John Linton We woke latish and had breakfast in our room which was very French and very nice (I haven't had a soft boiled egg since I was 'in the nursery) but it was a treat as were the selection of pastries and freshly squeezed orange juice. We would have had it on the little terrace through the, appropriately, French doors that open from our room but was a very cold morning with the imminent threat of rain. We met our tour guide at the appointed time and set off for the short drive to the village of Puligny Montrachet for our planned day of learning about Burgundy and the wines of this special district.
Our fount of all knowledge was a charming guy who had spent nine months in the Coonawarra as part of his training who took us around the village and provided a mass of detail, including everything we wanted to know, about the wines of the district and the history of Burgundy as well as pointing out the 20 different districts that carry the Puligney appellation and how their terroir differ and how this affects the tastes of the different classes of wine (Village through Grand Cru). Among the interesting data was the fact that the average number of bottles of Montrachet made in any good year is only 18,000 of which his employer makes around 900 - 5% of the total world supply for the arithmetically challenged.
We then went for the obligatory tour of his employer's (Olivier LeFlaive) winery hosted by M Leflaive himself and got some new views of how very high quality wine is made these days. It was interesting enough and I learned how and why this particular winemaker derided the idea that 100% new oak should be used to make gand cru chardonnay - dismissing it as something "Les Americaines have finally learned not to do but that your countrymen still haven't". I am sure some of the more stellar Australian wine writers have also yet to understand that opinion. It was all very interesting.
The high lights, if there hadn't been enough already, was undoubtedly the tasting luncheon that 'sprawled over' two plus hours with very informative analyses and descriptions of the wines and really nice 'rustic food' to allow the wine to be tasted 'plain' and accompanied by various food (six different cheeses, smoked salmon, chicken and pate and three different types of bread). In all there were eleven different wines including six premiere crus and two grand crus (Batard Montrachet and Corton Charlegmaine). All but the first 'el cheapie' were really good wines and the grand crus were exceptional.
What really surprised me was how inexpensive all the wines were. They ranged from around $45 for a Mersault and and a Puligney Montrachet to $75.00 for a premiere cru version of those wines with the grand crus only a little over $100.00 a bottle. So - very, very inexpensive compared to what we pay in Australia. Of course the Montrachet grand cru was more expensive but at the price of less than $300.00 a bottle - what could I do but buy 0.001% of the world's supply of 2008 (2 bottles in case I've messed up the noughts). So although it was a 'tasting lunch' and we did pour most of every glass away we definitely were quite somnolent on the short trip back to our hotel which we reached at around four in the afternoon. A memorable first day of our visit to Burgundy and I hope between now and 8 pm we can work up enough of an appetite to do justice to the restaurant we are going to later tonight.
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