Wine central: Dijon and the Cotes

We had been very pleased we did all our homework and checked that we had a train to catch at 11.16 hrs, just an hour earlier than our first cancelled SNCF one. However what was supposed to be easy peasy fell to bits when the designated train wasn’t on the board when we got to the station. SNCF had given us the wrong information. There was a train at 10.04 hrs and then another at 15.16 hrs. So we had five hours waiting at the station. The nice SNCF lady issued us tickets for first class, we’d booked second, so some small compensation for their cockup. The joys of travels and train strikes. We did say to a  French fellow traveller “C’est la vie” and she said, “Non, c’est la France!”

The train to Dijon was quiet and comfortable, we had our own compartment for most of the way, and it was interesting to see the crops, vineyards and the fast flowing Saone. We arrived at Gare Dijon Ville in a little bit of drizzly rain, and after a couple of false starts got to the hotel, about 400m away.

Our amble that evening took us past the closed marketplace building, opens again on Thursday. But we sorted an eating place and a supermarche for some home supplies.

Regionale menu again. I went with the snails to start followed by boeuf bourguignon, Ann had the pate de foie de gras and the pave de boeuf which had run round a few paddocks and hadn’t rested up enough. I won that round I think.

We had planned to spend the next day doing things in old Dijon. So we passed on the 18 Euro pp breakfast at the hotel and had a croissant and coffee on the way to the Tourist Information Centre.

We got the Dijon/ Cotes de Nuit pass which gives access to lots of museums, vineyards, and by the end of it we reckoned was exceptional value. The first part was a guided trip up the tower built by one of the four Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Good, as an entrance to the palace.

The temperature was pretty crisp standing at the top of the tower but the view across the area was well worth the 326 step climb. Dijon at one stage had 100 churches, built mainly to advertise the wealth of the local community. Napoleon sorted that, and the Revolution got rid of a few more and I guess the separation of Church and state in 1912 was the coup de grace. While the old churches are still there they are state-owned now and many function as theatres and museums. The statue of the Sun King designed for a spot in the Place de la Liberation, also didn’t survive the Revolution and was melted down by the revolutionaries in 1792 to make cannons.

There is an extensive self-guided walk around the whole city which we did most parts of. It's called the Owl Walk, with little triangular brass plates attached to the footpath to guide you around. The owl has a special place in Dijon and there is an owl on the side of Notre Dame Cathedral which a person should rub with their left hand and wish. It is well-rubbed, that's for sure.

The self- guided walk works very well with the accompanying descriptive book.  The architecture is fascinating, with half-timbered houses and watchtowers.

This was a very influential part of France and the king was happy to see the back of the dukes. When Charles the Bold died in 1477 leaving no male heir, the French king stepped in and that was the end of the Dukes of Burgundy.

We saved the vineyard and the other out in the country interests to Thursday. We picked up a rental from Avis again and headed south towards Beaune. A little surprised to find we were driving a Jeep, but we had asked for a large car to cope with 4 of us and some luggage when Choco and Vikki arrive on Friday evening. TomTom got relegated for the day, as the car has GPS built in, she speaks French and I couldn’t find a setting to change it so we had plenty of 'tournez a gauche' or 'tournez a droit'. The other comments were a bit beyond me, but she didn’t seem abusive at all and coped with our deviations down side roads to get “the tree on the left” for the tour photographer.

No motorways on this trip, just down the country roads, some on the Route des Grands Crus. Today we focussed on the Cote de Nuit, the Champs Elysees of burgundy with all of the top rated wines, through all the villages. The vineyards are planted in Pinot Noir and 95% of all the production is red, the whites are Chardonnay but they are incidental to the main event in this area. As you can see, the vines are in early bud and a frost the previous day has done some significant damage to the crop, and even more in the Loire where there is an estimated 90% loss.

Startlingly too, quite significant plantings of what we thought from the train was canola, but soon realised was mustard (we are in Dijon!). The colour is iridescent yellow, and the plants are almost as tall as Ann.

First stop was at Chateau du Clos de Vougeot. In about 1110 the Cistercian Monks established a domain in the area, so it is the oldest domain in the area. It is now divided between 85 owners and is 50 hectares of grapes, protected by a surrounding wall, or clos. The chateau was the monks' winemaking base. No tastings or in fact any vines are attached to the chateau now; its two claims to fame are as the base for grand gala dinners of the Confrere des Chevaliers du Tastevin, set up to promote Burgundy wine, and secondly for the four enormous lever wine presses, built in 1477. Four men were needed to operate the screw that pressed four tons of grapes! Nothing done by halves, these monks.

