Sunday, May 27, 2012

France Adventure - May 19, 2012

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

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