Wine Tasting in Hautes Cotes de Nuit

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

This morning we headed out to the Dijon business school where we had a presentation from Gerrie Richie on different cultural practices used in the vineyard. Afterwards, Mark and I decided to have lunch in Dijon with Nicole and Andrew. We found a kebab shop—France’s equivalent to McDonalds it would seem, and had a great lunch of sandwiches and drinks. My first french fries in France. From there we headed back to the hotel, where we had a little time to rest before our next adventure.

This afternoon we visited Domaine Bernard Hudlot, in the Hautes Cotes de Nuit, Villard-Fontaine. The man that greeted us had a similar persona to the owner of Casse Basse. Friendly and welcoming, he was very proud of his wines and allowed us to try both the older and newer versions of his Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs. We tried a 2002 Chard, a 1996 Chard, a 1997 and 1987 Pinot Noir, and a young 2004 Gamay. We had a great time visiting his winery.

We learned that he has almost 800,000 bottles—and a lot of mold. Still trying to figure out why these wineries don’t clean better. We had to walk single file down the stairs into the cellar to avoid the mold. I’m also trying to avoid a “mold cold.” Ah well, it’s easy to overlook when the wines taste good. We enjoyed the younger Chardonnay and the older Pinot Noir. All of the younger Burgundies were just too oaky—too hard to approach. They definitely need time in the bottle. Our host recommends at least 20 years. I think he knew what he was talking about.

After our tasting, several students bought wine. They were incredibly reasonable for their quality.

This evening we were bussed to Dijon city-center again. Mark and I decided to head out on our own to try something new and less expensive for dinner. Nicole and Andrew headed back to the same restaurant we ate at Monday. We probably should have joined them. We had a cheaper dinner, but the quality was on par with the price. Lesson learned. We walked home—desperate for some exercise. It was a pleasant walk as we passed a nice coffee shop, and got to get a feel for the area surrounding Dijon’s city center.

Back at the hotel we made an early night of it—catching up with our blog and downloading some Simpson’s on the computer. (I think Mark misses the TV.)