Hello, everyone! Bonjour à tous! Welcome again to Cépage
et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog. We’re still in Burgundy, our favorite French
wine region and whose wines we most love.
Saturday is market day in Beaune!
Vendors, shoppers, and tourists crowd La Place Carnot in the center of the town, centre ville, spilling into the side streets and shops.
All manner of breads, fruits, vegetables, flowers, meats, fish, cheese,
olives, and dry goods are offered by vendors in a boisterous, noisy, crowded,
festive, market bazaar. Farmers are
calling out to sell their produce.
Americans we encountered who live in France or Germany say it is the
biggest and best open market in Europe.
It is absolutely a highlight of a Burgundy visit. Don’t miss it if you vacation in the area!
In the indoor pavilion, butchers, bouchers,
are cutting meat to order and cheesemongers, fromagers, are slicing cheese.
We got up early and got to the market by about 9:00. The market was in full swing by then. I wish we had gotten there earlier, but there
was still a terrific selection. It is
almost bewildering in its complexity.
The cosmopolitan mix of languages and ethnicities and the challenge of
conducting business with the vendors in French was exciting!
It was certainly a test of my limited French
language skills! They were all friendly
and seemed to appreciate my efforts by meeting me halfway with their own
limited English language abilities.
This brings up the issue of language etiquette when traveling in France. Just a few little lessons, readily available online for free, make a huge difference when you’re here. If you make even a basic effort to engage in their language…simple expressions of please, thank you, have a nice day, nice to meet you, I’m sorry, excuse me, knowing how to order from a menu, asking directions…they really appreciate it and will try to help you.
Our experience has been that the French are friendly, nice people, they’re happy to see us, their economy is helped by tourism, but it is their country, after all, and we made the decision to visit France. I think it is when Americans, and probably tourists from elsewhere, visit France and make no effort to function within the local culture, as if we are entitled to be served only on our own terms, that the French may perceive us as impolite and not the ambassadors we should be.
We bought ingredients for Sunday…filet de porc (fresh pork cutlets), petite pois (spring peas), pommes
de terre (potatoes), persille
(parsley), ail (garlic), fenouil (fennel), œufs (fresh eggs), and fromage
de chèvre (goat cheese).
Domaine Cornu is one of three domaines in
Magny-les-Villers. That doesn’t sound
like much but the village is tiny. We
were eager to visit a vigneron in the
village. Marie and Alexandre Cornu were
happy to greet us at the domaine, which is literally around the corner from our
gite.
A leisurely stroll required all of a minute or so.
The domaine includes more than 19 hectares (about 48 acres) in many small climats, or vineyard parcels. Appellations, referring to specifically-delineated growing areas, include Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits, Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune, villages including Ladoix, Pernand Vergelesses, Savigny-les-Beaune, and Cote de Nuits villages, premier cru of Ladoix, and grand cru of Corton. Alex is the third or fourth generation of the family to manage the viticulture and cellar work of the domaine. He is a young man with his own ideas about how to improve the domaine, but he respects the tradition of his family, the quality of their wines, and the elegance, finesse, and delicacy of Burgundy.
Tasting with Alex was a great pleasure. He took us down to his cellar and spent more
than one and a half hours tasting his wines with us, talking about Burgundy,
vineyard work, use of barrels with grapes from different appellations, vintage
variation, the effect of climate change, and pairing of wines with food. His wines were excellent and clearly showed
the uniqueness of different sites where his grapes are grown. We discussed the food we purchased at the
Beaune market and he recommended a specific wine to pair with the dinner, which
I’ll describe in another post.
Long, leisurely tasting experiences like this with the owner
of the domaine or a family member really helps with understanding terroir, the place. As I’ve said before, it really helps to go
there if you want to learn about wine, wherever “there” is. If you want to learn about Napa Cabernet,
visit Napa Valley. It’s a great experience. If you want to learn about Russian River
Valley Pinot Noir, there are lots of great people there who are delighted to
receive you. All of them would say that
understanding their terroir and how
to best express the place in their wines takes a lifetime, or many
lifetimes. The Burgundians have been at
it for hundreds of years, have perhaps the most advanced understanding of terroir, but all say they are still
learning.
