Wine tour 2012 - day 6

After breakfast we went to a cooper, to understand how to make a barrel in which the wines spent the first year. Arriving in St-Romain, we visited a renown barrel manufacturer, who had a small workshop for demonstrating how the barrels were made. The master cooper demonstrated how to prepare the oak staves in the right shape, length and angle, and then putting all those together using just a metal ring to form the barrel shape, without any nail or stubs... it is really an amazing job!

Then it was our turn to try! We were split into two teams and competed with each other to see how made the best barrel. Even though the staves were all prepared for us, it took the three of us together to hold them tightly and I had to hammer it repeatedly, which was quite labor-intensive. After finishing the rough shape, we had to roll to test whether it 'cracks'. It seemed Benny's team had done a better job on that... Haha...

Taking some photos, the master cooper then taught us how to further assemble the barrel with the second ring and toast it, to form the proper shape and then adding the lids. Now we understood why a new French barrel would cost EUR 750. We also got a part of the stave as a souvenir. Really an interesting experience!

Then we headed to Domaine Matrot for a tasting. Located in Meursault, we met the owner Mr. Matrot and he showed us his cellar, which were all stainless steel vats and modern. But then as we went down we saw the traditional underground where he kept his older vintages, which was a deep contrast to the winery. We tasted a few bottles of his Meursault and they were all very good. Maybe it was because of the organic viticulture that he practiced? Unfortunately considering my limited space I did not buy any, but he gave me the contact for their HK agent which I would try to find the wines. 

 

Yesterday we went to the most expensive Pinot Noir parcel, and of course we couldn't miss the most expensive Chardonnay parcel, so we went to Montrachet for another picnic. Stopping in front of Chevalier-Montrachet and overseeing the other grands crus, where the most expensive white burgundy was produced, we had a good time basking under the warm sun to enjoy some wines and snacks.

Feeling hungry we went to another Michelin restaurant for lunch: Pierre & Jean, la cuisine d'en face in St-Romain. The food was so nicely put that one had to admire the skills of the chef not just in the cooking part but also the art of showing a nice presentation. It was another wonderful meal.

We then drove by to take a look at a famous castle in the area: La Rochepot Castle, which was built in the 11th century. Not having much to look inside, we decided to take a few photos on outside only, before proceeding to the plateau on this part of Cote d'Or, which provided a nice view of the villages.

On the way back we stopped by Domaine Buisson to taste some more wines. The current owner Gilles Buisson came to greet us and his colleague, a young pretty lady, explained to us the different wines they made in the area, from Meursault, Volnay, Auxey-Duresses to St-Romain. Personally I like the St-Romain the most though it was not exceptional enough for me to buy any.

In the evening we went for something different, some Japanese style cuisine at Michelin restaurant Sushikai. Considering the location and the difficulty in getting the fresh fish, you could feel the dedication and hardwork of the chef and his team. It was also good to have something different for a change in the last few days in which we had all French cuisine. A quiet and peaceful dinner, at a serene atmosphere from the bamboo corridor and settings, I got a sense of sadness as this was the last night we were spending in Beaune.

(to be continued...)

Wine tour 2012 - day 5

On every Wednesday and Saturday there is a market in Beaune, with the individuals putting up stalls selling their wares. Today before starting our tour we went for a walk in the market, and each of us buying some interesting things as souvenirs. The people were all very friendly and some of us would simply want to spend more time but we had to leave to go for a 'picnic'.

Heading to Cote de Nuits, you can guess we were aiming for the holy grail of Pinot Noir - Romanee Conti. We passed through Aloxe-Corton and Nuits-St-Georges along the way, finally arriving Vosne-Romanee. At the village centre, David showed us where one of the owners of DRC (the de Villaine family) lived. With no sign whatsoever connecting to DRC, it probably had avoided the tourists spotlight.

