Our First Dinner in Burgundy

We had at least 5 restaurants on our eat-here list, but the only one with a table open on Saturday night, our first night in France and the eve of the Hospices de Beaune auction, was Le Gourmandin. Wine people from all over the world were in the area for the auction and it's amazing that we were able to get in anywhere on short notice. Located in the Place Carnot, a large open square in the middle of Beaune, it was easy to find even for jet lagged people who were just starting to remember some of their French.

While walking to Place Carnot we had to pass through the street festival and could not prevent ourselves from stopping at the lively huiles (oysters) and vin chaud (hot wine) stand. Cheerful men shucked oysters like champs and arranged them temptingly amongst lemon slices on dishes with broken ice. Another man stirred a large vat of red wine with orange sections, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and other spices bobbing about. As raw oysters and intense jet lag just didn't seem like a good combination, we got a glass of the vin chaud - delicious! And warm in your hands on a chilly, rainy evening.

The set menus are the way to go, offering an entree (what we know in the States as an appetizer), a plat (main dish), and a cheese course or dessert, sometimes both. This menu is always far less expensive than ordering a la carte, and sometimes, very strangely, less expensive than just ordering an entree and a plat. I also came to love the French tradition, expectation really, that you will enjoy an aperitif before your meal. I ordered a glass of Cremant, the sparkling wine of Burgundy. Cremant can be made with any and all Burgundy grapes, and is creamy in texture and fruitier than Champagne, without the chalky sensation. It is far less expensive than Champagne, and can be a lively and tasty aperitif, especially if combined with a splash of Creme de Cassis to make a Kir Royale, or with Framboise to make a yummy and as far as I know, unnamed raspberry sparkling drink.

Now, what to eat? Pregnant BrooklynLady could not east most cheeses, cured meats, and raw vegetables or shellfish. She is not supposed to eat rare meat either. Her choices were somewhat limited at times, and I think that it was tougher for her than she let on to watch me eat all of those things. But before you say that I'm an insensitive oaf for enjoying in front of her what she could not partake of herself, she insisted that I eat and drink whatever I wanted. As the article in today's NYTimes reiterates, pregnant women are probably allowed a little more leeway than you would think in eating and drinking. She tasted lots of wine, although almost always in minute amounts. She decided to allow herself one real glass of wine on our trip, one glass to drink "like a normal person," as she put it. And what a glass it turned out to be...but that's another post.

She enjoyed her taste of my Cremant (and that's not some sort of sex euphemism - get your mind out of the gutter people). We both chose as an entree the cepes (a local mushroom) ravioli with wild champignon mushrooms in a light mushroom jus/cream sauce. I know, why not order different dishes and share, but there was only one other entree BrooklynLady could eat and this one just sounded sooo good. And it was good - better than good. A melange of textures; smooth ravioli filling, springy and woody slices of wild mushrooms, foamy broth. Warm earthy flavors and soothing jus, neither of which relied too heavily on salt or garlic - common problems in mushroom dishes, in my opinion. This dish encouraged the mushrooms to be the star, their earthiness taking its time to work its way through the mouth and throat, into the sinuses so you breathed mushroom air long after finishing.

I had a glass of 2004 Jean Boillot Savigny-Les-Beaunes Les Vergelesses 1er Cru, $13, with the mushroom ravioli. This wine was somewhat reserved in aroma (after 4 days of tasting I now understand that it might be too young for more in the nose), full bodied with some citrus and some vanilla flavors that are probably associated with oak. It paired well with the mushroom dish, but a more acidic white might have been better - an "opposite" kind of a pairing - the acidity serving as a counterpoint to the rich and savory food. Or a lighter Pinot Noir would be a good choice.

BrooklynLady had duck leg and thigh that turned out to be too rare (basically raw) for her to eat. So she had a little of the venison I ordered, perfectly grilled and served with caramelized onions and some kind of venison jus. Shame on me, but I didn't note the specifics on the Chorey-Les-Beaune red I had with the venison. BrooklynLady then enjoyed some fresh cheese, the texture of yogurt, while I had my first Burgundy cheese plate, including the intimidating Epoisses, a creamy and very strong cow's milk cheese. Dessert was an apple custard tart (not so good) and creme brulee (YUM). By that point, both of us were only half awake, as is probably clear from the lack of detail I am providing here.

