Burgundy ~ Where are the Jays

There city administration office is beautifully lit at night

Wine and Mustard

We got into Beanue aka Burgundy aka Bourgogne hot and tired and close to dinner time. We decide to just eat dinner at the hotel because we have not seen much of a town yet. Unpack, clean up a little and go down. It left a lot to be desired and happily our meals improved from there. After dinner we walk around a little and see some town which is actually about a 5-minute walk away.

Can’t not include a photo of a Panda

Our rough plan for the area is some wine tasting, mustard tasting, visit the hospice and a baroque music concert one evening. Next morning we see signs for the office of tourism and the lady at the front desk is quite helpful. She has a map of the town with some suggested walking routes, tells us about a light show they have on Friday nights and directs us to their small museum on Burgundy wine. From the movie and the placards in the room I learned that: wines were first grown in the area by the Romans, 11th century monks were planting wine, in the 14 - 15th centuries the Dukes of Burgundy aided in the fame of Burgundy grapes by exporting it, late 14th century a Duke mandated that all the gamay grapes be replaced with Pinot Noir; late 1600s the former monastic clos were sold off to noble and important families which then lead to a classification of the vineyards by the potential for grape quality. Terms we would then hear a lot from our wine tastings in Burgundy were:

clos - enclosed vineyard (walls or hedges)
cuvee - a wine made from a specific batch/tank and it must be by climat
appellation - in Burgundy that indicates both the quality of the land and locations. This is their AOC of which there are 4 levels regional, village, premier cru and grand cru.

We wander around the town some more; look for more ramparts and during lunch pick out a place to do a wine tasting from one of the brochures the tourism office gave us. I chose one that said cellar and tasting today. Key words to me. We stop by sign up and then go explore for a while longer

"cellar" wine tasting

We come back and the guy has a wine barrel table set up for us. I ask about the cellar and he ums a little says not really a cellar and takes us down. Yeah not what I was expecting and we were bummed. However, the guy did a fantastic wine tasting with us. He was quite knowledgeable in fact he poured the first tasting and then spoke so much I was getting antsy to just plain taste it! As in most tastings, we started with white wines. In Burgundy only 2 types of white grapes are grown, Aligoté and Chardonnay. He points out details to look at and then he has us smell it. Jeff starts to swirl the glass first like we had been taught before. He stopped him and says there are 3 distinct times to smell a wine. First without a swirl that smell is the skins of the grape. When you swirl you get the juice of the grape's smell and if you smell a glass after the wine you will smell the ground. Whew. Like I said we learned a lot. When we moved onto the red wines we learned more about the current status of Burgundy Wines. While they are selling pretty well that is because the wine makers have changed the style of wine they are making. Jeff and I are not real big fans of the new style. When I think of the color burgundy I think of a deep brownish maroon color. The wine we had was a much lighter hue than my expectation. Not sure if he was enjoying our company or trying to make up for our disappointment in his "cellar" but he brought out a lot of wines for us to taste and as we went along the price went up some. I liked the last 2 and Jeff the last one. Interestingly, I would learn more about the second from last wine the next day.

Middle bottle is from Fixin

Hotel -Dieu Des Hospices Civils De Beaune

After our wine tour, we stopped and toured the Beaune Hospice. Yes that is its name and has been for a very long time and no it isn't really a hospice in the current sense. It was established in 1443 by the duke and duchess of Burgundy. It was a hospital for the poor. They built it in the belief that this will aid in their efforts to get in to heaven. They built it the "right way" in other words they used quality materials and thought details thru. Of course, that meant there were cost over runs so they got some assistance from the King of France and some grants of tax avoidance to help them along financially. A group of nuns was recruited to run the hospital. In fact, that group of nuns still works in the modern Beaune hospital. Back to this place though. The main room was built to house the poor who were ill. It was a large main room with hospital beds lining the 2 long walls and one end held a chapel. Over time another room was added that was for the poor that were dying. With other additions over time a central open area developed which is now the courtyard. The hospice changed with the times adding a pharmacy - with nuns learning how to mix drugs. In fact, the hospice was used as a hospital until mid 20th century. Yes, you read that correctly it was a hospital till the second half of the 1900s. There is a story about a French military man being treated during one of the World Wars and the nuns sneaking him out when the Germans showed up. It is an amazing building. The part it is best known for is the tile roof on one of the buildings - multi-colored design. Additionally, along the way, someone donated grape vines to the hospice and now that wine is well known in France.

Part of the addition - notice the tile roof

Initial hospital for the poor

Beds lined the walls

Apothecary

Light Show

The nice tourism lady had given us a flyer with a map of the "Paths of Light" that Beaune does at night during the summer. We are still pretty far north latitude wise, so darkness is not till 10 or later thus the light show started at 10:30 at night. Several key buildings had projectors aimed at them and a series of different scenes were played out on each. We started at the hospice, then Notre Dame Cathedral, another former church and then the clock tower. City Hall was lit up like it was Christmas. The scenes that were depicted were quite nice. The most memorable and unfortunately the hardest to catch on camera was a cat chasing a light ball on the clock tower. It was an enjoyable hour going from place to place.

