JC is back in France! Day 8
As in New Zealand, today (Monday) is a public holiday meaning that we had a quieter day, but we still managed to track down a couple of producers happy to meet with us.
We left Jura and had a leisurely drive down some of the ‘D’ roads – small and largely rural – on our way back to Meursault where we were booked in for lunch at Le Soufflot. We were joined by mum, our niece Emmy and our friends Justin and Jean-Marie. Another delicious meal, a bottle of Coche-Dury Aligote 2019 and a bottle of Bergaut-Gerber Gevrey 1er Cru les Cazetiers 2018 – just the ticket! Justin and JM very generously shouted us all lunch …..
Our first visit of the day took us through charming rural countryside to the village of Aluze, where we met with a new producer for us – Alain Besard of Domaine Champs de l’Abbaye. We loved the style of wines here! Like Alain they are precise, thoughtful and charming. We should see them on our shores early 2023.
We followed up with a visit of a predominantly Rully and Mercurey producer – Domaine Danjean Berthoux. Their buildings included originally a windmill, and inside their tasting room they still have the massive bread oven, where several centuries ago all the locals would have gone, to have their wheat ground to flour, and then cooked as bread in the communal oven.
Their wines are honest and well made.
We had dinner the two of us in a brasserie in the city centre of Chalon sur Saône where we took the opportunity to do a short de-briefing.
We stayed the night in a very very basic hotel in Chagny- A place I would not dare to recommend!!!
1.Great wines for lunch! 2.Alain at Domaine Les Champs de l’Abbaye. You will love his wines! Soon in NZ 3.The terroir talking!
4.A quick stop at Chateau du Clos Vougeot. Grand Cru!