Beaune and Chorey-Lès-Beaune
Beaune is the capital of the Côte d'Or and for some it
is considered to be the world's capital of wine. Many big wine trading
companies have their headquarters here. The whole city is interwoven with
large cellars that sometimes cross several streets - under ground of course.
Beaune wines often have aromas of raspberries and strawberries, mostly
rather light, not so mineral, with earthy aromas like a Nuits-Saint-Georges
and can be very good, clear, pleasant Burgundies.
Chorey-Lès-Beaune is a rather unobtrusive, often forgotten
town close to Beaune and lies east of the Route Nationale. Here you can
still find reasonable, simple but quite good Burgundies.
François Gay, Chorey-Lès-Beaune
A Domaine we discovered two years ago and have visited it regularly
ever since. Here you can get good, down-to-earth wines stressing the soil
and requiring a longer time to mature - and alltogether at good prices.
The splendid rosé we tried here last year was unfortunately finished
- it is only produced in years when there is too much liquid within the
red wine mash. So the red wine gets more concentration afterwords.
reds:
Chorey-Lès-Beaune 1996
Raspberry elder-berry, good tannins. Rather rich wine for a good price.
(48 FF)
Ladoix 1996
Sweetness, more tannin, still young and closed up, wood of stalks,
aroma of grapejuice. (53 FF)
Savigny-Lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Serpentières 1996
Better than the recent vintages. Pleasant bouquet of violets, good
strong tannins, plenty of aroma. (68 FF)
Aloxe-Corton 1996
Young, rich, vanilla, sweetness, some raspberries and cranberries.
(85 FF)
Corton-Renardes 1996
Rich, cherries, plenty of vanilla, strong tannins. Very much closed
and difficult to judge. (148 FF)
Bouchard Aîné & Fils, Beaune
One of the oldest wine trading companies in Beaune (not to be mixed
up with the bigger and better known Bouchard Pere et Fils). It itself
owns no vineyard, but buys grapes or must from vinters and makes wine.
Since this summer you can visit the cellars and afterwards taste their
wines (of course only the basic ones). The company's roots go back to
a Michel Bouchard, a cloth salesman in the 18th century. His Dutch customers,
knowing that he passed regularly through Burgundy, asked him if he could
take some wine with him. Soon the wine business was more profitable than
his cloth business.
whites:
Bourgogne Chardonnay 1997
Fruit, mineral. Matured in ceramic - not in oak. Citrus, mandarin.
Suits as aperitif or perhaps with green salad. (45 FF)
Montagny 1996
Golden colour. Tones of honey, hazelnut, vanilla, very fresh, good
acidity, pears, mineral. (69 FF)
reds:
Côtes-de-Beaune Village 1996
Rather dark colour. Some raspberry, wood of stalk, spicy, rather plain.
(66 FF)
Fixin 1996
Blackberry, red berries, vanilla, good acidity, some leather. (77
FF)
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