Fantastic Trip to Burgundy without Emphasis on Visits...Short perhaps Informative

WINE TALK
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Fortunately or unfortunately, I love Burgundy. Our third trip, for my wife and I

Our first trip in 1996 we winged it. Got into Dujac, Rousseau, Clos de Tart, Vogue and others. Great trip didn’t know much at the time about burgundy.

Next trip in 2012 I was aiming for at least 2 visits every day. Went to Dujac, Arlaud, Vogue, Faiveley, Drouhin and others. Not being a great spitter, by dinner time I was exhausted, didn’t really enjoy dinners and drank little with the dinner. Felt like a big whirlwind of drinking and I don’t have near the fortitude others seem to have for drinking. Also we did this trip with 2 other couples. Wow putting that together was a lot of work. Much easier with just 2 people once your there.

May of this year, my wife and I, 3 weeks before booked air and started planning our 3rd trip. Many points follow that I learned

1…visits especially for the top producers are very difficult to get without being ITB. Speaking French would help as well. Perhaps placing many requests would have a better yield. In retrospect I am glad I didn’t get totally booked up.

2…Burgundy is much more than the visits to Domaines. Many of the restaurants are killer, the charm of the villages is wonderful, the country air is invigorating, the wines you can get at the restaurants can be incredibly well priced compared to NY retail or auction.

3…At the restaurants no need to go grand or even premier cru. I learned to love many village level wines and even a specified red Bourgogne. The village wines with 5 years or less of age were amazing. I now love Chambolle Musigny. You certainly still need to pick your producers wisely.

4… Man, some of the restaurants cook up some amazing duck and pigeon. Skip the Michelin stars, go farm to table. Thanks to reading other Berserkers suggestions for restaurants, I have 4 I will definitely return to. I got more of a sense of place by savoring 1/2 a bottle with the food from the region.

5…The highlight of our day became dinner with a great bottle of wine. We spent between 100 and 250 a bottle.

6…We rented a gite in Beaune, We could walk to half the restaurants we ate at. Very convenient. We could also cook our own breakfast and light lunches. Eating out more than once a day for me too much for my waistline. Also something nice about eating in your own space at your own pace.

7… Shopping at the farmers market on the weekend is a great way to get ingredients.

8… We flew into and Paris and rented a car, Stopped at one of the only 2 Costco in France. Great cheese, Gazpacho in a milk type container, load up on beverages…all at great Costco QPR. The wine selection was nothing special. Having a car was very helpful, we parked outside the Beaune walls at free public parking.

9… The French seem to have a lot of national holidays. We went a week that had a holiday on weds and Thursday, and Friday was a bridge day. Many Domaines were closed Wednesday until Monday!

10…Try to visit some small off the radar domaines. You may be surprised how good they are. We had our most intimate tasting at a small domaine. The wines were excellent. Another Domaine recommended them.

I will return to burgundy much sooner, in a year or two. I hope my experiences can help others.

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Glad you had a good trip. FYI this year it’s especially hard to get visits because it’s a difficult growing year. It’s been all hands on deck in the vineyards all Spring and Summer being so wet, so they have very little time to welcome extra visitors. In an easier vintage, more doors would be open.

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I love going to Burgundy and you really express why. I esp. agree with “Skip the Michelin stars, go farm to table.” IMHO, if you want Michelin stars, go to Paris. Burgundy is for simpler food done perfectly.

We generally take the TGV from Paris to Dijon and then rent a car in Dijon (staying generally in Beaune where so many great restaurants are). Saves a lot of wear and tear on my old bones not having to drive from Paris. From the Dijon train station, I generally am in the vineyards in 10-15 minutes.

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Beautiful write up. There are some great points in there.
I love pigeon!

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Andrew, they were indeed working hard in the vineyards. One of our visits was cancelled because of it. There was much more rain than usual. Perhaps I will get more open doors next time

Howard, we entertained the TGV, but my wife wanted to drive. We did get to Costco because of having a car. Comte, Reblochon, Camembert, Brillat-Savarin Epoisses

Thanks Don

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The TGV is great unless you want to stop in Chablis(which I highly recommend), in which case it takes you out of your way. We drove from Paris and then dropped the car at the Dijon train station on our way back to Paris, which worked out well.

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Or champagne.

We made a loop last time: Champagne ->Alsace->burgundy. Was excellent.

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On my last quick Burgundy trip I flew into Geneva. Its super easy and only 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Beaune. I was there for an event and only had 48 hours so it was perfect.

