A Wine Tasting Morning: Nuits-saint-georges

On a morning’s tasting we met several of the finest, and friendliest, winegrowers on the Côte de Nuits. After a see to Vosne-Romanée we motored down the road to Nuits-Saint-Georges to satisfy Fabienne Bony. Through the deluxe Land Wanderer’s open home windows our guide David mentioned the Romanée-Conti, La Tâche and also Richebourg vineyards. Scenes from an oenological fairy story, the 2 Australian couples with us gazed as David revealed us how a strip of premier cru vines, Vosne Romanée Premier Cru Les Suchots and also Beaumont, are surrounded to the left as well as right by grand crus. There are seven grands crus right here, arguably the best of the Côte d’Or: Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, La Romanée, Romanée-Saint-Vivant as well as Richebourg in Vosne-Romanée cover 64.7 acres; Grands-Echézeaux and Echézeaux are in Flagey-Echézeaux and also complete 115.8 acres. Grand crus account for a small 2% of all wine produced in Burgundy.

The petite Fabienne stood beaming at us close to her substantial tractor as we drove right into the yard. Gallant attorney and also banking males in our group reported after that they felt like leaping out to concern her help. The big high-clearance winery tractor overlooked her like a praying mantis. However Fabienne Bony can not utilize assistance from our soft workplace hands. She functions the estate totally on her own. Her other half is a permanent livestock as well as cereal farmer. Their one and also three year-old daughters are looked after by granny while Fabienne remains in the vines or hectic in the wine rack. She is of the brand-new generation of Burgundy cultivators that have done so a lot to boost high quality and have actually moved from mainly bulk wine sales to containers.

We collected around her on the side of a winery adjoining the house for a brief lesson on the particularities of Chardonnay and also Pinot Noir grapes. It’s not only the skin colours which differ. The shapes of the leaves, the lots each vine, the vines’ behavior specifically weather conditions– all differ significantly. The grape explanations over, we bent our heads as well as filed down the stairs right into the cellar. Fabienne syphoned a couple of centilitres from barrels, squirting dark ruby coloured sampling samples right into each of our glasses as we progressed around the cellar. We observed some extremely significant adjustments in wines relying on the kind of oak used, some seemed sweeter than others, some had a really smoky preference. She described exactly how her premier cru wines are matured in 100% new oak while the various other wines are aged in 2, 3 and four years of age barrels.

From the barrel to the container; the container sampling was kept in the Bony household kitchen area. Conveniently installed around the dark oak kitchen area table we were led through a puzzle of appellations, vintages and specific plots. Fabienne speaks fairly great English so Lynne’s translation services were seldom called for. Sampling all the Nuits-Saint-Georges from parcels of vines only a few metres from each various other but so different in flavour was a huge learning experience. Lynne took us through some of the flavours as well as aromas to be anticipated in young Pinot Noir wines– raspberry fruit and cassis berry. After a discussion of the barrel aging procedure David explained fragrant features in older red Burgundies. We tasted three different vintages of the single winery Nuit-Saint-Georges Les Damodes as well as discovered a range of mushroom and also earthy farmyard scents! Among our brethren from down-under asked Fabienne which wine she preferred. ‘Everything depends on the dish which is going along with the wine’ she smiled. On hint, we bid goodbye to the lady winegrower from Nuits-Saint-Georges and also head down to Le Morgan in Savigny-lès-Beaune for lunch.

An attracting food selection of typical Wine red cuisine with special trademark dishes of the cook maintained us hovering before we could make a decision. Owner Jean-Pierre invited us, took our order, prepared the food and also served it. And also he cared for the other 2 tables of lunching winegrowers with as much treatment as he did us.

An Aussie accent called out, “Rought, how mach time do we ‘ave for a snooze before going on to number 3?”