Part of our pass was a trip to the Cassissium in Nuits St Georges. The blackcurrant is grown and bottled here, and is another local claim to fame. They grow just 7500 tonnes of these berries, much smaller than Poland and Ukraine at 90 000 tonnes and 24 000 tonnes respectively. The museum and factory tour were very good and the staff all extremely helpful. The tasting was very generous with both their supercassis, high in berry and alcohol, (and of course as coming from a superfruit very good for the health) and the Kir which followed, and then “would you like to try” the liqueur Marcassin. As the sober driver I had to walk away. Ann stayed on for the Birlou, an apple and hazelnut liqueur, which you have with beer. Surprisingly good, she reported.

Into the village then to find some lunch, but at 12.30 pm, this is France and nothing except the supermarche was open. What's wrong with hotdogs for lunch anyway?

The afternoon entertainment was the Imaginarium. This has a history of wine, quite detailed and well done.  A huge collection of wine cultivating tools, for example. After that was a similar display taking you through cremant manufacture, ie bubbly wines made by methode champenoise. A short sampling and some stocking up for le bateau next week.

On then to Chateau Marsannay for more tasting and cellars.  More purchases for le bateau and a bit more knowledge gleaned on the DOC system and its labelling requirements. Four different levels, each with higher limitations on the area the grape can come from.

Day two of our exploration of the surrounding area took us first to the Gaugry Fromagerie, the last stop on our Dijon pass. It started with a tour of the factory through a viewing gallery and three short video presentations on the process.  Lots of manual processes once the milk has been through the initial renneting etc stages. When it gets into the 200-250 gram hoops (for soft cheese) the process becomes very manual. The cheese takes 16hrs to coagulate, then has three days in the moulds then three days drying, then it’s washed by hand 5-7 times at two day intervals in a brine and red bacterial solution.

For some cheeses they add a bit of alcohol in the form of Marc de Bourgogne. Followed by ripenning  for several weeks at 11 degrees C. Amazing thing is, this factory takes in just 15 000 litre per day (less than half a Fonterra tanker load) to make about 1 000 000 cheeses per year. There is no separation of the milk, and winter milk does provide a few manufacturing challenges. They use milk from three local breeds of cows. We bought a 200 gram cheese for a picnic lunch on our travels, as it is quite aromatic we had it vacuum packed so that the car didn’t smell like an old cheese factory, and  la prix, a princely 3.9 Euro!!

Then it was a tasting, 5 cheeses arranged in increasing strength with a glass of wine and bread to accompany it. Very civilised. The unpasteurised cheese takes a little bit of accepting, but, when in Rome.

Then we drove south to the Cote de Beaune. This area is more famous for its white wines, made dominantly from the chardonnay grape, but for us the scenery was the priority. We climbed up into the Haut-Beaune region and had stunning views of the patchwork of vines below.

 There were some differences in this area. Much greater use of walls around each clos, all labelled. These are individual areas, most which go into Premiere Cru, or Grand Cru wines. There were a few areas of newly planted vines, but also lots of very old ones.

Our drive took us through lots of tiny villages obviously centred on the vine and wine business, with lots of little wineries offering vente and degustation. A stunning Burgundian castle, Chateau de la Rochepot, and a couple of barrel making businesses completed the drive.

Down into Beaune, unpacked, regrouped and met Wayne and Vikki off their train. Dinner was down the road at Restaurant Piqu’Boeuf, and the usual high standard of food, with a blazing fire as a highlight of the venue. That’s where all the cooking occurred as well. Mine host spent the evening BBQing veal and beef, and my veal entrecote main was delicious. Ann and I both had an escargot ravioli dish for entrée (delicious and light taste) and Ann the Noix de St Jacques for main, but I have to say although they are a good size and were beautifully cooked, European scallops simply do not measure up to what we can gather in New Zealand. The missing roe makes a big difference. We had the formule with three plat, so dessert as well. That was a mistake, memory note you can’t eat three plats.

For the last day with the car we went south to St Leger sur Dheune to check out the Locaboat headquarters and the local supermarche potential. Organising a week’s shopping and getting it to le bateau is something that we always need to plan the logistics of.

 Then we wandered our way back up the Cote d’Or, visiting some different villages, including appellations of the most expensive Chardonnays, and Vosne-Romanee, home of the most expensive grand cru red wines in the world. On very narrow little roads in our big Jeep for much of the time. We had a couple of degustations with some premier cru reds and a white, admired the typically Burgundian tiled roof of Aloxe-Corton, and had a pretty cold picnic lunch watched by some horses in the paddock opposite.

I provided the sober driver role for the day and enjoyed electrolytes for breakfast and lunch after something I ate said that’s enough and gave me a few issues overnight. 

We were near a railway line and a couple of trains went by. The second was solely devoted to transporting cars, two levels high, carriage after carriage. There were over 250 cars, and I saw a few others of similar size later in the day when I was waiting for my return train from Dijon. Quite a bit of rain, so we were glad we had the car to explore, certainly not the day to cycle through the vineyards!