A first dinner that left us excited and eager to experience more Burgundy food and wine. A sleepy walk through the closed down street fair booths back to the car, and off to bed. Tomorrow we go to the Hospices de Beaune auction.

Louise Perrin in Aloxe-Corton

We arrived in France at Charles de Gaulle airport on a red eye flight early on a Saturday morning and immediately headed for the Gare de Lyon to take the high speed train, called the TGV, to Dijon. This was almost two hours of half-asleep-trying-to-look-out-the-window-at-the-passing-countryside-but-too-tired-to-keep-your-eyes-open. After arriving in Dijon we walked a few blocks to Hertz, somewhat comically pronounced "airltz" in French. In that dazed state I drove my 6 and a half months pregnant wife and myself out of town towards Aloxe-Corton.

I felt as if I were dreaming as we passed through the towns of Moray St Denis, Gevrey Chembertin, Chambolle Musigny, Vosne Romanee, and Nuits St Georges...sometimes driving alongside famous vinyards like Clos Vougeot and Clos Marechale. I was a kid in a candy store.

BrooklynLady is great at researching hotels and restaurants, picking the best places for us to go and the yummiest places to eat. She selected the Hotel Villa-Louise for our stay in Burgundy, and it was perfect, really. I unconditionally and without hesitation recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Burgundy. The rooms were spotlessly clean, the beds comfortable, the rooms spacious, bright, and quiet, the surroundings lovely, and the staff friendly and helpful.

To my taste, the location is perfect also. Just a 10 minute drive from Beaune, the "largest" city in the immediate area, you can easily access restaurants and wineries in the Cotes de Beaune and the Cotes de Nuits. But staying at Villa Louise, you are in a tiny town with 2 quiet little streets, several shockingly lovely houses, vineyards everywhere, and the smell of wood buring in fireplaces wafting all around. Below: view of the Villa Louise garden and Corton vineyards from the backdoor of our room

BrooklynLady didn't even open her bags - the moment we we in our room she hit the bed to relax a bit. I was chomping at the bit though, and would have tasted through a vertical of Prestone antifreeze if that were all that was available. I made a beeline for the cave and tasted the wines. Veronique Perrin runs the Hotel Villa-Louise and she is the winemaker for the Louise Perrin portfolio. She is quite charming and clearly loves her work - she describes the wines with feeling. Her first year making the wines was 1986.

Aloxe-Corton is famous for the whie Grand Cru wines of Corton Charlemagne and the red Grand Crus of Corton. Parker says that Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru and Village wines usually offer good values because they are overlooked by consumers who clamor for the Grand Crus. The village sits in the hills just west off Route 74, the main road to use when driving around Burgundy. Pernand Vergelesses, Corey-Les-Beaunes, and Ladoix are right nearby, and many vignerons who make Aloxe-Corton wines also make wines from the nearby villages. Right: the narrow road leading through the houses of Aloxe-Corton.

I experienced the reds of Aloxe-Corton to be very powerful and structured wines, masculine in character, very tannic with lots of dark fruit. I read that with age, the better wines become silky and seductive. I tasted one 1991 Corton Grand Cru and it was all tobacco, still tannic, no finesse. Just not my style maybe.

Tasting notes follow (but are more brief than normal because I tasted through many wines somewhat quickly). Prices are conversions to dollars, but are clearly lower than if the wines were purchased outside of France.

Whites:

2004 Bourgogne, $9. Bright and pleasant flavors, well balanced. Good value.

2004 Pernand Vergelesses, $17. Richer, with a thicker mouthfeel. Smells of vanilla and maybe some banana.

Reds:

2005 Aloxe-Corton, $25. Green. Young and primary, but with nice smells of cherries. Palate isn't revealing much yet.

2004 Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Vercots, $27. More complex and drinkable, but still reserved. Some earth on the palate.