Hospice at night

Notre Dame alternated between many images

Former church alternated between the seasons

Clock tower with moving gears

My arrow points to cat chasing and pouncing at light

Driving around Cote Nuits

Before we headed out of town for the day, we visited the market. There were tents set up on many of the streets and in a couple of plazas. There were a lot of produce stands, some bakery products - we got macaroons from one stall plus meats and cheeses in a covered building. Of course there were all sorts of stuff stalls too from inexpensive clothing to nice handcrafts of all sorts.

After wandering we went back to our hotel, got in the car and headed north on the main road in the valley. Burgundy's vineyards line up along a 65 km distance and a narrow band in a valley and are broken into the cotes de Nuits and Cote de Beaune. The cote de nuit area tends to be more red wines while the Cote de Beaune is more white wines. We are heading north so we start in the white area and are heading for the red wine area. We stop for lunch in Nuit Saint Georges. It is a cute little town. There is a partially abandoned old fort/castle up a hill, and the streets are decorated with colorful flags. We drive some more till we are almost in Dijon which is the northern edge of the wine country. We make a reservation for what I thought was a winery tour and then leisurely head back south.

Like many cities in France, they use a brass triangle to define a tourist walking route

On our way we discover a town whose name we find appealing. Fixin. We drive around it a little and discover there is an interesting tidbit about this town. Seems there was a supporter of Napoleon who was from here and who stayed with him till pretty much the end. Anyway Fixin supports Napolean including a statute.

Entitled “Napoleon reclining”

Clos de Vougeot

The trusty tourist map said: "Visit this emblematic monument to the climats with its brathtaking views and discover the winegrowing genius of the monks who founded it in the middle ages." It had a big picture of a chateau with vineyards around it and an English tour available. Also mentioned seeing a 14th century wine press. Sounded good and it was but it was not a visit to a winery! Yes, it was a winery at one time. Yes it was started by monks. Yes it had a pretty view. They simply no longer make wine here. Rather now a days it is the home of a major wine grower society. The chapters have meetings there. It is rented out, etc. In the picture you see vineyards surrounding the building. Those are the vineyards originally started by the monks and are all grand cru (top level). Today those vines are owned by many different people. See map below. Some own a hectare some own a row or less and the land is incredibly valuable as in part of a hectare is worth millions.

Depicts how it has been subdivided

Our tour starts outside the chateau. We learn that a neighboring group of monks decided that they wanted to start a winery so they set up shop so to speak. At first it was a small operation but it grew over time. They added land and built a simple building for their work and sleeping. As things grew, the monks brought on lay monks. They did the actual work outside of the monastery during the week and then went back to the monastery on the weekend to pray. They added rooms for these men to sleep in during the week, and they expanded the wine making area. They were smart guys. Since the soil was too hard for them to dig a true cellar, they figured out a way to make one partially underground and yet remain at a constant temperature like a cellar would. In the 14th century they got a wine press. I think wine presses were just becoming a thing then. It is huge!!!! Amazingly it still works (just for fun not every day). Along that time, they realized they wanted the wine making to be done indoors but they also recognized that alcoholic fumes were produced during the process, so the building is roofless in the middle, and built quite open in a square shape

Stone wall defines the original Abby’s land

It took 4 men to turn the screw to lower the press

Courtyard adjacent to pressing machines

Unfortunately, in the 16th century the new head of this group of monks (the abbot) didn't really like all these religious guys around and built a fancy house for himself. Not only did it include ornate mantelpieces and a huge kitchen but also on the side facing the courtyard where all the religious laymen were working over the door were 2 statutes of quite busty women.

His manor house probably did the monks in during the French revolution. Because as was the case in many monasteries, they were kicked out of the house and off the land. One man did buy the land and worked it but the buildings were left abandoned. Happily a wealthy merchant bought the building with the help of a vintner then rebuilt the property. In the 1920s a well known politician and wine maker bought the porperty. This man had foresight, From here he would start the organization that would work to publish and popularize Burgundy wines. Later the chateau became their headquarters and the wine region is now a UNESCO heritage site. This organization is the Confrerie des Chevaliers. There are many chapters of it now and each year they have a blind tasting of wines and the best are granted the right to put their emblem on that wine. In fact, we had seen one during our cellar wine tasting.

