Day 17 - Côte de Beaune

Another grey day in France.... and quite chilly as well..... I started out after a splendid brekkie with the top down, but about an hour in, I was just too cold, even with a cardie on!
I retraced quite a number of my steps today, as I drove north to the Côte de Beaune. My first stop was the village of Chassagne-Montrachet, a village which oozes self-assurance, not in a showy way, but in a quietly confident way....

Chassagne-Montrachet Town Hall

Well, except for the little village green dedicated by the President of Chile..... Do we think he received a couple of cases of wine for the honour??

It knows that in the relatively small area within its AOC, it produces some of the finest and well-regarded wines of the world, though I was unaware that it also produces red wine, which actually accounts for a whopping 40% of its wine production!

A vineyard in the centre of the village

So, yes, I was looking forward to tasting some wines, but a little intimidated as I wasn't sure just how likely it would be to find tastings without the expectation of a sale, and an expensive sale at that. I needn't have feared - I came across the Caveau de Chassagne-Montrachet (sorry, no web link) in the middle of the village which offered 4 tastings, at a price of €10 - not all AOC Chassagne-Montrachet, some from the neighbouring villages as well. The young lady who hosted the tasting was herself a student of Viticulture at Dijon university and was very keen to share her knowledge:

1. AOC Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru - Clos du Cailleret 2008 (white) - Domaine Vincent Girardin - The nose was naturally citrussy, but the most distinctive aroma was that of hazelnuts with buttery notes.The powerful taste was all about citrus fruits with notes of nut; and this wine had a fantastically long finish with absolutely wonderful acidity..... I should say here that when I talk about acidity, I don't mean screw your face up lemon juice or vinegar, I mean "Opal Fruits, made to make your mouth water" acidity - sorry, that shows my age; can't for the life of me remember what they're called now.... But, anyway, you know what I mean, that really delicious mouth-watering effect.
2. AOC Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru - La Garenne 2008 (white) - Marc Colin et fils - For to be just 3 or 4km away, the nose of this wine was very minerally and slightly herbaceous. The taste was more refined, more elegant than the previous with a base of citrus, but overlaid with minerality. Again, wonderful acidity and a good length.
3. AOC Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru - "Boudriotte" 2008 (RED) - Noёl Ramonet - This wine smells of wild strawberries and cherries, with a slight medicinal aroma, but the taste is light, bright red fruit flavours; there is a slight spiciness detectable too. And the acidity is present in the red as well.
4. AOC Pommard Les Charmots Premier Cru 2007 (red) - Fernand et Laurent Pillot - I haven't really commented on the colour of wines in my little notes, but this wine from another of the neighbouring villages sparkled like a ruby..... If I had seen it on TV, I would have sworn it was fake, it was glorious in appearance.... and the nose didn't disappoint either - rich red fruits reminiscent of cherry or raspberry jam. And the taste: intense red fruit flavours, perfectly integrated with tannins exploded in the mouth, with a very long red fruit finish.

I hopped back into the car for the 2 minute drive down to Puligny-Montrachet - I had to go to the village as one of the lads on my wine course just loved wines from this AOC and I loved the way he pronounced the name with his slow Texan drawl - I had a little smile to myself as I passed the namepost.

And the village itself - very chic, not quite as serious as its neighbour, but certainly as self-assured.

Next stop, Meursault - I was looking forward to a taste, but unfortunately, by that time it was lunchtime and the Domaines were closed, so I settled for a little walk round the village - it was more like a filmset from a period fim - beautifully preserved...

You can just see a yellow glass lantern style wall lamp on the side of the town hall - these are attacched to the street walls right through the whole village, maybe every 50m. It's that attention to detail, I'm hoping to sample in the wine, fingers crossed tomorrow!

Even though still in the lunch hour, I motored on the next few km to Volnay - I should say that these villages are literally 3 km apart, so very convenient to explore, but amazingly diverse in how their 100% Chardonnay white wines (or 100% Pinot Noir red wines) taste.

No tasting joy in Volnay, so another hold over for tomorrow, so I pootled on to Pommard - I was quite excited after the splendid tasting in Chassagne-Montrachet of the Pommard red.
I stopped off at Fanny Sabre's little shop - Fanny is a vineyard owner, makes her own wine, bottles it and sells it in her little boutique shop..... Shame she's not very good at it!
She was advertising tastings and I asked if I might partake..... and if alongside the naturally anticipated Pommards, was there any chance of a Meursault and/or a Volnay white...... Both were on sale in the shop. Oh, yes she said, but let's start with the reds...... Ding, ding, ding - the alarm bells went off...... if you're tasting wine, you start with white, move on to red and then only return to white if it's a dessert/sweet wine.
But hey, just for the sheer heck of it, here are the notes on her wines - 4 reds and 1 white (all her own):

1. AOC Bourgogne 2009 - 2009 was a very good year in Burgundy and this wine, while not one of the village AOCs should have a lot of potential. the nose was slightly smoky red fruit; the taste - indistinguishable red fruit with harsh tannins - not a good example.
2. AOC Pommard 2007 (vielles vignes) - red fruit nose; red fruit taste with tannins - not as harsh as the first, but certainly not integrated.
3. AOC Pommard Premier Cru 2008 - Pommard Charmot - the nose was lighter fresher red fruits with a taste of cherries and raspberries - a light and fruity wine with good acidity.
4. AOC Savigny-lès-Beaune 2009 - a nose of red cherries and raspberries, reflected in the taste - again the tannins hadn't been integrated, but not as harshly as the first 2 - given a year or 2, they may well do so, but currently a light wine.
5. AOC Savigny-lès-Beaune 2009 (white) - A herbaceous and citrus nose with grapefruit flavours on the palette.

I think I had perhaps been spoiled by the tastings in Chassagne-Montrachet, but my appreciation wasn't helped by my first experience of the french condescension - Fanny had no desire to explain about her wines and I was treated like a stupid foreigner, so that has probably coloured my view of the wines.
It was also the point when I decided to call it a day - yesterday was very full on, as was the day before, so my fatigue, the grey weather and the bad experience in Pommard conspired to send me to my hotel.
Well, thank goodness for small mercies - a real gem of a place, clean basic rooms, but in a beautiful setting - if only the weather had been better, I would have gone for a walk in the park beside the hotel.....
As it was, I ended up, ironically enough, nipping out to McDonalds to get a veggie burger - I just couldn't face a search of restaurants for veggie food....... But they don't do the veggie burgers in France! So I settled for a salad and frites!  I have to give the girl behind the counter her dues, she did try to figure out a way to give me a burger with cheese, without the burger! - she did try her best. So here I am, munching on fries while I type!
I'm here for 2 nights, so tomorrow, I will go into Beaune itself - I'm just on the outskirts, visit Aloxe-Corton and hope to taste a Meursault as well!