Wine 101

In the city of Beaune, there’s a wine-tasting around every corner.  So I could have easily spent the day hopping from one spot to the next, sipping and spitting.  While I’m sure it would have made for a memorable afternoon, I was hoping to explore the countryside instead — to catch a glimpse of the smaller villages and vineyards.

There are a fair number of tasting tours available in and around Beaune, but not as many as you’d think.  And if you’ve ever done a tour (for anything, anywhere), you know the good ones are always hard to come by.  Typically, they fill up several weeks, or even months, in advance.  But I got incredibly lucky and was able to join an excursion with Burgundy Discovery.

Burgundy Discovery is run by David and Lynne Hammond, transplants from the UK who moved to Beaune 8 years ago.  They offer small tours featuring local family growers, and create a unique experience that’s focused on sampling wine as well as learning about it.  Because they have personal relationships with the winemakers, the tastings and tours feel very intimate and authentic – a behind-the-scenes look at the people of the region and their passion for wine.

Lynne and David arrived at my hotel at 9am, and we drove around the city to pick up the other couples joining the tour: Nick & Simy and David & Fay.  Even though they didn’t know each other, they realized they had eaten at the same restaurant the night before — and ironically, all lived in London.  David & Fay had moved to the UK from Chicago just over two years ago, and Nick & Simy were in Burgundy celebrating Nick’s birthday.

Unfortunately, it was a cold and dreary day, but that certainly wasn’t going to stop us.  As we drove through the rain, Lynne and David pointed out various villages/vineyards and gave us a comprehensive overview of wine-making the Burgundy way.

Burgundy itself is a very small region, running primarily from Macon up to Dijon.  By comparison, Bordeaux is 6-7 times larger.  But that doesn’t mean Burgundy lacks excitement.  With about 4500 growers in the area, there’s plenty of activity to go around.  Almost all the Domaines (estates) in Burgundy are family-owned.  So in many cases, land and wine-producing techniques have been handed down over several generations.

The vineyards are under multi-ownership, which makes for a very patchwork affair.  It’s common for a family to have 10-15 rows in one vineyard, 20-30 in another, and so on.  As we were driving by, Lynne pointed out ways you could tell where one plot stopped and another started – some Domaines had turned their soil and some hadn’t, some markers were different than others, etc.

There are 4 types of grapes grown in Burgundy, of which Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are far and away the most common.  Every fall (usually September), the grapes are harvested.  And after the first frost, the mammoth task of pruning takes place.  Each vine is pruned by hand, and since the average family might own 60-80,000 vines, that’s a whole lotta manual labor.

Once produced, all wines are classified under the AOC system (which was enshrined into French law in 1935).  At that time, all the land in the region was plotted and classified into 4 categories (in ascending order of quality):

• regional
• village
• premier cru
• grand cru

Regional grapes can be grown anywhere in Burgundy and brought to a winery for production.  Village grapes must be grown within the boundaries of a village – and then the producers can either combine grapes from vineyards in that particular village, or just use grapes from one vineyard.  Premier Crus often list the village+vineyard+1er cru on the label, while Grand Crus only carry the name of the vineyard and the Grand Cru designation.

The first Domaine we visited was in the village of Meursault.  The wine-making tradition had been passed from the grandfather to the father, and now to the son.  We walked down several concrete steps into the family cellar.  It was cold and damp with a musty smell.  And around the main room, there were wooden racks that held dusty bottle after dusty bottle.  The walls were black and uneven, complete with mold in the cracks and white calcified spiders.

David looked up at the ceiling: “See the mold there?  That’s the sign of a good cellar.”  He went on to explain that, in Burgundy, none of the growers added yeast to their wine.  They didn’t need to; the moldly cellars did it naturally.

It seems that two of my favorite things (wine and cheese) are both products of one of my least favorite things (mold).  Irony.

Our tasting was hosted by Christian – a man who’s worked for all 3 generations of the family.  Because he spoke French, Lynne did quit a bit of translating.  But even though I couldn’t understand him, I could tell by his bright eyes, animated facial expressions, and warm smile that he was enjoying the tasting just as much as we were.

