I had a very nice lunch in Beaune last week, and it provides me with an opportunity to give you a nice new restaurant tip and also to mention an uncommon, but tasty wine. The restaurant was called Clé de Voûte. If you enter the ring-road around Beaune from the direction of the (Lyon) auto-route, almost immediately on your right is a large antiques shop with its own small courtyard. If you have the chance, park in one of the spaces directly in front of the antiques shop – if you subsequently buy something from them, I’m sure they won’t mind – and just another door or two further-on is the restaurant. You head down the steps into a nicely converted cellar and more importantly to very good food. The wine-list is modest, but well-priced.
Onto the wines; not your first choice maybe, but the wines of Albert Bichot are (in my opinion) becoming rather dependable choices. First up was a good value, tasty Mâcon (Domaine Clos de l’Eglise) which is about 20% barrel ferment and the rest done in stainless-steel. Of most interest was a lovely Meursault – a red one! Checking with Bichot who produce the Domaine du Pavillon wine; it seems that they could have made more money by replacing the 40+ year-old vines (close to Volnay Santenots) with chardonnay – I’m glad they didn’t – it seems that we both think that there’s a little too much personality in the wine for that. It’s a well coloured, fresh and pure pinot with real drive, it does show the cedar of 2004 but in this case it’s on very low register such that it adds a nice complexity. Apparently there’s not so many bottles made, so if your country doesn’t get any – c’est la vie – but it’s worth a try.
2004 Domaine Clos de l’Eglise, Mâcon-VillagesRebuy – Maybe
2004 Domaine du Pavillon, Meursault (Rouge)Rebuy – Yes
There is one response to “interesting wine in a new(ish) beaune restaurant”
Hi Bill
this restaurant must be before the ‘cave du crépe’ which was always our preferred first stop in Beaune. We liked it because it was an easy and fast stop and we also liked their very excellent crépes. We always did need not more because we had our highlights in the evening. When you go in the afternoon to 2 or 3 different vignerons for tasting then it’s better to drink the wine there.
Now we are looking for another restaurant where we can get our crépes in Beaune.