France Day 15 - Wine Tasting in the Bourgogne region

We did a full day wine tasting tour with Burgundy Discovery for the premier cru tour.  It cost a lot but this was the one thing Metroman wanted to do so off we went.  In general, the tour was informative, interesting and well run.  They vary the tour each time, as well as the lunch place based on where they are going on tour, what kind of tour their clients want, how many days the clients are touring, etc, so it's somewhat personalized.  I bet if I told them I loved a certain wine they would accommodate.  However I think the price was rather outrageous.  Supposedly the company gets access to some wineries we otherwise would not, but for a novice like me it was not a big deal.

The nice thing about this tour was that I am starting to taste some flavours and what not.  Maybe just being less uptight than yesterday, or a day more experienced, really helped.  :-)

Here are some pictures that I thought were pretty and interesting since they are all repeating objects.  Thought the two crushed grapes pictures were interesting and different from the beautiful bunch of grapes.

During the tour, we went to two wineries, followed by lunch.  The first winery, Henri de Villamont, was not bad, and I bought a red wine for Lingon.  The second, Nadine et Rémi Marcillet, for which I could not find a website, I actually thought was not fabulous but we were treated to a different kind of grape, aligoté, as well as crème de cassis (which was not made by them), which together make the famous French aperitif kir.  I really enjoyed the aligoté wine by itself which was very easy to drink, and the kir, so I got them both, otherwise the other wines were not remarkable.

We took a nice long lunch break, post found here.

Last wine tasting at Domaine Debray, I must admit I was really over it.  I had eaten too much, and drank too much, and all the wines for the most part tasted the same to me.  There was one wine I really liked, but sadly I ran out of luggage space.  :-(  We even got to taste some grand cru!  Frankly I liked the lower grade wine better, but it was cool to have tried grand cru!  Dominique at this winery conducted our tour and he was very lively and interesting and funny.

Here are the wine labels we tasted.  The one I really liked in the third winery did not have an official label, which was a bit ironic and funny to me.

Well, that's all, folks!

France Days 12, 13, 14 and 15 - Beaune, France

Beaune is a small city in the Côte d'Or department and Burgundy region.  It is supposedly the place to start out one's discovery of the Burgundy wines.

We stayed at Hotel de la Cloche.  It was a very serviceable hotel, decent sized rooms, clean and near the train station and city center.  Everything we could ask for.  At 105 €/night, split with another, I really can't complain.

Everyone recommends going to the Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.  This was a hospital founded in the 15th century by the duke of Burgundy for the poor and sick who could not afford healthcare.  It really is a very beautiful building, and according to the audio tour the duke spared no expense in building it.  I'm not sure if somehow the audio tour was lost in translation when made in English, but it really made the duke seem like he wanted to build the hospital so, put very simply, he could go to heaven.  He and his wife were "narrating" the tour, and she would say things like "oh you're so wonderful for building this, don't be so modest", and then he would be like "yeah I suppose you are right, this is a really amazing thing I have done, if I could say so myself".  I was not wild about this duke.  But, he did build this amazing thing and conduct very charitable deeds.  Here is the building.  The audio tour, though very comprehensive, was very long, and I got sort of bored to death midway through.

Beaune itself is a small quaint city (seems to be a lot of these).  Here are some of my photos.  Enjoy!

La Gremelle, Ladoix Serrigny, France

We were taken to La Gremelle restaurant during our wine tasting tour.  It is not rated as a restaurant on Tripadvisor (but is rated for its hotel).

