BEAUNE VOYAGE

The view from our hotel window.

What a great place to hang out in! We walk around a little, stop for a little coffee, walk around some more, stop for a little wine tasting, walk around some more, stop for more coffee. Are we stuck in a groove – a very pleasant groove.
Right outside our hotel the weekly market was taking place in the street. The market is a mixture of fruit and vegetables, meat and cheese, and antiques and clothes – a little of everything. We followed the street market to the covered market – les halles – which was a hive of activity. We walked around enjoying the colors and smells of the market as well as the hurly-burly of it all with so many people.
The market began to wind down at around one in the afternoon so we started to wander up into the Place Carnot to have our first coffee of the day (since breakfast).



Debonair pair!

We made our way to the Athenaeum wine store. In the back they had a tasting room set up. We started tasting the whites in the order that the server recommended. Our two favorites were the 2003 Savigny and the 2003 Meursault. The lady explained that 2003 was a drought year (about 8000 older people died in the heat wave that year). Drought is great for white grape varieties like chenin blanc and chardonnay- the sugars are concentrated and that balances the acidity making for a very smooth and drinkable wine.



White wines we tried.


Red wines we tried.

The red wines we tried were also superb. Burgandy is Pinot Noir country. We drink a lot of Pinot Noir in California but it is nothing like this. Americans tend to like heavily oaked wines that go well with red meat. But here in France they like their wine to have a character that comes from the soil and the climate and the experience of the winemaker rather than from the oak barrel. I think I like that better too.