I set off at about 3.30 to get the car back to Avis at Dijon Gare. They closed at five, so I thought I had plenty of time, but by the time you spend lots of time going through small 50km/hr villages, coping with the vagaries of refuelling unfamiliar cars at unfamiliar servos when none of your credit cards work, and having to manage the GPS telling me to drive down the tram tracks to la gare it became very tight. The 40 odd km journey took me to an hour and 15 minutes. Returned the car OK, settled account and caught my 8 Euro train which got me back to Beaune in just 15 minutes!! Fantastic system.

Our planned meal at Chambolle didn’t eventuate. Fortunately Choco decided to check the reservation made months ago from Melbourne, and we weren’t in the book. Lucky he checked, it’s a 30km taxi ride away. The fare at Café Belena was pretty good anyway and the Souris d'Agneau, (lamb shank on a bed of mashed potato) was a good reintroduction to food for moi. Ann’s chicken was also very tasty and tender.

May Day dawned cold and grey with the odd misty shower and today was our walking day around the old city of Beaune. After a leisurely and light breakfast we headed across the road to the ramparts around the old town to start our walk. Views across what was the old moat and back into the old town were great even with the very cool breeze.

The moat has in some areas become part of the town’s infrastructure and the outdoor green theatre looked pretty cool but in need of a wealthy benefactor to do a bit of restoration. The new town in parts has used the old rampart walls for the back wall of the house as well. This is an often used building technique and has in a lot of places destroyed the ancient buildings. Some very tall plane trees grow on the rampart walkways, many pollarded but at far greater heights than you would see in NZ.

We completed the circuit and were quite happy to move to some inside viewing to escape the cold. So into Hotel-Dieu, but more Des Hospices Civils De Beaune. This is a hospital built by Nicholas Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins in 1443. He was chancellor to the last Earl of Burgundy, and the hospital was built to provide care for the poor of Beaune. They built this as a good work to stand them in good stead on the Day of Judgement. So it was a very self-interested construction, but quite fantastic that 550 years later the good work is still going on. Parts of this were still operating in 1984, as a hospital for old people, and it was in use all through the 20^th century. So let’s hope Nicholas and Guigone are sitting up there in heaven.

They achieved lots. The sick were nursed by an order of sisters (women of good character). The place was controlled by appointments made only by Rolin family members. Louis XIV, liked these people, their good works and the hospital, and he gave them an acre of vineyard to support their work. Bequests and acquisitions increased to 60 hectares over time, and the holding is still there today. The wine they sell supports the operations of the charitable body. He trained the sisters to be apothecaries, and had secular people running everything including the religious. So something quite inspiring remains from their wish in 1443 to save their souls. Fascinating displays including an anaesthetic mask that looked very sci-fi.

A bit more browsing in the best wine focussed store I’ve ever seen, then into a restaurant for some warming soup for lunch. Then home for a bit of a regroup, these old towns aren’t that big so it’s not far home.

Choco had decided that we’d visit Bouchard Aine et Fils for a degustation this afternoon, but we had to visit a brocante on the way. For the uninitiated a brocante is a junk shop which is where you go if you are a collector of decanters and such paraphernalia. As it was May Day the brocante was ferme, we then called into the local moutarderie but the last tour had left.

 So we looked around, the girls sampled the moutarde, and we bought some cornichons. Why cornichons in a moutardarie? Because the mustard seeds are in the bouteille with the cornichons!! Choco then led off with conviction into the very cold wind to look for the degustation for Bouchard Aine et Fils. I was ready to give up and go home having decided we had almost circumnavigated the city on the ring road, when hey presto there we were.

So into the cellar and the degustation. Yes we can do a degustation, you can sample three wines. So we started. First Regionale, then Village, and then Premiere cru and by this time mine host had decided we were really interested in this stuff, so we moved on to the Grand Cru, followed by a crème de cassis, another local specialty already referred to. Our tasting host was excellent and looked after us very well. We’d recommend the place totally. We purchased for le bateau and headed home to regroup.

So a quiet pre-dinner ale and Kir, then off in a cab to la Chambole where Choco and Vikki had visited a couple of times previously. Food was very nice but when put in the context of cab fares of 140 Euro to get there and back it was pretty much an exercise in nostalgia.

 My pike from the river Saone was lovely and I think I was the winner on the night for main course.

Our cab driver provided a bit of entertainment for the back seat passengers who could see the speedo, but 130 km/hr on a small country road is not too dramatic. We’ve all done that before!!

So Choco and I had a cleansing ale before bed, and so endth our first trip to Beaune. The Premiere Cru red we had tonight, from Nuits-Saint George “Les Perrieres” had the most floral bouquet I’ve ever had in a red wine. Quite amazing. We’ll try and find more for le bateau tomorrow.