Walking along, we also stopped in front of the DRC winery. It was very difficult to go in and normally no visitor would be allowed. Just taking a few photos, David pointed out the winemaker to us, who could be seen busy preparing for the coming harvest.

All of these were not our destination, as mentioned it was a 'picnic', and we walked further to the vineyards, passing through the grand cru Romanee-St-Vivant and the really ripe, healthy Pinot Noir grapes, arriving at the Romanee-Conti parcel.

Romanee-Conti is definitely the most famous estate in Burgundy if not the world, with the monopole having about 1.8 hectares. There are another 5 grands crus under DRC in Vosne-Romanee which were all famous too, and another white from Montrachet. I promised myself that I would own a set one day.

Taking enough photos, it was time to drink some wines. It would be too expensive to open a DRC here and we settled for something more manageable, a Francois Larmarche Vosne-Romanee and a Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Bressandes. With some fresh bread, we had a wonderful time enjoying the scenary and weather.

After that we went to Chateau du Clos de Vougeot which had been making wines as early as the 12th century by the monks. Looking at the huge barrels and wine presses, one could imagine how in the old days the wines were made. This is where the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin had their event also, which hopefully I could also join sometime in future.

Moving along we passed through Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-St-Denis to arrive at Gevrey-Chambertin, to meet Pierre and Marie Naigeon in their estate for lunch and tasting. Marie was the one who helped me organize this tour in Burgundy, and through her connections we were able to get a lot of exclusive visits. We proceeded to go down to the cellar, which was maintained at the natural way to preserve the eco-system there, providing an ideal environment for the maturation of the wines. It was also where we were having our lunch.

Pierre was very friendly and explained the winemaking process to us, and we also tasted the new wines from barrels of all his impressive range of wines, covering 6 grands crus, 8 premiers crus and 8 villages. Pierre is a true believer of terroir and the traditional practices and in my opinion the wines also showed clearly the different characters. A very valuable experience!

Over lunch we had good chat about wine and tasted 6 bottles of their wine, which were all very good. The production was small and with insufficient to service all customers, it was never seen in HK too. I bought two bottles to bring back home and they were a good bargain: a 2009 Bonnes-Mares at EUR 86 and a 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers VV at EUR 83. If only I have more room...

Leaving Pierre and Marie we headed to try something different - aperitif. In Burgundy it is also renown for producing good fruit, like blackcurrant, raspberry, peach and so on. Taking these fruit people made liqueur and we went to an award-winning producer Gilles Joannet to look at how he made them. It was interesting to see how the fresh fruit was soaked in high alcohol to extract the flavors, and for tax purposes he had to keep the used pulp for audit.

Of course we needed to taste them, with Benny and myself tasting all the 10 liqueur. At 20% alcohol level, even a small portion could get you dizzy, but since we were all well-trained now it was not an issue. I bought a set of three: Creme de Cassis, Framboise and Peche de Vigne. Anxious to make my own Kir when I am back to HK!

Returning to Beaune, we had dinner at a Michelin restaurant Loiseau des Vignes. This restaurant was located in the old part of Hotel Cep, with beautifully restored high-ceilinged rooms where we could see the ancient stones. The food was fantastic and again bringing another happy memory for me to bring back home.

(to be continued...)

Wineshark Recipe - 58 Curry Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• Chicken wings - 2 lb
• Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
• Onion sliced - 8 oz
• Curry powder - 1 tbsp
• Ground cumin - 1 tsp
• Chili powder - 1 tsp
• Saffron - a little bit
• Garlic finely - 1 tsp
• Coconut milk - 1 can
• Corn starch - 1/2 tbsp
• Chicken stock - 10 oz
• Avoset - 3 oz
• Banana sliced - 2
• Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
• Salt - 1.5 tsp

First defrost the chicken wings and then dry them, add the salt and a bit of cooking oil to marinate.

Stir fry the onion until it smells good, then add curry powder, chili powder, cumin and saffron, to continue to cook for a short while.

