It’s safe to say, we’ve rarely met a champagne we haven’t loved. But as we’ve delved deeper into the different houses and their comparable styles, we’ve discovered how seemingly subtle choices can have a profound effect on the finished product. In the case of Alfred Gratien, none are likely to question the House’s respected reputation as a top producer, and likely everyone will acknowledge its dedication to certain methods that have resulted in a truly distinct quality.
Our first trip to Burgundy definitely didn’t disappoint. We visited larger well known wineries (Domaine Louis Jadot, Maison Joseph Drouhin) and discovered some wonderful new gems (Domaine Truchetet, Domaine David Moreau, Domaine Philippe et Arnaud Dubreuil). We ate fantastic farm-to-table fare at terrific local restaurants and sipped sensational wines at some quintessentially Burgundian wine bars. We hiked through some of the most renown Grand Cru and Premier vineyards in the world and delved deep into historic cellars beneath Beaune. Click on the link below for a highlight reel of some of our favourite moments and visit www.advinetures.ca for more on each. If you’re planning your own trip to Burgundy, feel free reach out to us directly for more recommendations. Cheers!
Burgundy is among the most highly revered wine producing regions in the world. But a lot of Burgundy fans will admit their knowledge about the wine they love pretty much stops there. Burgundy is generally thought of as too big and too complex to ever get your head around it. We felt that way too, until our recent trip to the region. Being there and seeing it and experiencing it sorted out a lot of things for us. It gave us a better overall understanding and showed how the little snippets of information we had picked up over the years fit into the whole Burgundy picture. In fact, it allowed us to simplify understanding Burgundy into 5 straightforward and easy to remember concepts.
This brief article should allow you to come away with a good general understanding of Burgundy and its wines. It will give you the lay of the land so that you won’t just grasp the basics of Burgundy, you will also have a simple structure that will allow you to remember these concepts when you next need them; like when choosing which Burgundy to have next!
For almost a century and a half, the Drouhin family has been a mainstay in the heart of Beaune representing some of the best wines of Burgundy. In today’s wine world, it’s a rarity to find larger reputable houses that are still in family hands, however Maison Joseph Drouhin has managed to buck the trend with respect to its longevity, while simultaneously maintaining an impressively consistent level of quality throughout that time.
From our numerous AdVINEtures across the world’s wine regions, the common thread we hear from all good winemakers is that it all starts in the vineyard—you must have good fruit to make great wine.
David Moreau
Nowhere is this respect for the terroir more evident than in Burgundy, arguably the most revered wine region in the world. Given the diversity within that region, they don’t just specify the region from where their wines are produced, they specify the actual plot of land. David Moreau works with just 5 hectares of vineyards in and around Santenay and he is making wines of exceptional quality that have landed him at the top of our ‘hidden treasure’ list.
In the Côte de Beaune region of Burgundy, Domaine Philippe et Arnaud Dubreuil is a relatively ‘young’ family estate that has been producing critically acclaimed wines for more than 7 decades. Arnaud Dubreuil represents the 3rd generation now overseeing operations, but it almost didn’t end up that way.
For wine lovers, Burgundy can conjure up a wide spectrum of notions ranging from reverence to pretention, and for many, utter confusion. It is a region that has its own parameters and identifiers that are complicated, but reward those that are patient with some of the most sought-after wines in the world. Maison Louis Jadot is a Burgundian winery that can be relied on year after year for producing consistently high-quality wines, many of which are accessible to those without a collector’s budget.
There is a saying that the best things come in threes and that is certainly ringing true in the case of Domaine Truchetet, a small winery in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits wine-growing region that is garnering a lot of critical acclaim thanks to a talented family trio.
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