drove
up to the combe and into the hills west of Gevrey. Like much of the Hautes-Côtes, it is
beautiful, rural country with vineyards, fruit orchards, row crops, meadows,
and small villages separated by narrow lanes.
Churches are the most distinguishing presence in the villages, looming
above the other rooftops as we approach.
This
village is Ternant, which is typical of the villages of the backcountry. It is nestled into the folds and contours of
the land and set against the forest and hillside behind it.
On the
edge of Ternant as we left town we saw this cross. Crosses are very common in or next to
vineyards and farms in France, many placed hundreds of years ago by monks or
the church.
This one is actually a
memorial that was placed by a grieving widow.
The inscription reads, “This cross was erected by Widow Boiveaut in memory
of Jean Boiveaut, her husband, born Ternant April 2, 1800, deceased
Dijon September 20, 1871. Pray for him.”
Back in Comblanchien, we
had a picnic lunch of charcuterie, cheese, sundried tomatoes, black olive
tapenade, and a baguette for Mary.
We
opened the half-bottle of Poulsard we bought in Arbois, which was fresh and fruity. It was a perfect, sunny picnic in Burgundy.
Our afternoon appointment
was at Domaine Chantal and Michel Martin in Chorey-les-Beaune. The domaine is multi-generational but some of
the previous generations grew grapes without making their own wine. Chantal and Michel took control of the estate
several years ago, now farming a total of 4.5 hectares, which is a little more
than 11 acres. They are passionate about
their connection to the land and contact with their product from the vine to
the bottle. They farm their land
organically, which is much more labor-intensive than conventional farming, yet
they do everything themselves with the exception of short-term seasonal crews
for picking and pruning.
Our visit with Chantal was wonderful, lasting two hours. She first walked us to their vineyard across the street where she talked about her vineyard practices.
In these photos you can see several things. First, the vines are very short, which is standard all along the Côte d’Or. Second, the rows are very narrow with high density planting, which requires the vines to compete for resources and reduce vine vigor. Reduced vigor of vegetation means more of the plant’s energy is put into reproduction, increasing the quality of the grapes.
The tall, narrow tractor you saw in our blog post the day we arrived in Burgundy can get through, but the pruning, leaf pulling, and trellising are all done by hand by Chantal and Michel and all the other vineyard workers here. We see them everywhere, bent over to tend the vines, all day long, in hard, tiring work.
Third, this parcel in Chorey-les-Beaune is flat, which means the soils are deeper and richer than on the slopes. Deeper soils increases vegetative growth, which is another reason Chantal has to pull leaves, reduce the number of buds when pruning, and plant in high density.
Here’s an old corking machine
in the cuverie, the winery.
Down in the cellar, we
tasted through Chantal’s wines from Chorey-les-Beaune, Savigny-les-Beaune, and
Beaune, classified as Bourgogne up to premier cru.
Here’s a brief explanation
of how vineyard areas are classified in Burgundy. Back in the 1850s, Jules Lavalle, a French
physician, wrote a treatise on the land and wines of Burgundy, which became the
basis for the classification of vineyard sites by quality. Keep in mind that it was the Cistercian
monks, centuries before, who demarcated the vineyards on the basis of the
expression of wines and how they varied from place to place, even a few meters
apart, which is what is meant by the term terror. There’s not really a good English
translation, but to me it basically means the “taste of the place.” It’s how climate, exposition, soil content,
slope, and a variety of other factors come together in the fruit.
The classification of
wines in Burgundy begins with Bourgogne, which just means wines of the
region. Grapes for Bourgogne can come
from anywhere in Burgundy. These are
plentiful and the least expensive, but can be quite good.
The next level up from
Bourgogne is village (pronounced vee-lage with the accent on the second
syllable). Wines designated as village,
such as Chorey-les-Beaune, means all the grapes must come from that
village. They’re usually a little more
expensive than Bourgogne, but are often quite affordable and delicious.
The next level is premier
cru. Now we’re getting into high class
juice. Premier cru wines usually come
from a single vineyard, express site specificity, and have more complexity. Stated simply, they are more interesting and
compelling. Premier cru wines require
some thought and some time, at least several years, to express themselves
best. These are not casual beverages to
be guzzled down without attention to them.
They make up only about 11% of all wines produced in Burgundy, so as you
might expect, they can be pricey.