Add the chicken wings (you can panfry the wings with garlic finely first), and then chicken stock, coconut milk, avoset, corn starch (mixed with water), banana, lemon juice and seasonings. Alternatively (preferred) will be to not panfry the wings but add it straight to the sauce, but then cover the pot for a while to cook it, which will make the wings more tender.

Best serve with rice.

Wineshark Recipe - 57 Chicken Minestrone

Ingredients:

• Chicken stock - 2 lb
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Onion diced - 4 oz
• Carrot diced - 4 oz
• Celery diced - 2 oz
• Cooked chicken - 4 oz
• Macaroni - 2 oz
• Tomato paste - 1 tbsp
• Oregano - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Black pepper finely - 1/4 tsp

First use the butter to stir fry the diced vegetables, then add tomato paste.

Add chicken stock and macaroni to cook for about 15 min.

Finally add the seasonings.

Wine tour 2012 - day 4

Today we focused on Cote de Beaune, and started off by driving from the hotel to Puligny-Montrachet, passing through Pommard, Volnay and Meursault. It was actually very close from one village to another, taking us only about 15 minutes to arrive there if we didn't stop. But since there were time before our appointment, David took us through all the villages for a quick look. See how nice he had been...

We arrived at La Maison Olivier Leflaive to join a bigger group for the tour. It also included a nice hotel for visitors. A bit of background here. Olivier decided in 1984 to set up a new domaine with his brother Patrick and uncle Vincent, after acquiring the experience and techniques working in the family Domaine Leflaive. With his dedication, the wine is now getting much attention even if it is still not as renown as Domaine Leflaive.

Chris from the domaine brought us to the vineyards, taking a look at the Chardonnay planted just a short walk from the domaine. This year was a difficult year for Burgundy, with spring frosts and heavy rain for an extended period, and the harvest was actually pushed back for more than two weeks. We asked whether this would be a bad vintage but according to Chris, this year would be a test for the producers. Good producers would still be able to produce good wines by reducing the yield and through careful sorting. But for them the yield would be less than 50%, meaning the price would be high.

We then returned to the winery, and Olivier himself came with us to explain his philsophy of winemaking. Walking with us together to show the fermentation, maturation, and bottling facilities. He is such a funny and kind grandfather that we enjoyed the tour very much. And he made a joke of asking Grace to be his wife for a year, which we all supported!

Then we headed back to the maison for lunch, which was very nice though a bit long. We had tasted 6 wines: Bourgogne Les Setilles 2010, St-Romain Sous le Chateau 2009, Puligny-Montrachet 2008, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ Gain 2008, Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2007 and Pommard 2008. The Montrachet were good with the richness and creaminess though a bit too young to drink in my opinion.  

We thenthe vineyards in St-Aubin and Auxey-Duresses, for a personalized tour of Hospice de Beaune. The tour guide from the hospice was a friendly lady, who showed us the history, and other interesting things. The hospice had been renovated so it looked very well-maintained.  went back to Beaune, dropping by in different villages again to take a look at

Our guide also shared with us the funny medicine people in the medieval times, like letting the cow ate all the herbal flowers and collecting the dung to make medicine for patients, using the dried grounded cockroaches to make powder for curing coughs, and the slime of snails to make medicine for cold.

You may know that the Hospice is also famous for the wine auction. Through the donations the hospice had got into possession of more than 60 hectares of vineyards in different parts of Cote d'Or, the hospice produces wines every year and sold them on auction in Nov for charity. Through the connection of the agency, we had the chance to go the very exclusive underground cellar of the hospice and met with the winemaker Roland Masse, to taste some good wines. We had Volnay 1er Cru Cuvee Blondeau, Beaune 1er Cru Cuvee Guigone de Salins and Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru, with the last one selling at more than $2200 per bottle!

