Little known fact: Burgundy only produces two varietals of wine... 1) Chardonay and 2) Pinot Noir. Now, that may sound boring to a couple from Northern California, but the wine is superb. We learned all of this upon arrival at our Bed & Breakfast in Beaune, La Terre d'Or, a beautiful little cottage perched on a hill overlooking rolling mountains of grape vines. Our inn keeper, Jean Louis, welcomed us into his home with a Communal, a glass of red wine spiked with Creme de Cassis. While we sipped, he proudly told us of the French Revolution, and then he took us into his basement, which no joke, is a wine cave. A wine cave!
What a shame that after our marvelous appertif and tour, Jean Louis kicked us out! Somehow, there was a mistake and he had over booked his inn. Ridiculous! Fortunately, he booked us at another very nice hotel, so we headed there to spend the night. In all honesty, the new hotel had air conditioning, so it was a small upgrade. A pain, but after a bottle of tasty Premier Cru Bourgogne from Beaune and a massive slate of cheese, we didn't care too much.
The next morning, we woke up, went on a nice run around Beaune, and then had a delicious petit dejouner (breakfast). And by 11 AM, we were ready to taste the wines of Bourgogne! We started at Patriarche Perre & Fils, located in the center of Beaune. Upon arrival, Jeremy proclaimed, "Holy shit, I've seen this place in Wine Spectator!"
Bourgogne has been making wine for hundreds of years, which means, they really have wine tasting down pat. At Patriarche, 10 Euros gets you 13 Wine Tastings. And these ain't no Napa one ounce contraption on the bottle pours. It's self service! In a dark, candle lit cave! With no supervision! Into a large silver wine spoon that holds about three tastes of wine!
Needless to say, Jeremy and I had a blast. The Patriarch wine cave is currently aging over 3 Million bottles of wine. All beneath the city of Beaune. We purchased three bottles of Pinot Noir that we look forward to storing in our new wine cellar (garage storage unit - once we buy a home, Jeremy is so digging us a cave!)
After 13 wine tastings, we were ready to explore Le Marchet, the open air market. And did we explore! We purchased a picnic basket, then filled it with olives, sun dried tomatoes, three types of cheese filled salamis, bread, and cheese. We headed outside of the city and picnic-ed next to lush grape vines. No really, they were lush!
Next, onto some vineyards. Michel Piccard, first, where we bought a bottle we will save until our third and fifth anniversaries. (The wines of Bourgogne are meant to last!) Onto Pommard, where the lovely Geraldine took us in just like she would her best friend, Jim. (Inside joke...) At Pommard we tasted wine that was harvested in 1989. Amazingly, it was still red and not brown! Had it been a Cali wine, it would have been vinegar. Kind of amazing.
Onto home at La Terre d'Or, where we were actually lodging that night. We walked up the street and met up with all of the locals at an adorable little restaurant, Chez NoNo. We perfected (ha!) our French with the old proprietor of the restaurant, sipped rose, and dined on splendor of the countryside (liverwurst), ham and parsley, coq au vin (rooster in wine) and trembling legs of lamb. No shit, these were the names is our meals per our French-English dictionary. Then for dessert, we had a course of cheese and creme brûlée. The check came, and our three course meal with wine was under 50 Euros. Bon appetit!
It was an amazing day, an amazing night. It is hard to believe that our journey has just begun...
Location:Beaune, France
Mom and I better be invited to these anniversary dinners so that we too, can taste that wine. LOL
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