We were treated to Gougère, a French choux bread baked with cheese, which was tasty.  Also, the table bread was wonderful and though I had vowed off bread many times, I ate a ton.  Story of my life.  We ordered from the Capture of Burgundy menu.  Here is what we ordered, which between us was pretty much the whole menu except for the jambon persillé.
Escargots/snails, which was not bad, the sauce is parsley butter according to the website but I swear there was a ton of garlic in it, and it was delicious to dip our bread in it.
Oeufs meurette, which is poached eggs in a red wine sauce with onions, mushrooms and bacon.  I had this at a Bouchon in Lyon, but I think this version was much better since the red wine sauce was nicely reduced and had a greater flavour.
Bresse chicken, which I later found out is specifically a chicken from the region, with époisses sauce (rich creamy cheese) and gratin Dauphinois which is basically yummy cheesy potatoes.  This was outstanding.  The chicken was really tender and the sauce was so rich and creamy (just like the cheese!) and delicious, I had to prevent myself from mopping it all up.  I have wanted gratin Dauphinois for a while on this trip too so I was glad to have it and it was good!
Beef Bourguignon which was served with pasta.  I thought this dish was very sad so I won't discuss.
Poached pear with pear ice cream.  I liked the ice cream but I think I'm not wild about red wine sauces.
Gingerbread, or pain d'épices, which I did not love, but it came with a ginger ice cream which was great.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal.  It was a disgusting amount of food, after drinking a disgusting amount of wine, but with exception of the beef Bourguignon, everything was good to great.  Definitely if this place is near by where you would be wine tasting, I would recommend going to.  That's my Michelin rating for this place.  ;-)

Vins des Tonneliers, Wine Tasting Class, Beaune, France

We took a wine tasting class at Vins des Tonneliers.  Initially I thought this was more for Metroman since I did not really have a huge interest in wine, but I thought the class was very informative, and I learnt a lot, and I am really glad I went.  We were invited to this beautiful tasting room.  Our "wine consultant", Germain Siloret, was super knowledgeable, and very patient and accommodating with our questions, probably especially since I told him I knew nothing.  It was supposed to be a 1-1.5 hour session, but we were there for almost 2 hours.  For 35 € each, we had 5 wine tastings of chardonnay and pinot noir grapes, 2 hours of this guy's time, unlimited questions, and a bunch of really yummy snacks.  Totally worth it.  I wish these folks were on Tripadvisor because I would give them supremely fabulous ratings.  At the end of the class, Germain praised Metroman on his good palate, and recommended that I drink more and try to taste the aromas more.  Heh heh.  If you are in Beaune, and are interested in the wines here (why else would you be in Beaune?!) and want to learn more, I highly recommend them!

Le Goret, Beaune, France

We went to Le Goret for dinner, #3 on Tripadvisor.  This restaurant serves almost exclusively pork food, with the exception of foie gras (both in the actual liver as well as pate form).  The restaurant does not have a website, nor are the hours found easily online.  It is open:
Tuesday for dinner at 7.30pm
Wednesday for lunch at 12.00pm and dinner at 7.30pm
Thursday for lunch at 12.00pm
Friday for lunch at 12.00pm and dinner at 7.30pm
Saturday for lunch at 12.00pm and dinner at 7.30pm

The restaurant owner/boss-seeming person, Jose, also somehow known on Tripadvisor as Monsieur, is a big man.  Here are some pictures of him in the kitchen cooking, manning the counter and reading out the menu written on the wall.

There is no written menu, only a menu written in chalk on one of the walls.  On the menu for this night were, to the best of my French knowledge:
Trilogie - 2 types of sausage (some Lyon sausage and another with truffle) and bacon - 24 €
Pork chop and foie gras (pate) - 25 €
Ham thing (someone on Tripadvisor called it pork steak) with epoisse cheese - 19 €
Pork trotters - 24 €
Andouilette which I believe is a kind of sausage with foie gras (actual) - 25 €
Pork bourguignon - 21 €
They serve red and white wine by the bottle and rose by the glass.  Metroman got a rose glass for 4 €.
Here is a (poor) picture of it.

Tripadvisor customers say reservations are necessary.  We went right at 7.30pm (actually we went 10 minutes early and there was NO one and I was convinced the restaurant would not be open and was really bummed, but at 7.30pm promptly there were people in it!  Magic!) and managed to get a seat.  We were there until 8.30pm, and there were only 5 parties in the restaurant and plenty of space.  Granted it was a Tuesday night, perhaps we got lucky.

