Miraculously, memories of life in the sixties still remain. One of the more ubiquitous ones involved couples getting together for Fondue(and ice cold cheap Rose’) parties and afterward, being treated to a torturous two hours, viewing slides of their most recent trip to France!
So here I go again, not learning a thing apparently and ready to tell you all about my recent trip to France. At least however, I’m sparing you the Fondue and slideshow and keeping it to just wine and cheese!
Wine
Cote d Or(Golden Hillside) covers only 37 miles, north to south and includes Cote de Nuits(mostly Pinot) and Cote de Beaune(mostly Chardonnay). Set in terraces, they run up from the roadside to almost 300 meters or so in altitude. As they rise, usually the value does as well. Draineage is key here, because it can get quite wet during the summer. Down by the road, you might find label indicating region(Bourgogne) which accounts for 50%of Burgundy’s production, next up the slope perhaps the village label, (eg. Beaune) about 35%, followed by Premier Cru approximately 10%(usually, but not always, a hyphenated village/vineyard-eg. Gevrey-Chambertin) and finally Grand Cru coming in at about 5%. Grand Cru can be found with the vineyard name only and usually preceded by an article, such as Le Montrachet.
Ownership typically passes from generation to generation with perhaps only 2 acres or so to maintain. Family members can be seen puttering around on their 1.5 acre row/rows like a weekend hobby.
Rows are arranged 1 meter wide, vines 1 meter high and 1 meter between.
Yield, by California standards is surprisingly low. Sixty cases per acre(translated) is about average, with Domaine Romanee Conti Grand Cru, only approximately 9 cases!
On a golden sunny fall afternoon, I picked up my friend “shorty” a 25lb. mut I met the previous evening(while he was eating my leftovers at the corner cafe) and as payment, he enthusiastically led the way on a 3 mile tour the next day from Puligny(poo-lynn-e) Montrachet, where I stayed, to Mersault, the next village a few miles away. This is white wine country (row by row though, you would find red mixed in) and I found the wine in these two areas to be absolutely “haunting” in both nose and mouth. Keep in mind, I went into this absolutely preferring red and left the country with all whites-carefully wrapped in my underwear!
To my amazement, they were pruning already! And pruning in a most unusual manner. “Wheel Barrel”-ever heard of one of those? I immediately understood the origin of the term. A homemade 
sixty gallon oil barrel, welded between two metal bars-the back being the handgrip and the front anchoring a wheel. This is torched open on the top like a horizontal H and the flaps are pulled up as entry. They move slowly from vine to vine, pruning and depositing cut vines into a fire within the barrel, pausing occasionally to warm themselves over the crackling flame. In between, always time for a sit-down with a baguette and of course the ever present “ciggie”! All through the vineyards these little fires burned bringing the most pleasant aroma wafting in the air on a crisp, clear beautiful fall afternoon. Shorty “peed” on most every row and I never heard a complaint, so the rootstock must be quite hardy.
As the sun set the barrels were left smoldering at rows end. The owners were off in their battered Citroen(or bicycle) with no more than the shears they brought with them.
The next day I was driven to visit producers, usually in the four to six thousand case capacity, where again, I was reminded of the difference between old world and new.
All natural yeast, ML without inoculation (usually occurring naturally in the spring) some fining, but seldom filtering. What does happen here of course, is Chaptalization(addition of sugar to must). We have to remember that in Burgundy, with the same latitude as Boston, if it rains through mid August and must be picked before the BIG rain in late September, sugars can be a bit low. This explains the fields of sugar beets that no one seemed interested in talking to me about.
One winemaker barrel sampled me 08 and remarked that it was JUST going into ML….that would be about 15 months they waited. The next sample occurred in June. A different world indeed.
Tasting rooms as we know them don’t exist. One’s motivation for a visit to a producer is to purchase wine where the price is ALWAYS lower than retail. The village people come with their own bottles or the producer will have a stash of clean used ones as well. Potential customers visit, taste and buy. Simple as that. I’m glad this doesn’t occur in Edna Valley, because I certainly wouldn’t have a job.
Cheese
On another day, I left Puligny Montrachet to visit three sacred monuments. The first, the “Holy Grail”, was Abbaye de Citeaux, near Nuits St. George. The Abbey was founded in 1098 and today, thirty monks tend their Montbeliard Cattle producing among other things the regions two most popular cheeses: Epoisses(e pway say) a soft bloom washed rind cheese and Brillat Savarin, the triple creme “king of cheeses” in France.
Later, I visited Epoisses itself and the Berthaut factory, followed by Brochon to see the Gaugry plant.
In France, a cheese course is offered AFTER every meal and BEFORE the chocolate, cigarettes and cafe. This is part of the “French Paradox”. When they’re not kissing, they’re either eating, smoking or drinking wine. I never saw a jogger or an overweight person the entire trip.
Well that’s enough for now. If you’re ever interested in some Fondue, I’ll haul out the slide projector and really torture you!
-John Shakely
