After a quick visit to Burgundy and then a family week in the South of France, we planned to spend Saturday driving from our rental house in Minervois all the way North and East to Strasbourg. When he was in DC last May, Rhone winemaker Philippe Plantevin heard about our summer trip and invited - insisted, actually! - that we stop at his house near Cairanne for lunch.
Construction on our remodel and expansion project began this week! We're moving quickly, and it will make the next few weeks a little wild in the store, but it's going to be worth it. (Remind me of this while I'm tearing my hair out, will you?) Not only will we have more floor space and elbow room, but we'll also be expanding our cheese, food and beer selections. AND we'll have classroom space in the basement of the new space. Watch for some new classes in the fall. In the meantime, we'll be open for business as much as possible. Watch the web home page for updates on modified hours.
Just as construction begins, I'm taking off for France. (We didn't exactly plan it like this.) It's mostly a family vacation, but I'll also be tasting and doing vineyard tours with Gevry-Chambertin's Jean-Michel Guillon, sharing a family lunch with Philippe Plantevin, and making my first visit ever to Alsace to see Domaine Weinbach.
Probably the most important wine stop of the trip will be in the Puligny-Montrachet cellars of Sylvan Bzikot. Last January, I was swept off my feet by Sylvan's newest wine, a 2010 village Puligny-Montrachet from the vineyard Les Petite Nosroyes. Even though the wine hadn't finished malo yet, I was so enthusiastic by two of Sylvan's nine barrels of this wine that I bought them on the spot.
So, on Saturday morning while you're still sleeping, I'll be visiting Sylvan and tasting our young wine for the first time since January. If you sign up to follow our new Twitter feed, you'll be the first to know how it's coming along! And I'll get some info up here on our blog and/or Facebook page when I can as well.
Greetings from Burgundy! I’ve been here for five days now and have two days (five producer visits) remaining before leaving for the Rhone. Dom Albert Grivault, Pascal Maillard, Lamy-Pillot and a new producer in Pouilly-Fuissé are behind us – Bzikot, Guillon and some others to come. As usual, the pace has been close to punishing but the visits and tastings very rewarding.
These were shorter visits (only about 2.5 hours each), so I’ll combine them in one post. Topline - both Grivault and Lamy-Pillot made wonderful wines in 2008 and the 2009 barrel samples we tried are very promising indeed. And, the Grivault 2007s (which should arrive in another few weeks) are simply fantastic.
Carrie and I arrived in Beaune from Paris early on Friday morning and were whisked from the train station to hotel in Puligny-Montrachet by importer Olivier Daubresse. We then hurried over to the small town of St. Aubin to meet Didier Larue. As you may recall, Didier and his brother Denis own and run Domaine Larue, a small estate headquartered in the little town of St. Aubin. St. Aubin is tucked in a crinkle in the main hill of the Cote d’Or between Puligny and Mearsault, and the village’s best vineyards reach over the hill and abut those of Chassagne and Puligny.
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