The highest level is
grand cru. These are all single
vineyards. The name of the village
doesn’t even appear on the label, only the grand cru vineyard itself. There are 37 and only 37 grands cru. Fifteen are Chardonnay vineyards. Seven of these are in Chablis and eight in
the Côte d’Or. The rest are Pinot Noir,
all in the Côte d’Or. Contrast this with
the premiers cru, which number 622 vineyards.
Although a few of the premiers cru can approach the quality of a grand
cru, you can see that grands cru are very special. They need time to express themselves, usually
at least 10 years from harvest. To open
a grand cru as soon as it is bottled is really a waste of great wine as the uniqueness
is what is so special and requires more time to open. They comprise only about 2% of all wines
produced in Burgundy and the prices can be through the roof. With careful shopping, it is possible to buy
a great grand cru that doesn’t require a second mortgage, but they are special
occasion wines, to say the least. We
have several in our collection and consider opening one to be an event. We love to share great wine with friends, but
for a grand cru wine, quite a bit of the focus of the meal will be on the wine.
Ok, enough geeking out
and back to the events of May 19. Dinner
was at Ma Cuisine. We’ve been there
every year we’ve been to Burgundy.
Thanks to a glowing review in the New York Times and word of mouth, it
has practically become an American outpost in Beaune. Most of the people in attendance tonight were
American.
Here’s the carte for the evening, a wall-mounted
chalkboard.
While we were waiting, we
studied all the empty wine bottles on the shelf next to us, memories of great
dinners past.
These two bottles
illustrate the point I was making above about how grand cru wines are
labeled. Chambertin and Musigny are two
of the grands cru, both Pinot Noir. You
don’t see the names of the villages attached to the vineyard as you do with a
premier cru. In smaller type you see the
names of the producers, but the vineyard is the star of the show on the label.
I started with escargots traditionelle, prepared in a
dish and not left in the shell.
Mary started with saucisse et pain, a simple cured meat
and French bread combination.
Her plat, the main course, was magret de canard roti au jus, roast breast of duck. Here’s Mary to comment. Brian and I had duck for the first time on our first trip to Burgundy and have eaten it fairly regularly ever since. This duck was very thinly sliced and extremely tender. It tasted like duck but the taste was also similar to a great tender steak. Maybe it was the sauce. The small portion of vegetables in the right corner is ratatouille, which is a combination of eggplant, zucchini, onion, pepper, tomato. It was delicious (and I usually dislike most vegetables). Now Brian about his dish:
I had a very traditional
dish of the region, boeuf bourgignon, cuts of super-tender beef, braised in a
red wine reduction with vegetables.
Dessert was a tarte abricot for Mary …
… and a selection of
local cheeses.
Pierre’s wine list is
quite extensive. Included is a vertical
of Château d’Yquem back to 1890. A
vertical is a collection of multiple vintages of the same wine by the same producer. d’Yquem is a prestigious and expensive
dessert-style Sauternes. I’ll share more
about Sauternes later when we visit Bordeaux.
By the way, that 1890
d’Yquem is €4,500 on the Ma Cuisine list, approximately a cool $6,000.
We put ourselves in
Pierre’s hands to choose the wine within a specified price range. He recommended this 2002 Beaune Marconnets by
Domaine Albert Morot. Marconnets is a
premier cru vineyard within the Beaune appellation, so you see both the name of
the growing area, Beaune, and the name of the vineyard on the label.
It was really a stunning
wine. It had enough time on it, almost
14 years, that some of the primary fruit flavors and aromas were declining and
the secondary and tertiary qualities that are unique to that particular
vineyard were more prominent. Earth,
forest floor notes, mushrooms, dried leaves, and maybe some dried fruit were in
there, but the best part was the silky, mouthcoating velvetiness of a terrific
Pinot Noir. We were sorry to see the
bottle end.
After coffee, we walked
out into the streets of Beaune.
Mary took this photo of
the entrance to Domaine Drouhin at the corner of Rue Paridis. Maurice Drouhin was prominent in the French
resistance during World War II. The
Germans eventually came for him, but he escaped through the cellars out onto
Rue Paradis, hiding for the remainder of the war in the Hospices de Beaune,
sheltered by the nuns.
That’s our post for
today. It’s kind of long but we hope you
enjoyed it and found it informative. We’ll
keep posting whenever we have time so keep checking back for more at Cépage et Cuisine. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian
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