French Wine Country - Beaune

Our first stop in the French Wine Country was in Beaune, the major city in the Burgundy region and not unexpectantly a town centered around wine. We arrived late in Beaune and started off by having dinner at a wine bar complete with Escargot. Sarah was pretty cautious about trying one of the region's signature foods, but I was able to finally convince her to try one. Everything cooked in a pesto garlic butter sauce will taste good.

As you might expect, our day in Beaune was centered around the region’s wine. That morning we took a short class on the essentials of understanding the labeling, production, and tasting of Burgundy wine. The upshot is that Burgundy wine is bottled and labeled by the area in which the grapes are grown. The more specific the area, the better winemaking conditions for the terrior (soil, drainage, micro-climate) and therefore, of course, the more expensive the wine. So for example, a Burgundy regional wine (with grapes from anywhere in the region) is less selective than a particular village "Gran Cru" with grapes only from the upper slopes of the area.

The Town of Beaune

Later, we did a tasting and tour the Bouchard Aine cellar estate. Our tour guide gave the tour in both French and English for us, and promised that her English got better the more wine she drank! The estate grows and bottles several red and white wines, although Burgundy is more known for their whites than their reds. It was fun and I was particularly impressed that they tasted their premier “Grand Cru” wine, made mainly from Pinot Noir. It was a very, very good wine, but it cost 70 Euros for a bottle so we reluctantly passed.

Tasting on the Cellar Tour