Abbot’s chateau

Hall now used to host Societies chapter meetings and a wedding venue

Monk’s kitchen

Abott’s residence

Emblem earned from Society on right top of label

Baroque Music Concert Beaune Festival

Not sure if it was right before we got to Burgundy or when, but I had heard they were having a music festival while we were in town. On the weekend we were there, they were having a couple of operas and Bach's Mass in C Minor. I figured with all the different languages we would be best off with the mass versus an opera. Plus, it was in the Notre Dame Cathedral so it would probably have good acoustics, and the churches had been "cool" during the heat wave which is back. We got tickets with limited view which ended up being a plus in that are chairs had been set up further apart than the good seats so there was a little more airflow! The concert was a nice experience. I should add that these are professional musicians doing these performances.

Concert

Walking around Beaune

The old part of Beaune is quite walkable and has some nice green areas. It was a walled city at one time so if you hunt a little you can find some of the old ramparts and they have made them into a walking trail. We walked a lot in Beaune, and we also ran around the town one morning. I had feared it might be too small, but instead we found a nice size place and a couple of excellent restaurants. If you go to Beaune, make dinner reservations at 21BLD.

Ramparts wide as roads

Guard post on wall above Carol’s head

Loved the colorful tiles

Mustard tour and tasting

So the neighboring city of Dijon is known for mustard, but a few years back a family in Beaune brought back the propagation of mustard in Burgundy. They had maintained their mustard mills since the 1840s. Seems back around the 1930s people stopped growing mustard and planted other crops instead. The consistency and quality of their mustard is very important to the family so a few years back they began to work with growers to bring mustard as a crop back to the Burgundy region. Now they only use mustard seeds that are grown in Burgundy. While they have several buildings in the old town area of Beaune, it is only a 20 person operation which was amazing to me because as we were wandering around Jeff made an analogy to the Busch Brewery in downtown St Louis. Part of this is that their grain silos have to blend in with the old buildings of the town so some of the space is a little misleading. Mustard making is not a long process. The harvest the seeds and store them and grind then throughout the year. Since it was a Sunday, we saw where they grind the seeds on specific concrete stones that are cleaned and recalibrated annually where the husks fall out of the process (becomes animal feed) and saw a bottling line but none of it was in action. Now adays they have come up with multiple flavors of mustard. Part of the differences is if the seed is in there or if it is a smoother mustard - tends to affect the spiciness of it. At the end of the tour, there is a tasting bar with probably 15 or more mustards you can taste. I skipped a couple that I thought would be too hot for me but even so Jeff and I needed to eat something afterwards because all that mustard was not sitting well.

Mustard factory

Sampling bar

Chablis

Off to the side on the northern edge of Burgundy is Chablis. I tend to like chablis so I talked Jeff into a slight detour on our way to our next destination. Glad I did. We visited the Domaine Laroche Winery for a tour and a tasting. Have to admit when we first got there I thought oh no another mistake. I thought that because we were literally in the middle of town (small town) but still old buildings all around us and no grapes. Nope we did good. Turns out all those old buildings around are the facades of the winery. So yes no grapes here, but yes this was a monastery or as they say the Obediencerie. These were monks of St Martin and he is all around the town. We walk past the church of St Martin and are told the steeple is really special but unfortunately it is under wraps while being renovated.

Then we walk through a doorway and suddenly there are wine barrels in front of us and workers cleaning them so they can be reused this year. We learn how they clean with water and with blue UV light for hygiene, with the warm weather they are expecting to harvest early so they are on a tight deadline. We go down in the old cellars from the 12th century. Unlike so many of the others we have visited these have brick walls all around us no naked stone here. As we walk around the cellars, we see some interesting things. A couple of 3-foot-tall glass light bulb looking devices. Seems this is the latest way to store wine while it is fermenting. They bought a few to test it out. Otherwise, they age in a mixture of oak barrels and stainless-steel tanks. The glass bulbs or glass barrels allow one to observe the wine as it is fermenting and we can see the remaining sediment. From there we see where they store old bottles of wine. I think they had some back to the early 1900s, but after just few years they will not sell it anymore. What Jeff and I fixated on was how the mold in the rooms were eating away the labels and how dusty they were! Our last stop on the tour is another 14th century press - theirs needs a little work but first they must get governmental approval. We watch a short video and then wander back to the shop for the tasting. Our guide brings out a map of the area and points out the 4 levels of grape quality - petite chablis, chablis, chablis premier cru and chablis grand cru. While with the burgundy grapes you wanted to be up high, here the grand cru plots are lower westward facing and close to the river. Since the grapes are all chardonnay, I ask what makes a wine a chablis. She informs me that as of a few years ago only a wine from this protected area can claim to be a chablis and that the terroir of the soil is what makes it special. While all were nice, I learned that I probably should not buy a bottle of petite chablis because it was just a little too weak for my taste. She says yes perfect for sipping on a porch on a hot day, but not with food. Not surprisingly, we walk out with a bottle of chablis.