Picture Gallery

dipping a toe into the côte d’or

By billn on February 12, 2024 #picture gallery#travels in burgundy 2024

As a warm-up for my three weeks in Beaujolais I, last Friday, dipped my toes into the (mainly) reds of the Côte d’Or before a Beaune weekend with a wonderful Saturday ‘lunch’ in the Hospices de Beaune – my first!

Two domaines in Gevrey-Chambertin and one in Chambolle; Astrelles, Marc Roy and François Millet. It wasn’t weather for sunbathing but I still toured a few vineyards – interesting to see three different approaches in the vines – all within a stones-throw from the house in the Clos des Issarts.

Then it was cool to see that most of the decorations for the St.Vincent were still in place in both Morey and Chambolle: The estimate was 70,000 people attending the St.Vincent weekend – for a time the police had to stop people coming into Chambolle-Musigny as the streets are so narrow and there were queues forming!

And the lunch in the Hôtel Dieu? Yes, in La Chambre du Roy – I’ve had tastings in here before but it’s the first time that I saw it set with tables for lunch. Really a super Saturday afternoon – yes we were there for 4.5 hours!

Adieu Chablis – for now

By billn on February 06, 2024 #picture gallery#travels in burgundy 2024

Friday was my last day in Chablis – for my first tranche of visits!

I managed a little more than 60 domaines in my January tour but actually have a list of over 100 domaines that I could potentially visit. That means I will have to visit again in March, April and possibly May too!

There are worse things 🙂

The weather wasn’t bad and the Scooby (2) surged through the 600,000 km mark – just one day with a little rain but the last two weeks were incredibly mild for January – 10-14°C and no frosty mornings. At this stage, I think the vigneron(ne)s should be happy that they have some stock after two decent volume vintages!

Just a few pics from underway…

Cité des Climats & Vin Bourgogne – Chablis

By billn on May 24, 2023 #degustation#picture gallery#travel pics#travels in burgundy 2023

In the presence of three presidents (no-less!) two from Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne – the BIVB’s François Labet and Laurent Delaunay – plus the president of the Association Cité des Climats et Vins de Bourgogne, Benoît de Charette – last week, I had a tour of the soon to open facility in Chablis – one of three such places opening to the public in the next month.

Whilst I’ll reserve judgement on the soon-to-open equivalent building in Mâcon – I’ve yet to see it with my own eyes – this place in the heart of old Chablis seems to be on a very personal scale, fitting well in its surroundings. I’m not the biggest fan of the architecture and scale of what has been built in Beaune but I will reserve my full judgement on that until I’ve seen what’s on the inside – like a bottle of wine – the truth will be on the inside!

This venue in Chablis is (by comparison) compact but full of an almost open-ended opportunity to tour the history – geological and social – of this centre of winemaking – burgundy winemaking. With a small wearable you can choose your language and subject matter as you head down the rabbit-holes of information from the next earpiece – though if your a covid (or germ) -phobic, you may want to take some sanitiser for the earphones that may have cupped a hundred other ears! Released yesterday, there will be ‘programme of cultural events‘ (in all locations) too – so enjoy!

The work on the building’s façade was not quite complete when I visited Chablis but it will be finished before the mid-June official opening!

A few images:

Both pictures and explanations!

By billn on January 22, 2023 #ladypyrazines#picture gallery#site updates#travels in burgundy 2023

Vaudesir to the left, Vaudesir & Moutonne to the right...
Vaudesir to the left, Vaudesir & Moutonne to the right…

A chilly week in Chablis and the Côte d’Or too this week and weekend – I offer you a small gallery of the sights.

But first, a couple of readers have asked some questions and also for some help in deciphering some of the ‘codes’ that I use in my descriptions and reports. These are things that have built up over the years, or are shorthand when taking notes that I don’t always remember to return to ‘long-hand!’ But every now and then it’s worth a little explanation because not everyone has been coming here for years and years 🙂

Agrumes: I had always assumed that agrume was also an English-language word but it seems I may have been mistaken and that it is predominantly found in the Latin tongues. Simply put, it is citrus but it actually covers the whole family of citrus fruits. For this reason, I may sometimes refer to more green-shaded agrumes (lots of lime or lime skin) or orange/mandarin but the effect can also be shaded more to grapefruit or even some complexity of all. The Latin languages have definitions that are more open to ‘interpretation’ than the Germanic-derived ones 🙂 Some white vintages are marked by ‘agrume bitters‘, so without extra info, you can translate that ‘simply’ as a zesty, citrus-skin type of bitterness.

Do you ever feel that a bit of oak can contribute to the overall ‘quality’ of a wine? Or are you averse to all manifestations of oak?” That’s a great question! We all have our own preferences, and whilst I would always prefer to taste the wine, rather than the containers in which it has been raised (elevage,) some aspects that come from the oak distract me less than others. Oak with a strong toast is much rarer than was once the case – overt vanilla too – which is good for me – I don’t want either of those in my glass. The more creamy accents that can come from the barrel distract me much less and I can say the same – within limits – for those spicy notes that you more often find with reds. I do believe that the barrels contribute to more impressive wines of additional longevity – but a deft hand that can expertly meld the aromas and flavours of the wood would always be my preference. It’s not just the organoleptic (smell-flavour) aspects of the wines that are altered by the barrels though – it is the shape and texture of the wines too… But a strongly oaked wine that I wouldn’t want to drink young (because of that strong aroma or flavour) can still be a very great wine if you have sufficient patience. You need a reviewer that can put ‘the now’ to one side and still be able to say that they think that a particular wine will still be great.

