Sunday, June 3, 2012

France Adventure - May 22, 2012

Bienvenue à Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  If you are not a regular reader of the blog, you may not know that Mary and I are on vacation in France to experience the wine, cuisine, and culture.  The first week or so is here in Burgundy, home of the wines and food we most love in France.  We’re blogging about each day of our experience, beginning with May 16.  You can access all the posts by clicking on May in the blog archives to the right, then on each date, or by clicking on “older posts” at the bottom of each post.  We enjoyed a similar vacation a year ago, which you can also read by browsing the archives.

We began our day by driving through Villers-la-Faye, the village next to Magny-les-Villers.  I saw these pretty blooming shrubs next to the road.  I don’t know what they are.  I thought it might be a variety of azalea, but the latitude seems pretty far north for azaleas.  Can anybody identify this and post a comment?

Aujourd'hui nous avons visité Gevrey-Chambertin.  Today, we visited the nearby village of Gevrey-Chambertin in the Côte de Nuits, the northern part of the Côte d’Or of Burgundy.  Gevrey is the commune with the largest number of grand cru vineyards in all of Burgundy.

A small family producer, Domaine Drouhin-Laroze, welcomes visitors by appointment, even including lunch.  The wines of Drouhin-Laroze are highly regarded, reflective of their site of origin, but still reasonably priced, at least by Burgundy standards.  We scheduled a visit to meet Madame Christine Drouhin and enjoy the hospitality for which she is known throughout the world of wine enthusiasts.

Drouhin-Laroze was founded in 1850 by the Laroze family.  Suzanne Laroze, the granddaughter of the founder, married Alexandre Drouhin in 1919 and the domaine has since been known as Drouhin-Laroze.  Philippe and Christine Drouhin are the fifth generation to run the domaine.  They own 11.5 hectares, about 28 acres.  Almost half of their production is grand cru.

We were part of a small group, including about a dozen cyclists in an organized group.  Mme. Drouhin began by describing the domaine, the vineyard holdings, the emphasis on respect for the terroir.  She discussed differences from site to site, the influence of soil type, elevation, slope, climate, and other factors.

After answering questions, she invited us to the dining room, which is adjacent to a small clos, an enclosed vineyard.  This particular site is classified as Gevrey-Chambertin village at the moment because the vines are very young, only seven or eight years, but is actually part of a premier cru when the vines are more mature.

The occasion quickly became lively.

Christine began opening bottles for the cycling group …

… while Mary and I considered the list of the domaine's wines from which we could choose.

Christine was so gracious.  She insisted we call her Christine and not Madame Drouhin.  “I don’t answer to Madame.”

She spent a great deal of time with us, talking about vintage variation, which wines were within a good drinking window, and which wines would make an interesting contrast if we wanted to try more than one.
Once again, half-bottles allow the flexibility of trying two wines for contrast and learning.  After considerable deliberation and discussion with Christine, we decided to be bold and choose two grands cru, Latricières-Chambertin and Chapelle Chambertin.  They were both 2009, harvested at about the same time, vinified with similar methods by Philippe, so differences we observed could clearly reflect the site, the terroir.  More on this after we talk about lunch.

Today was another chilly, blustery day in Burgundy.  The growers are waiting for spring to really begin.  Mary took this picture of a grape cluster just getting started on a vine outside the window.  See how tiny it is, even toward the end of May.

Because the weather seemed to call for hearty food, Christine selected a luncheon menu of classic Burgundy dishes.  She served a nice slice of jambon persille with salad greens.  This is ham with parsley and is very popular in Burgundy.  It is on almost every restaurant menu.  It was quite good, but I thought a slice of ham with salad was a little skimpy, considering the €30 per person charge for lunch, not including wine.  What I didn’t realize was this was just the first course.

We were absolutely thrilled when she served boeuf bourguignon

… and gratin dauphinois, scalloped potatoes.

The dish was warm, hearty, and satisfying on a chilly, gray day.

The dessert course was pomme tatin, an apple turnover, sort of like pineapple upside down cake, except with apples.  We’ve made this at home with pears.

I don’t eat desserts such as pomme tatin, so Christine provided a cheese course of chèvre and Comté.  She brought the cheese board around, I sliced off some for Mary and myself, then expected she would pass it along to other guests.  To my surprise, she said it was for us and we could enjoy as much as we wished.  I asked if we could just take the rest home with us, back to the gite.  She seemed not to understand the request at first.  The concept of a “to go” box for leftovers must not be well known in France because she gave us completely new cheese to take home!

The wine was amazing.  As I mentioned in previous posts, the 2009 vintage was warm and allowed better ripening of the grapes with lusher flavors and softer tannins.  The wines are approachable even now, despite their youth.  What was most interesting to us was the contrast between the two vineyards, Latricières-Chambertin and Chapelle Chambertin.


We were excited to experience these two grands cru, side by side, right in the domaine, along with food prepared and served by Christine Drouhin, studying and contrasting the wines based on the vineyard sites.  This is really a highlight of a trip to Burgundy or other wine region.

Latricières-Chambertin is one of the southernmost of the Gevrey grands cru, contiguous with Clos de la Roche in the neighboring commune of Morey-Saint-Denis.  It is gently sloped up to the woods and southeast facing with soil of limestone and clay.  Vine age ranges from 26 to 53 years.

Chapelle Chambertin is slightly north of Latricières-Chambertin, across a road, and quite a bit flatter.  It has less protection by the woods.  Despite being downslope, its soils are thinner and rockier.  Vine age ranges from 26 to 39 years.  An interesting tidbit about Chapelle Chambertin is that it was the site of a chapel built in 1155 by the Cistercian monks, later rebuilt in 1457, then destroyed years after the French revolution.

Here are my notes on the two wines, including some comparative comments.

Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Latricières-Chambertin 2009.  Compared to the Chapelle-Chambertin, this wine was a bit softer with more approachable structure at this point.  The aroma profile was more of earth and mineral notes, perhaps with better balance and structure.  The impression is consistent with Christine’s own comments about underbrush, forest floor, and floral notes.  The palate was smooth with good acidity and medium body.  Earth, herbal, red and dark fruit flavors were all present.  Beautifully balanced, we both preferred it with food, although both wines were delicious.  It was moderately complex at this early stage and had great length.  13.0% alcohol.

Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Chapelle-Chambertin 2009.  This wine was more assertive than the Latricières-Chambertin, more obvious in its acidity, more aromatic of bright red fruit.  The palate showed finely grained tannins and exuberant red cherry, raspberry, and strawberry fruit.  The acidity was medium to high with medium body.  It was nicely balanced and complex, but will benefit from more time.  The length was nice and long.  13.0% alcohol.

This was just a wonderful experience, another leisurely, long French lunch.  We were there for almost three hours!  That €30 price tag?  What a bargain!  I will say this, however.  Mary’s boeuf bourguignon and scalloped potatoes are every bit as good as Christine’s.  One of our wine tasting friends in Jackson who has lived in France and is experienced with French cuisine has said the same thing.  Mary’s cuisine stacks up to the classics just fine.  She’s wonderful!

Here are a few photos we took on the way back to the gite, famous images from Burgundy.













As you can imagine, we had little appetite that evening for another big dinner.  We basically snacked on cheese and fruit and opened our demi-bouteille of the Domaine Tremblay Chablis Fourchaume.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you’re enjoying reading about our experiences.  Keep checking back at Cèpage et Cuisine for more.  We have more than another week to go!  In the meantime,
 
Cheers!

Mary♥Brian

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