2004 Corton Grand Cru Les Bressandes, $40. Opened for my tasting, and way too young to drink. Deep ruby colored, tightly wound smells and flavors, dark fruits, spicey and tannic. Some minerals on the finish. I couldn't really tell what was going on with this wine - too soon. Seems promising though.

1986 Cote de Beaune Village, $28. This wine was sitting on the counter already open, but I had to ask for a taste - I guess they figure people are not interested in wines of this "lower class," made from grapes from all over the place. Yet this wine was EXCELLENT. Rusty colored with smells of cooked fruit. Flavors of stewed cherries and caramel, with a light but mouth-filling texture. Veronique said this wine should not be held any longer, "it is your holiday wine," she said. She recommended pairing with strong cheeses.

This exerience hammered home the idea that wine can be beautiful if it is well made and aged properly, regardless of its classification. Sure, maybe that Grand Cru Les Bressandes, it aged properly for 20 years, would eclipse the 1986 cotes de Beaune Village, but for me the point was simply that for immediate drinking, the "lowest level" wine was by far the best. Right: view of Villa Louise and Chateau de Corton-Andre from the vineyards.

More to come...

Back from Burgundy

What a trip! We had an amazing time - saw beautiful country, shared the kinds of experiences that happen only while on vacation and that help to nourish a relationship, learned a great deal about the wines of Burgundy, pounded the pavement in Paris for four days, and more. I am simply too tired to write much more now (no thanks to Air France - more on that debacle some other time), but I cannot resist posting a few pictures now. And I wanted to stop this string of days without a post... This is the house next to our little hotel in Aloxe Corton.

We stayed at the hotel Villa Louise (picture below with orange leaves) in Aloxe-Corton, a small town just north of Beaune. And I mean small. There are no restaurants, no Tabacs (the little shops where people buy cigarettes and cigars, sometimes coffee and sometimes newspapers and magazines), no stores period in Aloxe-Corton. But a lot of wine is made from grapes classified as belonging to this tiny town. In fact, the only Grand Cru red wines that come from the southern part of Burgundy, the Cotes de Beaune, come from Aloxe-Corton.

That brings up something that I learned while tasting and learning about the wines that is really valuable to me: a humble Bourgogne or Haut-Cotes-de-Beaune wine made from grapes from all over Beaune, can offer the same degree of pleasure and satisfaction, the same ability to fascinate the taster with complex aromas and flavors, the same depth of experience as the most rare and expensive Grand Cru wine. To chase after Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines simply because they are so titled is to miss out on many great wines, and is sometimes to spend too much money on wines that are only okay, or that need to be aged for 10 years in order to exhibit the qualities that distinguish them as Grand or Premier Crus.

Whoah...I had to re-read that sentence three times to get it...and I knew what I meant before I wrote it! Time for bed. I am excited to share some experiences and tasting notes from our trip, and I will get right on that tomorrow.

Above: on the road from Aloxe-Corton to Pernand Vergelesses. Typical of the old brick walls that line many small roads, and that often surround vinyards of higher reputation. Vinyards surrounded by walls are called "Clos." Hard to tell because the resolution is not great in the background, but the entire hillside is covered with vines. The area in Burgundy that is not paved is essentially one huge grapevine.

Above: vinyards of Aloxe-Corton. We woke up to intense mist every morning in Burgundy. This typicaly burned off by noon. Right: rainbow off the road between Beaune and Aloxe-Corton.

My Birthday Present

Today I turned 35 years old. Kind of amazing to me, as I can so clearly remember, and still sometimes feel like the person who watched the older kids in the playground and thought "when will I ever be 12...I wish I was as old as those kids." I'm halfway to 70 now. But I'm having a baby in 3 months, I'm trying to start my own business, I quit smoking 3 years ago, and I feel great. So there.

We just returned from dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Al Di La, on Brooklyn's 5th Avenue. BrooklynLady is in the shower so I will steal this moment on the computer. I had 2 wine presents today. My 2004 Adelsheim single vinyard wines and 2005 Elizabeth's reserve wines arrived in the mail.

