Life is good.
Dinner Friday night was at l’Auberge de Vieux Vigneron in Corpeau – a tiny little hamlet just below Puligny. They do great grilled meats right in the fireplace in the middle of the dining room. I split a huge Côte de Boeuf with Jordan Mackay – it was grilled to perfection and very tasty…
Saturday morning kicked off with a walk around the Beaune market (which they moved out of the center of town this weekend due to the auction tomorrow and the massive human traffic in the village), where I ran into Dominique Lafon buying some oysters. Dominque will be joining us at the Paulée on Tuesday, with perhaps a good bottle or two in tow…
I joined up again with Jordan and his sommelier buds from SF – Jason & Mark – and we partook of the killer street food on offer around the Place Carnot in Beaune.
Here’s Jordan with his oysters and a tumbler of Chablis –
- Wine writer Jordan Mackay in Beaune
And here’s the real character who was frying up plates of frogs-legs and hollering “à la Grenouille, à la Grenouille” (to the frog, to the frog!) They were deliciously garlic-y and lip-smacking good.
à la Grenouille
I took the crew on a vineyard tour up and down the Côte – stopping off to walk thru Montrachet, La Tâche, Romanée-Conti, La Romanée, La Grand Rue, Richebourg, Romanée-St. Vivant, Musigny, Amoureuses, and all of the Gevrey Grand Crus. Here’s a shot of the Drouhin parcel of Musigny…
Musigny
Then it was a snack of some Comté and a foie gras mousse from Moron in Pommard, my favorite charcuterie shop here. Just a little something to tide me over until dinner! Good thing, because no food hit the plate until about 9:15 last night at the “Souverain Bailliage de Pommard” dinner and ceremonies. This was where I was inducted into the confrèrie last year. It was fun to be back as a returning member. This was a special anniversary edition of the event, which was started 25 years ago by one of our great Pommard producers, Aleth Girardin. They did a special powerpoint presentation during dinner, with photos of highlights from past years, including the attendance of French cinema giant Gerard Depardieu at the first dinner in 1983.
The food was great, the singing of Burgundian drinking songs was spirited, and a good time was had by all. Especially the gentleman sitting across from me, who specializes in getting inducted into confrèries all over France. (Every region, village, wine, foodstuff or special ingredient has its own festival and confrèrie in this country.) Here he is during the induction process, wearing the ceremonial costume from the Royal Order of the Haricot de Saucissons (A large, big as your thumb bean that they like to eat with small sausages – I kid you not!) I recorded some of the songs and merrymaking during the course of the evening for a future podcast – should be good stuff…
Monsieur Haricot
I was the first one to leave at about 1:15 am – they like for their dinners to run late here – and I crashed back in Volnay until about 10am.
Today was overcast and cool, but warmed by the thousands of people descending on Beaune for The Auction – otherwise known as the Hospices de Beaune. I met up with wine biz heavyweight Raj Parr (wine director for the Michael Mina group of restaurants) for a great lunch at Bistro de l’Hotel – mesclun salad with shaved parmesan and a blanket of fresh Burgundy truffles, followed by an awesome grilled ribeye and frites. We had a ’99 Clos du Chateau Des Ducs from Lafarge that was inspiringly excellent, and a killer ’06 Chambolle les Feuselottes from Mugneret-Gibourg that was showing absolutely beautifully for a youngster. I’m looking forward to seeing the Mugneret sisters at the Paulée…
I’m back in Volnay now resting my stomach for the next assault – dinner tonight at Michelin-starred Le Benaton with Thierry & Estelle Violot-Guillemard. In the meantime, here’s Aleth Girardin’s daughter Anne-Charlotte, one of our sommeliers last night…
Anne-Charlotte