We were honored to be invited by our hosts to an
apéritif in their home
before going to dinner. We had given
them a half-bottle of Chablis the previous evening and Marie brought over a
freshly baked flan which Mary loved at breakfast and as a dessert. They are the nicest people you can imagine,
Yves and Marie. Their home is next to
the gite. It is at least 300 years old and has been in
the family for four generations.
We were joined for the
apéritif
by their daughter, Séverine, their son,
Florent and his wife, Myriam.
The three petits
enfants, grandchildren, Ethan, Eva, Flavien, were outside playing. Yves and Marie help out with taking care of
the grandchildren part-time and we have enjoyed watching them run, play, and
ride their bikes. It was a pleasure to
watch Yves walk the kids to school early in the morning, holding their hands,
the kids carrying their book bags. The
six-year old boy timidly said, “Hello,” to me one day. I was very friendly to him and tried in my
limited French to have a little conversation with him.
Ethan: “Hello” (in English)
Brian: “Bonjour! Tu
parle Anglais?” (You speak English?)
Ethan: “Nous apprenons à l'école.” (We learn in school.)
Ethan: “One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten!” (in English, very proud)
Brian: “Très
bien! Excellente!” (Very good! Excellent!)
We’re friends for life. I wish we had photos of them.
Our gathering around a table in their home was a joy. They served a crémant of Bourgogne Hautes
Cotes de Nuits and a still Bourgogne blanc with cheese. Yves and Marie speak little or no English,
but the adult children were all quite skilled with English. We talked about a variety of topics,
Burgundy, family, children, work, the usual, but it was a fun peek into each
other’s lives and culture. We all
learned that we have much more in common than we might think until we get to
know each other, and that we can all learn from each other. None of them has visited the U.S., so we hope
they will visit us someday. Our entire
visit with them, and especially the apéritif, was memorable. Au
revoir, de nouveaux amis. Merci beaucoup.
Below are photos of the gite
and Marie and Yves’ home. The gite has the three steps leading to the
kitchen door and their house has the stairs leading to the second level.
Dinner was at Restaurant Simon in Flagey-Echezeaux. It is a restaurant we enjoyed a year ago and
wanted to return. François Simon opened
his restaurant a few years ago after working in other restaurants in
France. It is a lovely place and we
recognized exactly the same staff we met last year.
Mary loves the little chicken figurines on the tables. She didn’t order an entrée and I had escargot, so we didn’t take another picture of
them.
Mary ordered a plat on faith
since neither of us could translate it completely. It definitely included scallops, so she
thought she would probably enjoy it. The
dish is endives caramélisées à l’orange
et noix de Saint de Jacques. It was
seared scallops over caramelized endives with orange sauce with fresh asparagus
and artichokes. She took a chance and
ended up being delighted. The scallops
had a slight crust, but very tender inside.
The orange sauce was subtle and didn’t overpower the other flavors. She talked about those scallops for the rest
of the evening!
My sea bass, filet de
bar, was also delicious, served with a nice cream sauce, although the photo
is not as beautiful as Mary’s dinner.
I had an assiette du
fromage, which I selected from their cheese cart, of Comté, Époisses, Brie,
and another local cheese, the name of which I don’t remember, coated with
raisins for a nice sweetness.
Mary had a dessert course of raspberry, pineapple, and lemon
sorbet.
We both had coffee, a tradition that really provides a nice
finish to dinner. François also includes
a little tray of confections with the coffee.
One of the great things about the carte du vin, the wine list, in many restaurants we visited is the
nice selection of half-bottles, demi-bouteilles. It is great when two companions would like to
enjoy different wines, especially when the wine one wants is not available by
the glass. What I especially like is ordering
two different wines to compare. That
allows us to evaluate food pairings and to contrast terroir effects.
In this case we ordered two half-bottles of Bourgogne blanc
(Chardonnay), both by the same producer, Domaine Rapet Pére et Fils. One was a village level wine but from a
single climat, Pernand-Vergelesses
Les Combottes 2010. The other was a
grand cru, Corton-Charlemagne 2007.
Based on what I’ve learned here, I imagine the Les Combottes was treated
with less oak barrel influence, probably a combination of a small amount of new
barrels and more used barrels. According
to the producer’s website, Les Combottes is planted with young vines, less than
10 years old, on a steep slope. The grand
cru Corton-Charlemagne is more powerful, intense, and complex and benefits from
more oak barrel exposure, especially new oak.