Adelsheim and St Innocent are the two Oregon producers whose wines I will buy no matter the weather conditions of the vintage, no matter how paltry my wine budget might be in that year. I just love their wines - so skillfully made, so delicious with food and on their own. I was pretty excited to see the big bog come in the mail, and to find 2 bottles each of Calkins Lane and Bryan Creek Pinot Noir, and also 3 bottles of 2005 Elizabeth's Reserve. Now that's a birthday present! Although I should wait a couple of years, there is no way I will have that kind of patience, so expect tasting notes on one of the 04 single vinyard wines soon.

Tonight we opened a bottle of NV Duval-Leroy Champagne Brut to help celebrate my b-day. I am somewhat suspicious of huge Champagne houses, sort of the way I am suspicious of restaurants like Chili's or the Olive Garden. They might have some good dishes, and can offer a pleasant evening, but they don't seem to be trying to achieve any individual character. Instead they please the masses. And there is value to that. But for minimum 30 bucks a bottle, as NV Brut Champagne, seems to be, I want to find something special.

I don't have enough experience to know how it stacks up in the NV Brut pantheon, but this is some very tasty and interesting juice. Mike and Jess gave it to me for my birthday, so thanks to them. It has a pretty line of large bubbles springing up from the bottom of the glass, and a nice yeasty and lemony smell. There are toasted bread, chalk, and some citrus fruit tastes, and some acidity that I feel on the sides of the tongue and in the cheeks. After I swallow the wine I can taste the chalk very clearly. All in all, a super enjoyable treat on my birthday - some bubbles always make the evening special.

Wife is out of shower and packing now - we leave for France tomorrow night. We have been hooked up with someone in Burgundy who will take us to a few Domaines to taste wine and show us around a bit. I will most likely not make any posts until we return on November 27th.

But then I will be back with a vengeance! Tasting stories and notes galore, restaurants...Burgundy and Paris! Fughedabadit - I hope I can keep notes on everything wine related that we experience.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, and see you in about a week.

Some Thanksgiving Wines

I wasn't going to get on the "Thanksgiving Wines" bandwagon, but it seems to be some sort of initiation rite for wine bloggers. Who am I to buck the trend? I try to stay hip and to be relevant, but what are you gonna do? So I might as well try to be helpful. Here are a few things that I keep in mind regarding Thanksgiving wine planning:

A) For many of us, Thanksgiving can be an emotionally loaded time. People may not have seen each other in a while, and they may have had plenty of time stuck in traffic or at the airport to get nervous. Keep the alcohol level in your wines as low as possible. Don't throw extra wood on the fire.

B) You know more about wine than anyone else in your family. Stick to wines with flavors and smells that are easy to access and identify. Don't challenge grandma's senses.

C) This is a celebration - its supposed to be fun. Don't spend too much money, because its no fun to watch your uncle fill his glass to the rim with pricey premier cru Burgundy and then spill half on the table.

Some specific suggestions for wines that meet the above criteria and that are also readily available at most large wine stores:

Sparkling Wine - sure, help folks loosen up a bit over an aperitif. Let's open a fun bubbly with bright and fresh flavors, and in this case, with a lovely raspberry color. And at only 7.5% alcohol...fill that flute up to the rim! NV Renardat-Fache Vin de Bugey-Cerdon Methode Ancestrale, $16 is a bubbly winner. This might be a tiny bit tougher to find than the other wines in this post, but you can do it. Get any Bugey rose bubbly if you can't find this one. The wine is made from the Poulsard grape, one of the classic varietals used in the wines of Jura and Bugey. I know - it sounds like I'm breaking rule B because no one will have heard of these places, but the wine is beautiful to look at, full of fresh berry flavors, and it won't get them drunk before dinner.

Whites - You can be confident that the 2005 Clos Roche Blanc Touraine Sauvignon, $12 will be a tasty and fruity Loire Sauvignon Blanc. The price is right, any good wine shop will have it in stock, and it should go well with whatever is on the Thanksgiving table. It comes in at about 12% alcohol though, and you might want to keep it lower if possible. I would bring any white from Kurt Darting's portfolio. Darting is a newfangled producer of German wine, mostly Riesling. You will see his wines for as little as $15, and they weigh in at about 8% alcohol. If your wine shop has it, I recommend the Kabinett Gewurztraminer from either 2004 or 2005. Piercing flavors of lychee and peaches, with nice acidity and a floral freshness. These are definitely off dry wines, but they go well with food.

