Sanjay experiences the magic of Burgundy
Sanjay flew in on Friday and we headed directly to Bourgogne for the weekend. We missed our first train due to an annoyance of tourist buses (a collective noun I’ve coined while here in Paris) so we headed straight to Le Train Bleu. We sat in the bar and I had the sommelier bring in the list of Burgundies. We settled on a Bouchard Père et fils Volnay Les Caillerets – Ancienne cuvée carnot 2001. A great way to pass the time, the wine was velvety, pure, ripe and delicious. A great success for Bouchard.
Arriving late to Dijon, we missed our appointments at Fourrier (their labeling machine had just broken and had to be driven to Meursault, plus they had to go visit clients the whole weekend); and at Remoissenet, who didn’t answer the phone, so I could not reschedule. C’est la vie.
Instead, I drove down the Côte to Beaune, pointing out the attractions on the way: Marsannay close by Dijon, pretty Fixin, the Château at Brouchon, the beautiful town of Gevrey-Chambertin, the tiny village of Morey-Saint-Denis, the romantic town of Chambolle-Musigny, the Clos of Vougeot, the many mansions of Vosne-Romanée, the drabness of Nuits-St-Georges, the unknown other towns of the Côte de Nuits whose names seem made for international marketing: Premeaux-Prissey, Comblanchien, Congoloin… Finally the hill of Corton, the plains of Savigny and into Beaune.
Gen shopped for our evening casse croute at the great beaune epicerie Alain Heiss while Sanjay and I raided the cellar of a friend, Philippe Renaud, owner of Mon Millésime.
We then tore up the A6 back to Morey to eat and drink with my friend and vigneron David Clark – http://www.domainedavidclark.com.
We started with a Champagne Roualet Crochet 1964, which I served blind. This was disgorged in 2007. The colour was quite youthful, Gen putting it in the 90s, Sanjay in the 80s and David in either the 80s or 70s. The nose reminded me a lot of Vouvray sparkling wines, with lost of burnt citrus and a little sulfur-like smoke. The palate had very a very fine mousse and quite a dosage, almost off-dry. Not a great Champagne but lively, interesting and unique.
I presented two more wines. The first was a J.F. Mugnier Clos de la Maréchal Nuits-Saint-Georges 2005. I was amazed by this when I visited Mugnier a few weeks ago and Frédéric Mugnier opened a bottle for us. I was worried that my impression was colour by the venue and company but not so. This is a wine of amazing purity and finesse. The fruit is rich and crunchy with the chalk and cherries I’ve come to notice on so many 2005s. The acid is beautiful, delicious. It reminds me of fresh raspberries, the first and best ones of the season. This wine is so peculiar because it’s a huge monopole (and probably the largest premier cru vineyard on the côte); it’s a long way from Chambolle, in fact it’s a long way south of Nuits, and it’s remarkably like Chambolle. In fact, it’s better than many premier cru wines in Chambolle and Nuits. This is a real insight into terroir and the wine maker in Bourgogne.
To compare, we also had a Potel Chambolle-Musigny Hauts Doix 2005. This was a totally different wine, uncharacteristic for 2005, more savory. It seems like the difference is due to wine making and not anything in the vineyard. It was still a good wine, well structured and made for the long haul but it suffered by comparison to the Mugnier.
The next day we headed off for an appointment at Harmand-Geoffroy. The reception was a little cool, which is strange in Burgundy, especially as I’d discussed our visiting and tasting the 2006s. We spent 10 minutes in the office arguing about whether or not we would taste. The owner even suggested we pay for the wines before tasting them, and he’d open them for us. Finally, we headed into the cave and tasted some 2005s. After the tasting, the owner asked if I’d be interested in importing his wine into Australia. I was baffled by this, surely the least sophisticated sales pitch in modern history. My notes are coloured by this back and forth so I wont put them up here. I bought two older wines for next to nothing and I’ll report on them when I forget the details of our visit.
We toured Gevrey — surely the prettiest town on the Côte — and explored Clos St Jacques, Lavaux Saint Jacques, Clos de Bèze, Le Chambertin and everything in between. Standing in the vines, looking a t the soil, the vigor of the vines, the pretty town off in the distance, you get a feeling for what Burgundy is all about. There’s a lot to appreciate.
We slowly headed down the côte, stopping where whim took us to inspect great vineyards: Clos de la Roche, Clos St Denis, Bonnes Mares, Les Fuées. We arrived at the village of Chambolle-Musigny and tried to see which of the two restaurants might serve us a humble plat chaud. We decided on Le Chambolle. The food here was traditional Burgundian cuisine: escargots, Boeuf Bourgiugnon, lapin à la moutarde, etc. Frankly, it was fantastic. A four course lunch came to only 26€.
The wine we drank was not so humble: a J.F. Mugnier Bonnes-Mares 2000. This bottle expressed the essence of Burgundy and particularly Chambolle-Musigny, it’s simple purity burst forth from the glass in a display of true magnificence which left me in awe of the beauty the world has to offer and the greatness which man can achieve. Drinking it, I was filled with the kind of excited pain which comes with young love.
We slowly, quietly left the restaurant, full of joy, and headed to David’s vines at Flagey, not twenty meters from Clos de Vougeot. David rents the vines from Domaine Georges Roumier and Christophe Roumier opened a Bonnes-Mares of the same year for him at the signing of the contract. We discussed both wines and marveled at the beauty that these two producers manage to convey.