Christian generously treated us to about a dozen different wines.  With every sip, the nuances became more pronounced – some were more acidic, some more tannic.  Some laced with butter, some bursting with fruit.  And for each new glass, David and Lynne pointed out the specific vineyard the wine came from – some of which were right outside the cellar door.

We said “au revoir” to Christian and then headed to our second location, Domaine Pascal Borgeot.  Pascal was busy tending to the business, so Lynne and David conducted most of the tasting.  But Pascal did stop in for a few minutes to offer us a special treat.  We had just tried a Santenay 1er Cru “Les Gravieres” from 2007, and he offered to open the 2004 version so we could taste the difference.  (We learned later that the 2004 was his last bottle.)

Lynne placed the 2004 next to the 2007.  The 2007 was pristine and beautiful – the way you’d expect it to look at the store.  But the 2004 had been sitting in the cellar, so it didn’t have a label.  Instead, it was caked with a thick layer of mold.  If you found it lying in an alley, you wouldn’t go near it.  This was going to be an adventure.

Although I knew wines differed from year to year, I assumed the most meaningful variations occurred over large periods of time – maybe 10-20 years.  I didn’t think 3 years would make that much of a difference.

The 2007 was a nice wine – very spicy, something that would go well with a hearty red meat.  But the 2004 was a completely different animal.  The first whiff assaulted your senses with an overwhelming earthiness.  I realize you’re reading this and thinking: “she’s a total wine snob right now and picking at subtleties.”  But I’d be willing to bet my favorite international travel adapter that my 6-year-old nephew Aidyn would be able to tell the difference.  Easily.

David and Lynne explained that this is a common occurrence in older pinot noirs: they tend to get much earthier as they age.  Because they’re so concentrated and the aroma is so powerful, it’s important NOT To decant a pinot this old.  It will lose its character in the first 30 minutes, so they advised that you open it up, and drink it with friends.  Without food.  And relatively fast.

Speaking of food, there had been an awful lot of drinking, but not nearly enough eating.  We headed to lunch at a restaurant called L’Diligence.  I started with escargot (because I felt like France would be insulted if I didn’t).  The snails were excellent… the texture of a cremini mushroom, bathed in loads of garlic and butter.  For the main course it was boeuf, and then a velvety chocolate mousse for dessert.  Sluggishness was about to set in.  Café au lait to the rescue.

After lunch, we made our way to the 3^rd and last stop: Domain Dujardin.  Ulrich Dujardin hosted the tasting and then showed us his wine-making process.  While we were admiring his tank, he offered us a taste.  So we held our glasses to the spout and filled up.

When you drink directly from a holding tank at a brewery, it’s an opportunity to sample the freshest beer possible.  Last year, two of my Fallon pals and I (Ryan and Alyson), visited the Anheuser-Busch brewery and drank Bud Light right from the tank.  I never thought I’d say it, but the Bud Light tasted amazing.

[Disclaimer for my friends at Purina: We went beer-drinking AFTER our meetings were done.  Not before.  Or during.]

However, when you’re served from the tank at a winery, you’re drinking extremely young wine that’s not yet meant to be drunk.  So even though the wine had a lot of potential, it was extremely harsh – not something you’d choose to drink in a restaurant.  But I’m glad I did it, because it made me realize how much wine changes over time, and how important the aging process is.

Ulrich continued the tour, leading us down into his two cellars.  One of them was built in the 15th century — which sounds extremely impressive.  Until you find out that the other one was built in the 12th century.  That’s OLD, people.

We emerged from the cellars, and then wandered through a small festival taking place in the village, sampling more wine and browsing through the wares of the sellers: jewelry, cheeses, breads, etc.  After a quick stop to purchase our favorites bottles from the tour, David and Lynne turned the car back towards Beaune.

We exchanged goodbyes, and they dropped me off at the train station.  The next thing I knew, I was standing on the platform waiting for the next ride to Dijon.

48 hours in Beaune.  48 wines tasted.  Not bad for 2 days.