Reds - Bernard Baudry's wines are a good match with Thanksgiving dinner. You can be proud to open the 2004 or 2005 Chinon Les Granges, $14, or the 2003 Chinon Domaine, $16. I have written about Baudry before. The fruit forward style of these wines combined with the reasonable 12% alcohol level make them a good choice.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends, whatever wine you drink.

November Wine Dinner

Jess and Mike hosted Wine Dinner last night in their lovely South Slope townhouse. It was somewhat of a last minute affair, as new babies and other commitments prevented much advance planning. But the food was spectacular - Jess really knocked it out of the park. Here is the menu:

Starters:

Cured meat plate with sweet Sopressata and Imported Prociutto

Sweet Potato Crostini

Fresh Ricotta Cheese Crostini

Main:

Beef Goulash with home made spaetzle and braised escarole

Dessert:

Caramelized Apple Custard Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream

The prociutto and the sweet potato crostini were the highlights of the starters for me. The prociutto was rose colored and smelled quite funky, like the boys locker room after the big game. The flavor, though, was beautiful - sweet and salty and lightly musky. The sweet potato for the crostini had a little cottage cheese mixed in, and some chives - an interesting combination, and it was a nice counterpoint to the prociutto. Deetrane, by the way, baked the bread for the evening using some tips from the recent NY Times piece on bread. And the bread was wonderfully textured, fluffy on the inside with a crisp dark brown crust.

I was given the task of bringing wine to pair with the starters, and I chose a dry Vouvray made by Domaine Huet. I have mentioned Huet Vouvray before and I love their wines, all made from the chenin blanc grape. A little context this time - Domaine Huet is one of the most well respected producers in the Loire Valley, and probably is the biggest name in Vouvray. Victor Huet, the founder, and then his son Gaston Huet, now his son-in-law Noel Pinguet makes wines from 3 vineyards: Le Mont (Huet's lighter wines), Le Haut-Lieu, and Clos du Bourg (the vineyard whose grapes Huet uses to craft his biggest wines). In better vintages Huet produces sweet wines, labeled "moelleux," from those vineyards, and also an intensely expensive (about $130 for 500ml) dessert wine called Cuvee Constance. Curiously, there is no mention of Cuvee Constance on the Huet website right now. I imagine, but am not at all sure, that this wine represents the finest grapes taken from the premier trie, or first pass, in each vineyard.

The Wine Doctor posted a bunch of tasting notes and plenty of interesting information about Domaine Huet as part of his Loire Profiles series. If you have any interest at all in Loire wines, this series is worth checking out.

2005 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu, $26. This wine is still very young, and the aromas and flavors display this quite clearly. There are clean smells of fresh stone fruits and pure but reserved flavors of pear and quince, with that mineral rainwater finish that defines quality dry Vouvrays for me. The wine paired well with the starters, but was not really ready for drinking. There is something hidden under the surface, and I imagine that checking back in on this wine in 10 years will reveal much more beauty and complexity.

Deetrane busted out a 1981 Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Leognan to pair with the goulash. I know almost nothing about Bordeaux, but I do know that 1981 is one of those vintages that did not get great press attention, and therefore the wines can be somewhat reasonably priced. Again, The Wine Doctor has an informative profile and tasting notes on Chevalier. Mike, a Bordeaux lover who has tasted many wines at all maturity levels, said "this is everything you want in a mature Bordeaux." I was surprised to hear that, as I found some leather, like the fuzzy back of a belt, in the nose, but that's about it - no tobacco, cedar, cassis, or herbs - what I understand to be typical mature Bordeaux smells. And the palate was straightforward black fruits, and pretty flabby at that. No backbone of acidity or tannins to structure the wine. It was pleasant and fun to taste such an old wine, but ultimately not very satisfying.

