Burgundy

Tuesday September 11, 2007

Today was a travel day and since we’ve more or less recovered from jet lag, the drive was a lot easier than that from Paris to Obernai. We were on autoroute all the way to Dijon, which was our first stop. This city, famous for its mustard, is also a very historical location for the dukes of Burgundy. We did a short walk about the old town and then started down the Route of Grand Crus. The route between Dijon and Beaune has probably the most famous wine villages in the world like Bonne Mares, Gevry Chambertin, Vosne Romanee, Morey St. Denis, Chambolle Musigny and many more.
The villages are up the hill from the route national, so we headed up into the villages at Fixin. The vendage started on Monday and will go for 9 days, so there were pickers and picking machines everywhere. With so much manpower expended on picking, many domains were not open for tasting. We did, however, find a producer open in Gevry Chambertin. We realized we’d come to the right place, when we were greeted by a large photo of the vintner shaking hands with Sean Connery in his winery last year. I thought Bond only drank martinis and champagne. He must have mellowed with old age.
Our next stop was in Chambolle Musigny at a cellar that featured the best of Burgundy. We sat with the English speaking proprietor and tasted 3 excellent wines – a white Puligny Montrachet, a red Chambolle Musigny and finally a premier cru red Vosne Romanee.