Four collages that just about summarise 5 days of tastings…
Events
188 tastevinage wines for you…
The Spring tasting of the Tastevinage was done in the Clos de Vougeot last week.
For those of you with an interest, here is a list of the 188 wines chosen, from the 565 which were presented, that are now allowed to wear the tastevinage label. Lots of great 2014s from the Mâconnais and Chablis, even Cremant included…
a quiet night among the books…
Just a quiet evening among the books of Athenaeum in Beaune tonight. Fred Ménager was cooking (with his team) plus multiple bottles of 2008, mainly in magnum, from Christian Clerget, Jean-Jacques Confuron, Vincent Dureuil-Janthial, Michel Lafarge, Hubert Lamy, Jean Louis et Andrée Trapet, Tollot-Beaut, Vitteaut-Alberti and Guiseppe-Rinaldi.
The wines were some thing of a free-for-all both before and during dinner – my iPad was never opened – these few pics, were the best I could come up with, and for a whole evening’s work, too! Sorry 😉
a tasting audience…
week(end) 11 – a tasty wine selection (part 2)…

I suppose you could call this a warm-up for the ‘Grands Jours’, that week of tastings every two years, where it is literally impossible to attend every ‘session’ that you are either invited to, or have subscribed for!
Having decided to miss the Nuits St.Georges half-marathon, the associated tasting in Nuits and the auction of the Hospices de Nuits – the Nuits-a-thon(!) – I decided, instead, to try a Chablis-a-thon!

Plenty of wines and lots if discussion (which will be in March’s report) was followed by dinner and lots of lovely wines. To add to those dinner wines above were 2011 Chassagne 1er Vergers, 2011 Corton-Charlemagne, 2010 Corton Clos de la Vigne aux Saint, 2010 Le Chambertin and 2005 Latricières from Mr Croix, 2008 Clos Fourtet and 2008 Pavie Macquin from Stéphane, and probably others that I was ‘too tired’ to remember. Great discussion, great wines and a really fine audience and audience participation.
Day 1 of the Grands Jours started with Chablis – the 2014s of 9 new producers (to me) was enough for me – packed as it was – the lunch buffet was clearly a bridge too far – 993 visitors and 136 exhibitors all trying to eat at the same time! Tonight there’s an evening a tasting of various producers in the Hôtel Dieu – now that doesn’t seem so hard does it? I’ve even managed 25 minutes jogging and a shower (luckily for the other people!) before I leave the apartment for that tasting.
Wish me luck….!
burgundian half-marathons…

Above, some (light!) preparation for Saturday’s half-marathon from Nuits St.Georges. In front is Romanée St.Vivant. The wall on the left is that of Romanée-Conti…
I didn’t feel the need to prove myself in this one, having been well beaten by Boris Champy, and pipped by Frederic Barnier in the last one – it’s better for me to concentrate on the training 😉
made it…
tada! lights, action…
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Christmas has come a little too early for Beaune, but the Christmas lights (which went up, around town, in October) were switched on tonight!
Of-course, today is the first day of the ‘Les Trois Glorieuses’ – the weekend that marks the auction of the Hospices de Beaune:







