This is true especially here in the Côte d’Or, but not so much in
Chablis. The vines of Corton-Charlemagne
range up to 50 years in age. Certainly,
the vintages are different, the village wine being open and approachable
earlier than the grand cru, which needs more time to reveal itself. Tasting these two wines side by side is an
excellent lesson in terroir and
vinification in Burgundy. The
differences between the two wines were obvious!
Here are my notes on each of them.
Domaine Rapet Pére et
Fils Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes 2010.
I found this wine to be thrilling.
The aroma was clean, crisp, with lemon citrus and mineral notes, almost
like gunpowder or flint. The palate was
consistent with the aromas, bright acidity and freshness, crisp, smooth in
texture with medium body, and flavors of lemon, perhaps green apples, and the
same mineral quality. Beautifully
balanced, moderately complex, with medium length. I actually preferred this wine over the
Corton-Charlemagne.
Domaine Rapet Pére et
Fils Corton-Charlemagne 2007. The
contrast could not be clearer. From the
first sniff it was clear this was a wine of greater richness, depth, complexity,
and power. Partly reflecting the greater
exposure to oak, notes of caramel or butterscotch were prominent, along with
spice notes and more tropical qualities of peach and apricot. The palate was full, creamy, with medium
acidity, and flavors of caramel, tree fruit, tropical fruits, perhaps nutmeg
and nuts. Nicely balanced, very complex,
long in length. Mary preferred this wine
over the Pernand-Vergelesses and there is no question it is a wine of grander
proportions and quality.
That’s our post for today.
We hope you enjoy following us along on our wine, food, and cultural
trip in France. Keep checking back for
more installments at Cépage et Cuisine. In the meantime,
Cheers,
Mary♥Brian
Hello, everybody. Bonjour, tout le monde! Welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s
and Brian’s wine and food blog, and another installment of our 2012 French
wine, food, and cultural adventure.
Sunday is a day I like to cook breakfast for us, so I scrambled eggs
with parsley from the Beaune market, stirred in some crushed truffles, and
opened the jus de pomme, the apple
juice from Château d’Entre-Deux-Monts in Corboin. You can read more about that visit in the
blog post for May 17, 2012.
The drive to Arbois was beautiful. Once we got out of Beaune, the plains of the
eastern part of Burgundy, leading into the Jura, are as flat as the Mississippi
Delta. Vineyards disappear and are
replaced by grazing animals and row crops.
About an hour into the drive, we crossed the Loue River at Parcey. Restaurant La Plage is situated just below
the highway bridge and overlooking the river, a perfect place for lunch on the terrasse on a pleasant day.
Mary wanted a light lunch and selected a salad of greens, Roquefort
cheese, walnuts, and fresh croutons of French bread.
I had the special of moules-frites,
mussels steamed in a broth of white wine and herbs, served with fries. The mussels are cooked in a small pot. The lid is used for the shells. I like to dip the crisp fries into the broth
(a variation on sopping!). 
The cheese course included a Comté, shown in the
front of this photo. I asked for encore un verre du vin blanc, another glass of white wine since that is what came with the moules. “No!” said mademoiselle. “Rouge!” And that was that. Rouge, it was. She insisted these particular cheeses must be
accompanied by red wine. “Cote du Rhone!”
As the front moved through, the temperature dropped and we took cover at
Hirsinger, a famous chocolatier in
Arbois. I had a cup of coffee while
waiting out the storm, which didn’t seem to want to stop.
It was great to be back at the gite. Mary cooked dinner with our Beaune market
items. My job was to shell the peas, le petite pois, which I have done on
each of our France trips. It’s kind of
becoming a tradition. 
A simple meal of pork cutlets, peppers and onions, parsley potatoes, and fresh
spring peas hit the spot.
The wine was Alex Cornu’s Côte de Nuits-Villages. The 2009 vintage was
warm in Burgundy, allowing the grapes to ripen more than usual, and producing
wines that are approachable early. They
are softer, rounder, and fruitier than the 2008 and 2010 vintages, which will
benefit from a bit more time before opening.
This illustrates that vintage variation is another factor to consider
when selecting wine. Although it seems
counterintuitive, the 2009 vintage should generally be consumed before the 2008
vintage. Here are my notes on Alex’s
wine.
