Bonjour à tous et bienvenue! Hello, everyone, and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary's and Brian's wine and food blog. We're back in France for our next wine, food, and cultural adventure! Our home away from home this time is Magny-les-Villers, a tiny village in Burgundy. A year ago, we lived in a nearby village, Villers-la-Faye. Used in the name of a French village, the term les means "near." So, Magny-les-Vellers means Magny "near" Villers-la-Faye. The two villages are separated by less than a kilometer, about a half-mile.
The day began with a trip to the boulangerie for a pastry or fresh-baked bread. Mary loves the croissant and I love visiting the shop. You may recall our description of Madame, the very nice lady who runs the boulangerie, speaks no English whatsoever, and talks and talks as if I know everything she is saying. Her place is sort of a community gathering spot where the people of the village stop by for fresh bread, a daily ritual, and to greet each other and share news. Mary enjoyed the croissant with pink grapefruit juice, or pamplemousse rosé (who knew?).
Today was our first day back in France after the long journey from Jackson to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Paris, arriving around 8:00 a.m. Paris time, finding our way to the Air France bus to the Gare de Lyon train station for a noon train to Dijon, picking up a rental car in Dijon, and finally arriving in Magny-les-Villers around 4:00 p.m. Because of the time difference, we departed Jackson on Monday and arrived in France on Tuesday. Whew!
Venturing out to lunch in Nuits-Saint-Georges, we selected a brasserie et bar à vin, the equivalent of a pub, a basic lunch spot. Mary selected a sandwich au fromage d'emmenthal, a simple sandwich of Swiss cheese on a baguette, and I had omelette de jambon et de
fromage avec salade, a ham and cheese omelet with salad. Mary enjoyed a glass of crémant, a sparkling white wine, and I had a small Cotes de Nuits rouge, a basic Pinot Noir of the region. The server was Jean-Jacques, a friendly young man who is trained as a pastry chef and has worked in Philadelphia and Orlando in the U.S., Berlin in Germany, as well as Burgundy.
Having no appointments, we struck out through the countryside in the hills beyond the Cote. I'm always impressed by the beauty of the Burgundy countryside, how villages are tucked into the hills, and how the dominant feature of every small village is the old church, l'église.
Once again, the iris are blooming all over. This must be the perfect place for iris. This picture is in Concœur, a village near Nuits-Saint-Georges. 
Here you can see the village mailbox and an old community water pump.
This village, almost literally a stone's throw from Concœur, is Corboin. It is a separate small community, so small it would practically be considered a neighborhood in most of the the U.S., a collection of a few homes and gardens, set against a hillside.
Winding our way back down to the Cote d'Or, we found ourselves in the Grands Cru vineyards of Vosne-Romanée, among the most famous vineyards in the world for Pinot Noir, producing wines of rarity and stratospheric prices. This vineyard, La Romanée Conti, owned in its entirety (monopole) by Domaine de la Romanée Conti, is farmed using only traditional and non-mechanized methods. Here you see a horse-drawn plow being used between the vineyard rows. To give you a sense of how prestigious this vineyard is in the world of wine, a single bottle of DRC Romanée Conti retails for $15,750 at a rare wine shop in Chicago. Not exactly a wine for Tuesday night leftover meatloaf!
This cross in front of La Romanée Conti was placed in 1723 and is an iconic image of the vineyard and Burgundy generally. Here are a few more images from Vosne-Romanée.
These next few images are from Gilly-les-Citeaux, a village across N74 opposite the Cote. The architectural style is the same. Note the small creek and blooming fields of canola.
This view shows a corner of Latricières-Chambertin in the foreground, keeping in mind this is in the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin. In the background you can see part of Clos de la Roche, a different Grand Cru vineyard in the neighboring commune of Morey-Saint-Denis. Separated by a lane and basically a row of shrubs and trees, the two vineyards produce wines that are discernibly different even though they are both planted to Pinot Noir. It is a perfect illustration of the concept of terroir, the French term that means roughly, "the taste of the place." Differences in soil, slope, aspect, and other natural influences combine to affect the expression of the fruit and the wine. Below is another photo of Latricières-Chambertin with Clos de la Roche beyond. 
I wrote in a blog post a year ago that a lesson learned about wine is it really helps to go there, wherever "there" is in your wine journey. Seeing vineyards like this while standing in them after drinking the wine that comes from them makes a very complex subject like terroir a little easier to understand.