Do ‘the greens’ that you have found so often in 2020 white Burgundies ever go away or is it a mark that always persists?” To offer a little more focus – I have found these pyrazines in the wines of the Côtes d’Auxere – including Chablis – so some red to go with a lot of white. There were occasional reds in both Beaujolais and the Côte d’Or too – but relatively rare – I did not note these greens in whites from any other region. If the reds of 2004 and 2011 are to be used as benchmarks, then the pyrazine notes that I am sensitive to, are stable. The 2020 Chablis that I have re-tasted in the last two weeks are worse – more overt – than was the case one year ago.

You cite the common reaction to them as occurring in 80% of tasters – do the remaining 20% have no adverse effects whatsoever & should they all rush out & buy up the 2020 vintage Chablis?” You got that ‘back-to-front’ – it’s only about 10% of tasters that are sensitive – anecdotally, more often, it is women that have this extra sensitivity. The rest can and should rush out to buy what is otherwise a well-constructed, fine vintage for Chablis.

Gothic & WC: WC is a shorthand that I often use interchangeably for whole-clusters or whole-bunches or ‘stems.’ I sometimes refer to the effect of wc on the wine being a little gothic. By that I mean, darker, more structural – indeed a bit austere too – so in this case it means with some herbal aspects and more drying tannin. This was visible in the 2021 wines at a few important domaines – but far from all – some domaines made gorgeously perfumed wines even with 100% use of whole clusters…

Okay a few images from the last 6-7 days, enjoy:

at last…

By billn on June 20, 2020 #degustation#picture gallery#reports#travels in burgundy 2020

domaines week number 21 2020

I’ve only missed 12 weeks of being able to visit producers, but to be honest, it has seemed longer.

My thanks – of course – to the domaines that had the time to see me this week – they will all be in my June report. I’m planning to be ‘en place‘ for a few days every other week, and there are always many more people worth paying a visit to!

onward and upwards – les duresses

By billn on March 14, 2019 #picture gallery#warning - opinion!


June 2018.

It can be complicated – there are three interested parties here – not including the ones actually doing the work!

As you can see from the sunny pictures, taken last June, this beautiful corner of Auxey-Duresses, sitting on a corner that looks towards both the Moulin des Moines and Monthèlie, was more than a little run-down. You see this, or much worse, across most of the vineyards of Burgundy, but since achieving UNESCO World Heritage status, there are certain grants available to those people who (correctly) want to shore-up the basis of their livelihoods – the vineyards. It’s important for the tourists too!

This one is more complicated because the owner is not the exploiter – it’s one of the Meursault Bouzereau’s who works the vines in this particular plot, but on a fermage basis. So you have the winemakers, the owners and the UNESCO foundation who are all contributing to this work.

Here there’s a house that stands alone, a house that I’ve always admired but has always seemed to be empty – probably due to the 80 km/h (++!) road that’s directly in front – there’s no sign, but the locals call it Maison des Duresses – but it has seen much updating in the last 12 months. Likewise for the last few months a fine piece of renovation can be seen to the wall that extends from the house in the direction of Monthèlie, and includes these beautiful pillars with a stairway. The guy doing the work told me that he’s not usually alone doing this – but he was yesterday afternoon – but that he’d also worked a little on the stones so that the name of the old owners would be more legible.

A lovely piece of work!
 

a little swiss cow action!

By billn on September 24, 2017 #picture gallery#travel pics

In Switzerland, like everywhere else, what goes up, must come down – but particularly in Switzerland, because that also includes the cows!

At the beginning of June the cows are walked up the hikers’ paths to the higher pastures of the Alps, and in September they are walked back down – before the weather changes. The journey’s are celebrated and the farmers and their family dress-up in their traditional costumes – but the cows are dressed-up too, with floral headresses and there are even cow ‘beauty contests’ – taken very seriously by the local folk.

It was a sunny day, so we took a trip out to the Freiburger-Alps and the nearby towns of Charmey and Gruyère for some cow action!
 


And then onto Gruyère – very pretty indeed!
 

a few swiss days…

By billn on May 08, 2016 #picture gallery#travel pics

WP_20160502_16_59_53_Pro

The last days in Switzerland have been quite nice – but oday there’s rain in Beaune. Back to the typing!
 

Irancy 2016…

By billn on January 31, 2016 #picture gallery#travels in burgundy 2016

14-DSC09264

Well, all week the armchair forecasters were saying nice on Saturday, terrible on Sunday – the weather that was! As it was, the rain and wind arrived early – midday on Saturday. This was one day where everyone was happy that it was 8°C and not 1°C!

The Irancy Saint Vincent parade started in the dark of the early morning, from high on the hill above Irancy into the town below – by torchlight and with handy flames by the side of the the route; representatives from all over Burgundy with their own ‘Saint Vincent’ statues.

Still, for the first 5 hours or so everybody stayed dry, if still a little wind-swept! By mid-morning there was a 2km line of slowly moving cars to the parking areas – in fields. I really don’t want to think what the parking was like on the Sunday after plenty of rain. Le Bien Public put Saturday’s visitor numbers anywhere between 15 and 20 thousand – well done Irancy!

The town was well decked-out and with multiple tasting venues – though to be honest, there were so many people at each ‘tasting station’ we preferred to walk the town and enjoy the atmosphere – and it was a lovely atmosphere. For lunch we queued almost 30 minutes for what turned out to be the last of the ‘parmentiers de canard’ – French shepherd’s pie made with duck! – but it was hot and tasty – luckily-so, as it was now raining as well as windy. The glühwein never looked more attractive, particularly as we had to walk back up the hill (to the parking) in the wind and rain!

I hope the weather (and the muddy fields) wasn’t too bad on Sunday – we were already back in Beaune by Saturday evening.

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;