Gone for a while and here I come back and the old world is gone - the locked down, sad little windblown WT site makes me think of the last scene of Silent Running.
This is a little bit of what I did on summer vacation, but I figure someone out there will find bits and pieces of this interesting or helpful.
We just got back from three weeks in France - one week in Condrieu, one week biking with my brother from Lyon to Auxerre, and a week in the Chablis area. Wine was just a part of the scene and so producer visits we actually sort of limited.
The first week we stayed in a cheap, basic gite up above Condrieu, in the Pilat Hills. Great views - the day we got there we had a sweeping view of the Alps and Mont Blanc. Lots of walking, biking, sitting. Biking is superb in the area. Would highly recommend the gite as a good basic base: www.giterasera.fr
We did visit Jasmin, Jamet, Levet, and Barge. Jasmin's CR is not always my favorite, but I really liked him, he was very gracious, and spent quite a while with us. Jamet was disappointing - when we visited him in 01 the dirt floored, foudre filled cave left an impression, but now there is a new tasting room, cuverie, etc. The wines reflect the financial success too, I think. The visit with Mme. Levet was great, as were the wines. We had the 02, 04, and 05, all super and different - terrific purity. A quick visit with Mme. Barge, another super producer.
If you're ever there, be sure to hike up the Cote - it is not that hard and really beautiful.
A strange assortment of wine for the week - here is a mostly complete list:
06 Faury St. J rouge - nice northern style
06 Cuilleron SJ blanc - can't remember cuvee - too oaky
01 Raspail Ay - too bretty
06 Gripa blanc - beautiful
04 Coursodon Olivets blanc - beautiful and flatteur tho too oaky
06 Pichon Viognier VdP - serious wine, great complexity
06 Barge SJ rouge - very nice and pure
02 Levet CR - wish I had lots
OK, let's move on to the bike tour. Lesli headed north to visit a friend and my brother came down to Lyon. Our general route - Beaujolais from the extreme south to the northern tip of Burgundy. North up through the Terres Dores to the cru Beaujolais, then thru the Maconnais hills, down to the Loire valley briefly, north up thru Rully to the Cote d'Or and Dijon, then along the Burgundy canal path to Montbard, then across the grain to the Yonne. It was a great route, an easy week, and just fantastically fun. About 50 miles a day, different types of riding and country every day, and a route I would definitely recommend.
Day one - leaving Lyon was a pain in the butt, as I knew it would, but within an hour and a half we'd freed ourselves from the suburbs and made it into the southern edge of Beaujolais. Stayed in Chatillon.
Day two - started the day with a visit with everybody's favorite, JP Brun. He was gracious and we had a really nice time. We tasted pretty much everything -
both blancs (one pure inox, not imported) - the 07 barrel fermented is terrific by the way - the l'Ancien, the four 06 crus, the pinot, a gamay rose, a blanc petillant, and the Labeur d'Octobre, a very good sweet wine. To be honest all the reds except the CdB were pretty dense and young, but all with huge promise. The crus all had great typicity. And I once again came away with feeling that his blanc barrel fermented is one of the all time great white wine values. By the way, Joe isn't kidding about the 07 l'Ancien declass - it is sitting there, waiting resolve. Truly an insane situation. By the way, somehow I didn't hear this before, but Brun doesn't use carbonic maceration - rahter a la Jadot vinifies in a burgundian style.
From there we headed north along the east edge of the Terres Dores - a very beautiful area if you haven't been there. Hilly, but not too bad with routes established in a pre-car era. Down to the cru, passing along the east edge of the Cote de Brouilly, then over the edge of the Cote du Py into Morgon - stayed at the main hotel in Morgon, can't remember name, adequate.
Day three - headed out of Morgon on the D route through Fleurie and Chenas, then headed over toward the shoulder into Fuisse. Up into Solutre, and then a nice climb up between the Roche Solutre and Roche Vergisson, over the Vergisson pass down toward Roche Vineuse, then north up a beautiful straight valley to Cruzille. Stayed at a nice chambre d'hotes. Amazing riding all day, through the heart of the Maconnais.
You know, I'm beat, and I had to retype half this when I pushed "post" instead of "upload" an hour or so ago, and so I'm going to pick this up and finish it later...
This is a little bit of what I did on summer vacation, but I figure someone out there will find bits and pieces of this interesting or helpful.
We just got back from three weeks in France - one week in Condrieu, one week biking with my brother from Lyon to Auxerre, and a week in the Chablis area. Wine was just a part of the scene and so producer visits we actually sort of limited.
The first week we stayed in a cheap, basic gite up above Condrieu, in the Pilat Hills. Great views - the day we got there we had a sweeping view of the Alps and Mont Blanc. Lots of walking, biking, sitting. Biking is superb in the area. Would highly recommend the gite as a good basic base: www.giterasera.fr
A strange assortment of wine for the week - here is a mostly complete list:
06 Faury St. J rouge - nice northern style
06 Cuilleron SJ blanc - can't remember cuvee - too oaky
01 Raspail Ay - too bretty
06 Gripa blanc - beautiful
04 Coursodon Olivets blanc - beautiful and flatteur tho too oaky
06 Pichon Viognier VdP - serious wine, great complexity
06 Barge SJ rouge - very nice and pure
02 Levet CR - wish I had lots
OK, let's move on to the bike tour. Lesli headed north to visit a friend and my brother came down to Lyon. Our general route - Beaujolais from the extreme south to the northern tip of Burgundy. North up through the Terres Dores to the cru Beaujolais, then thru the Maconnais hills, down to the Loire valley briefly, north up thru Rully to the Cote d'Or and Dijon, then along the Burgundy canal path to Montbard, then across the grain to the Yonne. It was a great route, an easy week, and just fantastically fun. About 50 miles a day, different types of riding and country every day, and a route I would definitely recommend.
Day one - leaving Lyon was a pain in the butt, as I knew it would, but within an hour and a half we'd freed ourselves from the suburbs and made it into the southern edge of Beaujolais. Stayed in Chatillon.
Day two - started the day with a visit with everybody's favorite, JP Brun. He was gracious and we had a really nice time. We tasted pretty much everything -
both blancs (one pure inox, not imported) - the 07 barrel fermented is terrific by the way - the l'Ancien, the four 06 crus, the pinot, a gamay rose, a blanc petillant, and the Labeur d'Octobre, a very good sweet wine. To be honest all the reds except the CdB were pretty dense and young, but all with huge promise. The crus all had great typicity. And I once again came away with feeling that his blanc barrel fermented is one of the all time great white wine values. By the way, Joe isn't kidding about the 07 l'Ancien declass - it is sitting there, waiting resolve. Truly an insane situation. By the way, somehow I didn't hear this before, but Brun doesn't use carbonic maceration - rahter a la Jadot vinifies in a burgundian style.
