On good advice from a great friend, we spent our final
days with Salt & Pepper cruising around the picturesque Bourgogne region,
carefully balancing our need to taste wine with our need to make it to the next
stop. Upon arrival in Beaune, the
weather was cold and rainy so we decided to start out with a few hours
underground in the Marche aux Vins.
We opted for the self-guided tour through multiple wine
tasting stations but didn’t find much that interested us until we sat down with
Laurent in a private room and he pulled out the really good stuff. We typically enjoy a heavier wine than is
found in the Burgandy region but Laurent managed to find enough interesting
Pinots and even a few whites for us to send a case back home.
The following day we had a tasting appointment at La Cave L’Ange Guardien where we were charmed by Pierre, a delightful host who introduced us
to many wines from the region (and one from the Cote du Rhone) as their own had
been sold out for the season. We ended up shipping home two cases, one
entirely of a Rare Brut Cremant; well, 11 of the Cremant and one bottle of Cassis
in order to duplicate the delicious Kir Royale which ended our tasting. Rushing from the tasting we barely had time
to change before making our reservation at Le Cheval Noir where our
fantastic meal (with wine parings) was marred by the poor service.
We took a night away from Salt and drove up through the
hills leaving the Cote de Beaune area for the Cote de Nuits and spending a night
at the Hotel de Vougeot in the village of, you guessed it, Vougeot. The weather was an uncooperative low-cloud
misty Seattle kind of day which almost erased the awe factor in the
sightseeing department. We were hoping a
visit to the Chateau Vougeot would shed some light on the many Grand Crus we
had sent home from this region, but, alas, the Chateau is now just a museum.
With our sights set on our Paris flat, and Pepper loaded
with wines for the month, we headed up to Paris staying four nights at the
perfectly located Camping Bois de Boulogne.
Knowing we had a month ahead of us to “do” Paris from the comfort of a
warm flat, we used all our days at the campground to prep Salt & Pepper for
their boat trip home—more on that in the next Musings.
I am quite behind in my blog postings but having arrived in
our flat all I can find time to do is walk and walk and walk. Ok, and shop.
And shop. And maybe just one more shop.
-K
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