We headed back to David’s cave to taste the 2006s and 2007s. His 2006s are really looking great now, I know just two producers making Bourgogne AC level wines with so much care and attention, but note one other who makes them with such love. David decided against extracting colour and tannin in 2006 and I like the result, the wines are a pretty colour, the actual colour Burgundy. They have fine natural grape tannins, beautiful purity. In fact, their purity reminds me of the wine of the Mosel, one things ‘pure’ but doesn’t think ‘simple’.
The 2007s have transformed in a few weeks. One batch being made without sulfur addition is quite volatile (though significantly less volatile than immediately after barreling), the other wines are much more stable and show good colour, firm tannins and flavors more in the while fruit spectrum than the red fruit spectrum. Naturally, the wine is not yet finished and these kinds of peculiar aromas are natural at this stage.
We dried many other wines all over the place but paid most attention to a Sylvie Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes 2005. Sylvie obviously knows that this wine is fantastic as it is double the price of her standard Gevrey village. Frankly, it’s one of the best village wines I’ve ever drunk. The fruit is beautiful and pure, crunchy blackberries and black currants. The palate structure is what Burgundian wine makers dream of: beautiful fresh acidity and ultra fine delicious tannins. Truly a first rate wine.
We tried latter on two cult village wines, priced more above many grand s crus. First, a Claude Dugat Gevrey-Chambertin 2005. This was very big, with spicy, earthy aromas, straw, anis, coffee. Very different to most 2005s I’ve tried but obviously showing the effects of the 60% new oak the wine sees (in fact, there was no overt aroma of wood and I can only assume that he gives his barrels a good wash before putting wine into them so as to not transmit so many obviously charred oak aromas). The palate was surprisingly dry — and drying — and was, frankly, hard going at this stage of its life. The palate showed the level of extraction that goes on at Dugat, not by it’s fruit density but many due to bitter tannins. These will no doubt all resolve but this wine shouldn’t be touched for 4-6 years, I’d think. It will probably go forever! I tried it again after 12 hours decanting and the tannins were slightly more approachable but it still showed almost no fruit.
Looking for punishment, we also tried a Denis Mortet “Mes Cinq Terroirs” 2005. Mortet, like Dugat and Dugat-Py, is legendary for making big, powerful wines of considerably extraction and ripeness. His wines are hard to find so when we saw one, we snapped it up. This wine was showing more fruit than the Dugat, but very much past black fruit into ink and earth. It was very ripe for Burgundy – not overripe – but has soaked up a lot of oak and really wasn’t showing. Structurally, there’s a lot of tannin and not as much acidity as I’d have expected.
I wonder how these wines will travel. No doubt they’ll be well received by their collectors in years to come, as they get opened.
We headed out early Sunday morning to just tour the vineyards and prepare for lunch. When we awoke, Morey was looking fantastic:
Morey-Saint-Denis from the top of Clos des Lambrays.
We roamed around Vosne-Romanée, Sanjay posing where possible in front of interesting paneaux.
Sanjay at Romanée-Conti
We went for lunch at Le Charlemagne in Pernand-Vergelesses, which faces directly onto the hill of Corton:
The restaurant is a one star affair trying to make a name for itself and I’ve wanted to try it out. The food is said to be French Japanese fusion.
It is fitting that the chef, who has been highly influenced by Japan, puts so much effort into simple, interesting and practical presentation:
Bread stick
Curried lentils with raw pork dumpling and wafer
Bar dumplings, Japanese style, with soy tapenade
Lapin with langoustine tartare and mango chutney
Raïe with waffle, creme and pop corn (!)
Dorade and ox tail lasagna in Japanese tea (!)
With these dishes we drank a Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 1991. This was initially reticent on the nose but classically Bonneau on the palate: minerally, refreshingly acidic, velvet-like in texture, elegant flavors of preserved lemon, honey, a touch of sherbet. After an hour, the nose built and showed the classic class of Charlemagne. A beautiful wine to drink now.
For the next course, we had duckling cooked gently at 45 degrees.
Duckling
Served with it was another superb wine from Chambolle-Musigny, a G. Roumier Bonnes-Mares 2000. This was the complete opposite of the Mugnier wine. This was full of rich red and black berry fruits, exploding out of the glass. I was audibly moaning as I smelt this wine. The palate was, again, a complete contrast to the Mugnier, dense, rich, more tannic but still perfect. The amazing thing about the two wines is that, though were were complete opposites, they were equally magnificent.
The beautiful understated label of the Roumier.
The Mugnier was an emotional wine, beguiling; the hand of the wine maker was invisible. The Roumier was fun, rich, burst with beauty; it was a wine that had been made great, transformed into what it was. Drinking each of them, or either of them, you are reminded of how enjoyable life is.
To finish the wine, the cheese cart was present and dessert followed after. They were playful, very Japanese.
Big bonbon.
Chocolate pyramid with coconut filling
Pommes Yuzu
The food was very different, very challenging by French standards. The chef is obviously trying to break new ground in French food, which is hard in Bourgogne where traditional food is so popular and so delicious. Some of the exotic food combinations were more successful than others. The imagination that went into their creation was perhaps more impressive than the flavour of the dish. Nonetheless, this kind of enthusiasm and love of experimentation often transforms into an exciting, confident cuisine after time.
Sanjay, Gen and myself (looking silly, not least because I’m wearing a pink shirt)
Leaving the restaurant, we speed up the RN 74, back to Dijon and on to Paris.