We found ourselves behind one of the vineyard tractors on the way back to our house. It illustrates a little about farming in Burgundy. The vines are quite short, as you can see in the images above of Latricières-Chambertin and in contrast to typical California vineyards. Tractors are high enough that they can pass over the vines and drop arms down laterally for spraying.
We ended our day with dinner at La Ciboulette, a restaurant in Beaune we enjoyed a year ago. It is just inside the gate of the old city of Beaune, a small, but well known establishment.
We began the evening with an aperitif of Bourgogne Crémant blanc, a white Burgundy sparkling wine, made from Chardonnay. I don't know the producer, but it was fresh, crisp, and had nice citrus and yeast notes. As you may know from many prior blog posts, Mary adores sparkling wine.
The amuse bouche was a little tray of salmon spread on baguette crisps, crunchy radishes, and Niçoise olives.
In France, the appetizer course is called the "entree," unlike in the U.S. The main course is called the "plat." The appetizer course for Mary was a delightful salad of greens, carrots, tomato, and fromage avec lardons, creamy warm cheese wrapped in bacon.
My entree course is less appetizing in the photo than Mary's salad, but it was absolutely delicious. Ouefs en meurette is a dish of poached eggs, mushrooms, and herbs in a red wine reduction sauce. It is really one of my very favorite traditional Burgundian dishes. The blend of flavors is sensational and the egg yolk oozing into the sauce is amazing.
And now for the main course. Mary selected rôti de magret de canard, roast duck breast. Duck breast has become one of our favorite dishes, even at home. Mary said this one was delicious, served in au jus.
My main course was a new experience for me, rôti de joue de porc, pork cheeks, slow cooked all day. They were tender, moist, succulent, flavorful, like a wonderful pork roast, served in a red wine sauce. Both of our dishes had spring peas, greens, and squash. Even the vegetables were delicious. A scalloped potato portion completed the dish. It was so good we both saved the last bit of it for our last bite of the main course, creamy and cheesy on the inside with a delicious crust on the outside.
Mary's dessert course was assiette de chocolat, assorted chocolates. Mousse, ganache, a pudding sauce, and sort of a brownie made up the cast of characters.
I had an assiette du fromage, assorted cheeses. One of my favorites, Epoisses, was there, along with a nice Chèvre, and a Reblochon, a cheese which cannot even be obtained legally in the U.S. because it is unpasteurized when shipped. We have come to really appreciate a nice cheese course as an end to a nice dinner.
Here's a big part of the reason for our adventure, our passion for the wines of France, especially Burgundy. Madame Isabelle at La Ciboulette understands her cuisine and the wines on her list and how to pair them. A year ago when we ordered lamb and beef, her recommendations were very different. This year, she recommended a wine of more delicacy, finesse, and elegance.
We selected a Domaine La Pousse d'Or Volnay En Caillerets 2007 to pair with the duck and the pork and, let me say, it did not disappoint.
You can see here the wine is classifed as a Premier Cru, designated on the label as "1er Cru." This is the second highest quality designation for the wines of Burgundy. Only Grand Cru is more highly regarded.
The aromatics were wonderful with notes of red fruit, floral characteristics, and earth. The palate was silky smooth with good acidity, which made it pair well with food, and flavors of red cherry, spice notes, and a mineral quality. The best quality of this wine was its balance and harmony of flavor, acidity, tannins, and alcohol, all elements relating to the others in proportion. I would describe it as exquisitely balanced, moderate in complexity, with nice length. It was only 13.0% alcohol. All in all...sublime. We hated to see the bottle, and the evening, come to an end.
Finally, and naturally, we enjoyed coffee. It just seems like one more sensory experience that finishes a wonderful dinner.
Madame Isabelle....merci beaucoup. Until we meet again. And thanks, too, to our new friends at the next table, a delightful bilingual Canadian couple from Montreal who graciously assisted us with interpretation.
That's our post for today. Stay tuned for more posts during our France adventure. We will be in Burgundy for a little more than a week, then transfer to Alsace. In the meantime, keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine.
Cheers!
Brian♥Mary
P.S. Our Internet connection in Magny-les-Villers is slow and intermittent. I had to work on this post off and on throughout the day. If a day or so passes without a post, keep checking back. We will write when we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment