So first, what’s new this week?
- The first flowers were seen this week in a parcel of Louis Latour’s Corton-Charlemagne, though most are expecting to see flowers later next week – I think a weekend of wall-to-wall 33°C will help that! So we seem to be looking towards a harvest starting-time of roughly the 10th September.
- I’ve lost Claire again! Claire Forestière made great wines at Bertagna before a short-lived own-label chez Cottin-Frères. I lost sight of her for years after that, but was re-united when I found her working chez Loron in the Beaujolais. But I heard this week that she’s left Loron – nobody seemed to know where she is heading!
- There’s some hard work going on to renovate what was previously an ‘art’ gallery just across from the Hospices de Beaune, and I noticed on the placard outside the name SAS Champy. I called Dimitri Bazas to ask – ‘are you opening a shop?’ And it seems so: “Yes Bill, you saw well, Champy is making a shop to sell the wines and also a VIP tasting room on the first floor with a unique view of the « Halles » and the « Hospices » !!! It is a really exiting project and we hope to open it at the end of June – early July.” So there you go!
And before a Friday evening apero, whilst walking in Beaune we saw, on the opposite side of the Hospices to Champy’s new shop, an open door! This door is 99.9% of the time most definitely locked, but what the hell, I took advantage. This was the Couvent des Cordeliers, and today is the 1243 Bourgogne Society – or ‘club’ – where the extremely (delete as appropriate) well-heeled, or fortunate get to enjoy degustations of the most sought-after wines that Burgundy can offer. I think it is a fabulous place right in the centre of Beaune, and in its own way, almost as interesting as the Hospices. It’s a shame that it is always locked away…
A little extra info on 1243 can be found here.
There is one response to “what’s new in beaune and peeking behind (usually) closed doors…”
I was outside it in February wondering what happened to the tourist attraction that was there when I first came to Burgundy in 2005 and a woman passed me and went in, not before giving me a disdainful look! She obviously dismissed me as ‘not worthy’ lol!