I had a very good chat with Roland and asked whether he got some good white also. He immediately went to the back and brought back a Meursault-Genevrieres 1er Cru Cuvee Philippe le Bon. So generous of him! We then had learnt the song and dance of the Conferie and it was such a happy and joyful time for us that we felt sad saying goodbye to them. Before we went I also bought two bottles at the shop: a Corton Grand Cru Cuvee Charlotte Dumay 2009 and Mazi-Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvee Madeleine Collignon 2009.

On the night, we went to Le P'tit Paradis for dinner. Located at the back of the Notre Dame in Beaune, it is a small restaurant serving tasty dishes. Opening a St-Aubin on the night, we all had a good meal and completed a happy day in Beaune.

(to be continued...)

Wine tour 2012 - day 3

In order for us to enjoy the vacation and not worry about driving and finding where to visit and eat, I have got a local tour company to book the hotel and arranged the visits and meals. I can happily say that this is a smart decision and we all enjoyed all the details. Let me share with you...

Our driver/tour guide David came to Paris to pick us up at the hotel in the morning. With five of us, the agency had arranged a new Benz Vito to accompany us for the Burgundy and Alsace tour. The car was very comfortable and spacious, and it was a happy ride from Paris to our first stop - Chablis, which took about 2.5 hours.

The weather was simply perfect in Chablis, sunny with a little breeze, and we arrived at Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard. This is a producer specializing in different wines of Chablis and the surrounding region. Meeting our guide in the estate, he took us to the underground cellar to look at what made Chablis special - the kimmeridgian layer which brings the mineral charcters to the wine.

We then proceeded to the winery to understand more their winemaking process. In this domaine, they have wines matured in four different devices: the most traditional large old oak barrels, stainless steel vats, small new oak barrels and the concrete egg-shaped small vats.

Depending on the style wanted, different devices are used, with the old barrels providing some development of the wines making it rounder and richer, the stainless steel retaining the 'true' flavors and freshness of the grapes, the small barrels imparting a strong oak influence and creaminess and the concrete 'egg' reserving for special parcels of biodynamic wines.

After that we went up the estate building at the nice balcony, in which the breathtaking views of the Chablis vineyards greeted us. A brief explanation of the difference in Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru and Chablis Grand Cru was provided, which helped us to appreciate the classification.

Then it was the time to taste the wines. A total of 6 wines were tasted, including Petit Chablis 2011, Chablis 2011, Chablis 1er Cru Montmains 2010, Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent 2010, Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2009 and Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 2009. Personally I like the 1er Cru Montmains and Grand Cru Les Preuses the most, with crisp acidity and good floral and fruit characters. During the tasting, the current owner, Julien Brocard, also came by to say hello to us.

Feeling hungry, we then had lunch in the estate, at the VIP room looking at the gorgeous vineyards outside. The food was all Chablis delicacies prepared by the chef at the estate, in family style, and were paired with two magnums: Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent 2006 and Chablis 2008. I also requested to try their red produced in Irancy and so two more bottles were provided. The food was so good we all had eaten a lot, and the ladies also passed some to Benny and me (no wonder we got fat after this trip).

Before leaving, I bought a bottle of 2009 Les Preuses and having Julien autographed on the bottle for me. At Euro 42, it was quite a bargain as the same wine is selling in HK at $630.

We continued our journey to Beaune, taking another 1.5 hours. Finally arriving our destination, Hotel Athanor, which is located in the heart of the town's historic centre. It is a former Benedictine convent dating back to the 16th century. Grace and Carmen actually stayed in the older building, built in the 16th century, and the rest of us in the newer building built in the 17th century.

Still early, we went for a walk around the town, going to different shops to check out souvenirs and other interesting stuff. There is a nice garden in which we saw a merry-go-round and nice flowers.

Our dinner was arranged at les Caves Madeleine, a nice small restaurant serving simple but good food and a good range of wines. The owner Laurent Brelin introduced the menu to us, and I chose a Volnay 1er Cru Les Champans 2009.

(to be continued...)