rathdowne cru blog

Recovery time

Hello All,

After the big night with Cyclone Marks and witnessing first hand his amazing ability to make friends and steal their beer, we had a little sleep in and then a relaxing drive to the Jura wine growing area. Due to the later start we arrived at lunch time so everything was closed. After driving around and looking at a few of the main areas we discovered the sad fact that the whole region seems to be closed on a Tuesday.
So a late lunch (after 3 because we couldn’t even buy a bagette before then), and then back to Beaune without tasting a single wine (which given how I felt wasn’t all that bad.)
There were some highlights. Comte (pronounced kon-tee I’m told) de Gruyere for example is a great cheese of the region. Very tasty in a 3pm bagette.

Also the amazing old town of Chateau Chalon. On top of a giant hill the fortified looking town was just great to visit. The view from their look outs aren’t bad either.

After Jura we then returned to have dinner with Robert Walters (one of our favourite importers) who is based at Beaune and given the daunting challage to drink more Premier and Grand Cru Burgundy. Rob’s wife Kate deserves a medal for cooking a great meal while looking after a house full of kids at the same time.

This morning we had a great tasting at Domaine Leroy which included numerous back vintages from their 2.8 million bottle cellar and some 2007s from barrel. They had just finished malo but some of the wines were exceptionally good (if far too young).

This is our last night in Beaune. Tomorrow morning bright and early we are off to Chablis for a few appointments. Then in a couple of days some sight seeing in Paris.

Au Revoir,
Phil