Bingeing in Beaune
It is quite a while since we’ve posted because we had a crisis last Thursday night. We had to watch the second Eurovision semi final on the laptop because the tv reception was non existant for France 2. We had the laptop on the coffee table and I managed to knock a bottle of red wine all over it. As you might guess the laptop is now dead. We’ve been in a state of shock and don’t want to contemplate how much information we’ve lost, including the text for this post that I am now re-typing. Anyway we have decided to press on with the blog, using the iPads. The photos won’t be as good as we are just using our iPhones and of course we don’t have as many photos available for this and some future posts.
We’ve been wanting to visit Beaune since Barbra and Rob went a few years ago and told us how much they enjoyed it. We had a really enjoyable 6 days of touring and lots of great food and wine. The only downside was that it was pretty cold and wet.
We went south to Chateau Colmartin. Most of the chateau dates to the 17th century but by 1980 it was close to becoming a ruin. The current owners have been painstakingly restoring it since then with very little government assistance. We went on an excellent tour of the chateau and spent ages wandering around the garden.
Next we drove to the town of Chardonnay, home of one of our favourite wine varietals, which Burgundy is famous for producing, and then on to the small but picturesque town of St. Leger-sur-Dheune on the Canal du Centre, where a lot of boats and barges are moored.
On Monday we did a lovely hike of several hours through the forests and vineyards surrounding Savigny-les-Beaune. People were working in the vineyards stacking and preparing to burn hay in order to counteract the effects of frost.
On Monday night we had dinner at a small restaurant called le P’tit Paradis, the first of our excellent dining experiences. We had to make reservations for all restaurants well in advance.
Tuesday was a real highlight as we spent the whole day on a winery tour visiting 3 wineries with grand cru vineyards and lunch at Le Bistrot du Bord de l’eau, which is part of a Relais et Châteaux hotel.
There were only 4 of us and we were driven around by Patrick who was incredibly knowledgeable about wine. At each winery we had a private tasting of 6 wines and were able to visit their cellars.
On Wednesday we did two different tours of an independent family owned mustard maker called Edmund Fallot. Our favourite part was tasting 15 different mustards at the end of the first tour.
Later in the day we toured the cellars of Patriarche Père et Fils, a wine maker that has 5 kilometres of vaulted wine cellarsrunning underneath the town. We’ve never seen anything quite like it. Along the way we got to taste 10 wines in our little, shallow metallic tasting cups called tastevins.
That evening we had the best dinner of the trip at Le Relais de Saulx. The chef owner is a goth who became famous on a French cooking show. The combination of ingredients was exceptional. The entrees warrant special mention. I had pan fried foie gras while dale had white asparagus. The presentation was beautiful. The chef’s partner runs front of house and the service was friendly and extremely professional. The ambience was delightful. There are only 10 tables and they are very widely spaced apart.
We’ve been wanting to visit Beaune since Barbra and Rob went a few years ago and told us how much they enjoyed it. We had a really enjoyable 6 days of touring and lots of great food and wine. The only downside was that it was pretty cold and wet.
We went south to Chateau Colmartin. Most of the chateau dates to the 17th century but by 1980 it was close to becoming a ruin. The current owners have been painstakingly restoring it since then with very little government assistance. We went on an excellent tour of the chateau and spent ages wandering around the garden.
Next we drove to the town of Chardonnay, home of one of our favourite wine varietals, which Burgundy is famous for producing, and then on to the small but picturesque town of St. Leger-sur-Dheune on the Canal du Centre, where a lot of boats and barges are moored.
On Monday we did a lovely hike of several hours through the forests and vineyards surrounding Savigny-les-Beaune. People were working in the vineyards stacking and preparing to burn hay in order to counteract the effects of frost.
On Monday night we had dinner at a small restaurant called le P’tit Paradis, the first of our excellent dining experiences. We had to make reservations for all restaurants well in advance.
Tuesday was a real highlight as we spent the whole day on a winery tour visiting 3 wineries with grand cru vineyards and lunch at Le Bistrot du Bord de l’eau, which is part of a Relais et Châteaux hotel.
There were only 4 of us and we were driven around by Patrick who was incredibly knowledgeable about wine. At each winery we had a private tasting of 6 wines and were able to visit their cellars.
On Wednesday we did two different tours of an independent family owned mustard maker called Edmund Fallot. Our favourite part was tasting 15 different mustards at the end of the first tour.
Later in the day we toured the cellars of Patriarche Père et Fils, a wine maker that has 5 kilometres of vaulted wine cellarsrunning underneath the town. We’ve never seen anything quite like it. Along the way we got to taste 10 wines in our little, shallow metallic tasting cups called tastevins.
That evening we had the best dinner of the trip at Le Relais de Saulx. The chef owner is a goth who became famous on a French cooking show. The combination of ingredients was exceptional. The entrees warrant special mention. I had pan fried foie gras while dale had white asparagus. The presentation was beautiful. The chef’s partner runs front of house and the service was friendly and extremely professional. The ambience was delightful. There are only 10 tables and they are very widely spaced apart.
POSTSCRIPT
The remainder of this holiday was not captured in this blog due an unfortunate meeting between our laptop and a bottle of wine. For the rest of the trip (Buis, Cypress, Santorini and Athens), we posted on Facebook
Delighted that you found your way into the Beaune undercity cellars and even more impressed you found your way out again after the tasting tour. Happy travels.
ReplyDelete