Burgundy

Burgundy! O beautiful, bountiful Burgundy!
Even the name condures up so much colour, so much romance and allure and gorgeousness.

I probably don't need to write much more for you to get the picture...we both just totally fell in love with the place, and can't recommend it enough.

From the foot of the Black Forest, and with a bit of a drive through France to the west, we arrived in one of our most much anticipated regions of the trip. Burgundy extends from Dijon, the grand home of mustard, south towards Lyon, gateway to the Alps. I had originally assumed that as with most of the famous wine regions of France, we would be following the meanderings of some great river, so I was quite surprised to find that there was not one in sight. Instead, the vineyards are concentrated in tiny allotments spread out across gentle hills, rather like a lumpy patchwork quilt.

Planning a route

We've never really gotten into the wines of the region, mainly due to the rather substantial level of investment required to gain access. But I did know that the whites are made from one of my most favourite grapes, Chardonnay, and that our good mate and wine connoisseur Toby just can't stop waxing lyrical about the merits of the great Montrachet. It just had to be done.

Sharon's spiritual homeland?

I guess that's a right turn ahead

We chose as our centre the compact and appealingly named Beaune, quite encouraged with Lonely Planet's description of it being one of the best places in France for wine tasting. It is absolutely beautiful - with honey hued buildings, flower beds on every corner, filled to the brim with medieval architecture, including the magnificent Hotel Dieu (a medieval charity hospital designed more like a grand chateau with its improverished patients eating from silver platters and lounging in red velvet draped beds) - and a certain je ne sais quois. Absolutely stunning.

Hotel Dieu, Beaune

More like a hotel than a charity hospital in the 1400s huh?

It also housed a fascinating wine museum, and the totally absorbing 'Marche du Vins', where we embarked upon a self guided, wine tasting wander through subterranean wine cellars, sampling 18 different wines, including premier and grand crus! It was just totally crazy, and we'd never seen anything quite like it. You're given a flat, silvery 'tastevin', rather like a Scottish quaich, and allowed to wander freely around in the eerie candle light, filling up your vessel from the opened bottles left out for you to taste. And the building itself was magnificent - the tour passed through the ancient tomb-cum-crypt of a former church, eventually leading up into the grand hall of worship itself, although in here it's all about worshipping of a different sort!

Here's what it's all about folks!

Tasting by candlelight

The big boy! Chassagne Montrachet Grand Cru

After all this fun, we just couldn't leave the area without a good cycle through the fields of vines, just to see where it all begins. Fortunately for us, the council had thoughtfully signposted each individual plot, so we could identify the birthplace of each of these famous crus. We had been diligently attempting to study all the differing geologies and soils, climatic conditions and solar angles of the region in order to try to understand the concept of 'terroir', but at the end of the day, it's still really hard to grasp just how one particular 50x50m plot can command €100 more per bottle than its neighbour...

Tearing through the vines

Hmmm, you'll be paying at least €100 for a bottle from this field!