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We’re doing TGV next year, but I really love that drive, Paris–Chablis–Semur–Chateauneuf-en-Auxois–Beaune…

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@andrew_messenger Great write up, thank you. We have very similar approaches to travel.

One request - what were the restaurants you liked? Please share!

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Loved Tabla et Square in Beaune. Best duck I ever had

Cave et Cuisine in Demigny was fantastic. Killer wine list

La Cabotte was excellent. Eating outside on a Sunday afternoon was awesome. BTW, another lesson learned, many restaurants are closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Ma Cuisine…amazing wine list, A- food, but the pigeon was great. Fois gras very good

My worst meal…Millesime in Chambolle. Maybe an off night. Chef on vacation? Many rave reviews. How many NY Chinese restaurants are fantastic until, it seems, they change to a lower paid chef. Maybe this is the case. Dunno. Recent reviews on yelp and the like, less positive. Another lesson…check out RECENT reviews.

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Dear Andrew,

Great to see how much you enjoyed Burgundy. However, I have to differ on the subject of visiting restaurants. Where once it was a true joy for me eating well and drinking some of the great wines there at LA CABOTTE, MILLESIMES, LE CHAMBOLLE, CHEZ GUY, LE PETIT AUBERGE, LE RICHEBOURG etc… , I have become annoyed with price policies. Nearly all the restaurants have only VERY recent vintages on the winelist. During my latest visit I hardly came across a 2017 or even a 2019, only 2020 and 2021 and at ridiculous prices. Why triple the price considered that such principle was to cover the cost of keeping the wine in the cellar and presenting it when it was ready. No wonder my good friend DANIEL BOCQUENET at the time was no longer willing to provide a certain well known restaurant in NUITS with his succulent Aux Saint Julien. The resto bought the wine at the winery only to put it on the list the following week at three times the price they bought it. Daniel Bocquenet was there to enjoy a meal and was really pissed when he went through the winelist…He said : NO MORE. So did I !

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There is a reason why the lists are picked over. There are basically three alternatives price them cheaply and everything disappears quickly, keep most off the rare wines off the list or mark them up to slow the depletion and make money on the small allocations you get.

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Enjoyed your comments. Thanks for posting. Mirror many of our experiences with both food and wine last September. Stayed in Beaune and ate at several of the same places. Really enjoyed being able to walk around town so easily. The market on Saturday was fun too.

With a car I’d suggest Le Soufflot in Meursault as another place to dine. I’ll go back next time for both food and wine.

Would enjoy hearing about any of the small producers you visited if you’re willing. Hoping to get back next year and compiling a list.

Thanks.

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Any posts on this?

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Before we decided to do our entire trip via rail, due to rental car drop-off charges, I had planned to drive from CDG to Chablis for lunch, then wind our way through Noyers, Montbard, and Semur. On a previous trip we stayed on a canal barge, at the bottom of the hill below Chateauneuf-en-Auxois. For me, that drive beats screaming down the A6 to Beaune.
:wine_glass:

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Also, there are several speed cameras along A6, and the downhill sections take real attention to keep speed in check.

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Good suggestion. Also, Hôtel du Globe.

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Johan, the middle man be it a distributor or the Burgundy restaurant, acting like a middle man as well as the final seller, always seem to get a disproportionate piece of the pie. For me, relatively speaking, the wines were cheap and available. The wine makers must enjoy have their wines sold in restaurants, the stores don’t seem to sell very much worthwhile, maybe they save them for themselves or locals. If they sold the wines only to distributors I would be paying more once again.

MMeyers, I happen to really like Laurent wines for the QPR. I tried to get a tasting by knocking on the door. I met him. He said they no longer ship to the US due to a Martin Scott issue, having frequent tastings is too expensive, and he suggested we go to his wine maker at Domaine Chicotot. The woman was lovely and we had the best personalized tasting of the entire trip. The wines are excellent with a good QPR. Next time I’ll seek out more off the radar domaines. We only had a limited number of dinners and we didn’t get to some on my list , like Soufflot.

Alan, I was sure I saw a speed camera flash. No ticket yet. France makes a lot of euros with those things

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I’m probably just misunderstanding this completely, but don’t restaurants always price wines on their list higher than what they paid for them?

How much higher is always a subject of discussion on here, and I don’t know how bad 3X (over restaurant cost, not retail) is in Burgundy.