There were enough items on the menu that I knew I could get away with ordering something different from Metroman.  I originally wanted the pork chop, but he wanted that so I got the trilogie with a side of foie (actual).  Instead of foie (pate), he opted for the truffle sausage.  We both really enjoyed our meals, though I would say I was glad I did not get the pork chop because I did not like it as I found it rather bland.  Our food came with a side of salad and potatoes.  The salad was simple, just lettuce with a tasty dressing.  I don't want to know how the potatoes were prepared, but they were delicious and the skin was really crispy.  I REALLY loved the bacon.  My foie gras was on a piece of gross soggy bread, so I removed the bread.  It still remained a pretty subpar piece of foie gras, but I was craving it so it did the work.  I did a great job on mine, I think Metroman did not do such a great job on his.  ;-)  Our neighbours, 3 men from Belgium, all got the trotters.  Here are our pictures.

Overall it was a delicious meal.  Nothing refined or bourguignon about it, just a good solid huge ass meal.  I had a great time because it was yummy and kind of a fun relaxed atmosphere and not too crowded, but don't expect white tablecloth service or anything.  Just good ol' solid pork.

Ma Cuisine, Beaune, France

Since we were coming to Burgundy, I wanted to eat bœuf bourguignon.  I did some Googling and found an article on the Wall Street Journal in Beaune about Ma Cuisine, recommending the dish there.  Ranked #10 on Tripadvisor, no website.  We managed to get a day-of reservation for a 9.30pm second seating, but we showed up at 8.30pm and I suppose the first seating was over.

Here is what we ate.
Amuse bouche - this sausage thing in a pastry (top picture on right)
Appetizer - Metroman ordered a saussison brioche which seemed like a sausage baked in a bread (middle picture on right) - 16 €
Main course - we both got bœuf bourguignon (top picture on left) - 19 €
Dessert - they had a beautiful array of dessert (bottom picture on left) but I ordered fromage blanc, since I was curious about it (bottom picture on right) - 4 €

Everything was really good.  Not sure if I was swayed by the WSJ article, but special shout out to the bœuf bourguignon which had a really nice thick rich red wine sauce, and the beef was very tender.  I did not love the fromage blanc, but I think maybe I just don't like fromage blanc that much (thick pudding like structure that was a bit sour, served with what Metroman thinks is mascarpone) so it's probably just a me thing.

Visit here!  It is yummy!

France Day 13, La Voie des Vignes - Beaune to Santenay

We rode the voie des vignes route (route of vines, literally, I think) from Beaune, where we were staying in Bourgogne/Burgundy, to Santenay.  About 14 miles (~22km) there on the route itself, and 10 miles (~16km) back mostly on the highway due to a mistaken turn out.  We rented a bike from a place near the train station for 16 € each for the whole day.  My bike had an amazing basket!

It took us a little bit to find the the route, but we managed to.  There are some signs, not always clearly posted, indicating the direction one should take.  The first photo shows what I think is the "official" start of the route with these nice stone posts.  On first impression, the greenery and the lush rolling meadows were extremely gorgeous.  Wow!  We passed through a number of towns, namely Pommard, Volnay, Mersault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, and last Santenay.  The first town we got to, I thought, wow how gorgeous.  Old little antiquated towns with ancient stone buildings.  Perhaps I was enchanted for the next 2-3 more, and then as I got more tired and hot and grumpy, I was half secretly hoping Metroman would want to turn around, at the same time wanting to get to the "official" end of this route, so I was just like these towns suck.  Objectively looking back at them, they were pretty, as were the hectares of rolling hills, but after a while they got the same.  Also, the route was hilly, supposed "undulating" slopes (some more undulating than others), and I hopped (or rolled) off the bike to push going uphill a few times.  I'm glad we made it to Santenay.

We did not try any wines.  It was a Monday, lots of places did not look open, and I think we might have died if we consumed any alcohol.

On the way back, we turned out wrongly and ended up on the highway.  It was a bit faster back which we were thankful for, but also a bit scary, but in the end we ended up back with no incident.  On the way back we stopped by a gas station and I got a Magnum ice cream!  Yum.  I even got a chance to go to Carrefour to do some shopping and buy some crap!

I highly recommend biking the route if you are able as it is really pretty, but do not be too sad if you don't make it to Santenay.  Know your limits!!