I've also been doing an annual pilgrimage to the Cote d'Or for many years, usually staying in a gite or a private home and doing plenty of home cooking (or assembly, as in platters of ready to eat charcuterie, cheese, fruits and vegetables).

Alain Hess in Beaune is hard to beat for selection and quality of cheese. The bakery on the main square in Meursault is fabulous and I always go out of the way to make a stop there for croissants, gougeres, ficelles and all the rest. As for meats and poultry, fruits and vegetables, flowers, olives, spices -- everything under the sun -- (already cooked or not), the Beaune market really is difficult to beat. Chagny is also excellent but that's a helluva long way to go.

Also, if you are at all friendly with a restauranteur or three in the area, just ask where they source various foods -- you may get a tip on an out of the way purveyor who has wonderful things you would never discover for yourself.

Markets are best, unless you know people who farm. Get as close to the source as possible. No question or two ways about it.

Nuits, Beaune and Chagny are the best markets here.

I drank a 2009 Joblot Servoisine last weekend. Great wine. Tastes like a Chambolle.

Nuits, Givry, Beaune, Brochon...
I think I have to cut back on the restaurant visits this year, though I would never stay in the cote without dining at Ma Cuisine!
Thank you all for sharing.

stuart beaunehead niemtzow said:
Though I never have stopped in Givry (I have in Rully and Mercurey), last night we had a very nice Joblot "Cellier aux Moines" 1991. I opened it, cleaned it of sediment and left it in an open decanter for about 7-8 hours and it was singing: beautiful blackish fruits,balanced and quite focused with a lovely perfume, some bacon and forest aromas, and a good, albeit a little short and hollow finish. Some burnt rubber hints are there, but not intrusive. All in all an excellent experience with zaatar-rubbed,grilled chicken thighs.

There is just too much to experience in the Motherland!!

Great to know that the Joblot is aging so wonderful. My oldest was a 1998 Cellier Aux Moines (which I had something like 5 years ago). Still, I prefer the Servoisine, which appears to me even more elegante, with very soft tannins and a beautiful nose full of plum and blackberry.

Though I never have stopped in Givry (I have in Rully and Mercurey), last night we had a very nice Joblot "Cellier aux Moines" 1991. I opened it, cleaned it of sediment and left it in an open decanter for about 7-8 hours and it was singing: beautiful blackish fruits,balanced and quite focused with a lovely perfume, some bacon and forest aromas, and a good, albeit a little short and hollow finish. Some burnt rubber hints are there, but not intrusive. All in all an excellent experience with zaatar-rubbed,grilled chicken thighs.

There is just too much to experience in the Motherland!!

Supporting Roelof, I'd recommend a trip to Givry as well. Domaine Joblot offers great wines, fantastic quality for real fair prices, one of the best bargains you can get in whole burgundy, at least in my opinion. Parker likes them as well, even if these are mainly very elegant wines. Domaine Lumpp is also very good.

And for those of you that dare dwindle even further south into the unknown (a.k.a. the Côte Chalonnaise), there is a very nice little market in Givry on Thursday mornings. Not big, rather small, but with the best in cheese and local organic produce. Maybe a good reason to make a little detour and visit some wineries in Givry and Mercurey. (yes, I do have an interest, being a Mercurey wine grower myself). Rumour also has it that even Rully has recently opened a weekly market, but I have not visited that one yet.

David, on almost every trip since 1988, we've rented a gite rurale so we can cook some meals, buy some charcuterie and actually enjoy the bottles of leftovers the winemakers offer after opening them for tasting with us.

For cheese, the best epoisses in the region (still made with raw milk and , therefore, not imported into the u.s.) is the Gaugry fromagerie. A few years ago they moved from a little shop in the villages of Brochon (just north of Gevrey) to a modern facilities and shop on the main road in Brochon. (They make the cheese there, as they did in the old place; I took a tour years ago there,dressed like a surgeon.) They make a bunch of different cheeses with their milk and, also sell others' cheeses from the region and the rest of France. I know of no better place for that, and they will cryovac for travel.

There is also a marche in Nuits St. Georges on Friday....and a huge, permanent marche in Dijon that is amazing. For charcuterie and meats and poultry, both cooked and raw, there are some good establishments in Nuits on the main shopping mall, Grande Rue. Good bakeries, too for bread and other things. They have much more regular hours and you can bump into the winemakers in them. The place we love I can't find on the internet, but..that street can't be beat for your purposes, though veggies are best left to the marches.

Good luck.

Rick Dalia said:
Agreed on the wine info in the book Claude. I don't think that is the strength. I did, however, find his restaurant and market recommendations reliable. In any case, it worked well for me for my short time there last fall.

Agreed on the wine info in the book Claude. I don't think that is the strength. I did, however, find his restaurant and market recommendations reliable. In any case, it worked well for me for my short time there last fall.

I highly discourage buying the Downie book. He knows nothing about Burgundy; although there is some good information (after all, a broken clock is right twice a day), there is a tremendous amount disinformation, and there is little to indicate that he's ever set foot in Burgundy. For example, he credits the Benedictines with all the development of wine in Burgundy, evidently not having ever heard of the Cistercians. Another example, he repeatedly confuses Melon de Bourgogne, the wine of Muscadet but also grown in Burgundy, with Muscat. For more details, see the review that I wrote in World of Fine Wine last year.

If you can't make the Saturday morning market in Beaune, there is a very good one in Chagny on Sunday mornings with most of the same merchants as Beaune. A friend who lives half time in the region claims that the prices from the same merchants are significantly lower in Chagny, but I have not noticed that to be the case.

The Saturday morning market in Beaune is pretty good!

Thank you, will get a copy!

A good reference which I found very reliable that covers not just the Cote, but all of Burgundy is "Food Wine Burgundy" (a Terrior guide) by David Downie.

I suppose we all know where to buy our wine when visiting this lovely region, but at least I have had some difficulties locating the best markets and suppliers of meat/dairy products et cetera in the Cote.
Me and my friends visit every year in May for tastings and besides frequenting the restaurants always try to cook our own versions of the local cuisine. For some reason the market in Dijon and Beaune are always closed when we find our way there and we often end up going to the bigger supermarkets when grocery shopping.

I would love to hear what your favourite places are when searching for that perfect aspargus, cheese or poulet de Bresse!

Best regards,

David Olsson