The goulash was tremendous though, and the wine paired well. Without a doubt the best goulash I have ever tasted, and inspiring as a piece of home cooking. Perfectly textured, rich and light at the same time, beautifully colored and aromatic with ground caraway and caramelized onions. And the home made spaetzle...a tough act to follow for future wine dinners, I tell you.

Mike cracked open a 2002 Barton & Guestier Sauternes to serve with dessert. A large negociant house, apparently, I poked around on their website but have not been able to learn much about the wine. Light honey colored, the wine smelled of caramel and pineapples. Surprisingly light bodied and thin in texture, this wine was not at all sticky. Lovely and simple, there were flavors of sweet citrus fruit with some burnt sugar. It paired very well with the truly fabulous caramelized apple custard tart that Jess made. She served some leftover caramelized apples too, that were snatched up faster than 2005 Bordeaux futures.

All in all, a wonderful wine dinner, with good, but not great wine. But a GREAT time - little kids scooting around before bedtime, a warm kitchen and pots of yummy smelling food, good friends, my 6 months pregnant wife enjoying tiny sips of tiny glasses of wine...what more could you ask for on a Sunday night?

A "Masculine" Pinot

Some wine makers and wine writers describe Pinot Noir as "masculine" sometimes. I don't know how to interpret this, or how to recognize it when I taste it. Does that simply mean its a big wine? If so, then most Pinots that are indelicate are "masculine," and not my style, for that matter. But both Oregon and Burgundy wines that are called "masculine" can be lovingly reviewed - there must be something good doing on here.

I probably I have a bias toward delicacy and elegance in Pinot Noir, towards red fruit and earthy grace, perfume and light texture. I had a wine over the past two days though, that makes me understand the "masculine" descriptor. I have tasted many St Innocent wines, but never the Anden Vineyard bottling, which I read is a "masculine" wine. I was surprised by how much I thoroughly enjoyed this wine, and by how well it went with food (simple turkey burgers, broccoli rabe, roast russets with romano cheese).

Folks, if you like Pinot Noir and you have not yet tasted the wines of St Innocent, do yourself a favor. You can read about Mark Vlossak the winemaker on the site, but I will add that he was the winemaker at Panther Creek through the 1999 vintage, another Willamette Valley winery with a solid reputation. And that he has somewhat of an ornery reputation as a producer who doesn't jump through hoops to please the press (or the public). Kind of a legend in the Willamette Valley.

The thing that I respect the most about St Innocent though, is that even though his wines are as delicious, as well reviewed, and as rare as any Oregon producer, Mark Vlossak refuses to jack up his prices. He sells one of his single vineyard wines, Temperance Hill, for about $25, and White Rose, the most expensive one comes in at about $45. Mark says that his benchmark wine is from the Seven Springs vineyard. Anden vineyard used to be part of Seven Springs - it was the part at the lower elevation. This is probably why the wine can be darker and richer than other St Innocent Pinots - the grapes at lower elevation receive more heat.

The 2003 St Innocent Anden Vineyard Pinot Noir, $28, is a masculine wine. Unlike any other St Innocent wine I've tasted, this wine is dark purple and smells of black fruits, herbs, and musky earth. On the first day it tasted primarily of black fruit with some brambly and foresty tones. But on the second day with proper air time, the wine achieved a perfectly balanced state. There are tar and spice smells to round out the blackberry, sappy sweet cherries and brawny pine on the palate. This is the first time I have had a dark and powerful Pinot Noir and loved it.

The label says that the 382 cases of this wine complement rich foods such as prime rib or cassoulet. Makes sense. I thought of rainy nights, comfortable sweaters, and bowls of hot beef stew - things not known for their delicacy. This was an eye opener for me. And it probably would have improved for years with cellaring. 2003 was a hot year and I assumed that like many other wines from 03, this one would have low acid and high alcohol, and not be ageworthy. I was simply wrong. I am finding that the best producers craft good wines during tough vintages - that's one of the things that makes them great producers. So I guess I will hold onto my 3 bottles of St Innocent Shea Vineyard for a while...