A Bluenoser in Burgundy

I just got back to Nova Scotia after what was truly a mind bending wine odyssey. Ten days in Burgundy, ancestral home of all Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. And not just hanging out at the tourist only tasting rooms - touring with a real winemaker, with real Burgundian chops, and best of all, friends!

Over the course of 10 days in Chablis, The Cotes de Nuits, Cotes de Beaune and Cotes Challonaise, delving into cellars full of millions of bottles of wines, and hundreds of thousands of oak casks I am now, as an old girlfriend would say "ruint". It will take some work to find wines I'd rather drink. If I can have a nice mineral driven Chardonnay from Chablis on a hot day, why open anything else? Yes, I am spoiled. This means, of course, that I will have to open some really good stuff from elsewhere to get some balance back in my wine-life.

After an entire morning of barrel sampling at Domaine Olivier LeFlaive, going down each village vineyard from top to bottom, sampling over 35 different wines from barrel, including Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet and Batard-Montrachet, wines I simply cannot afford, or ever justify paying what they ask for, I was reeling from all the new knowledge. My palate was working overtime conveying newly catalogued taste memories to my brain. Marl, mineral, limestone, citrus, old oak, new oak, malolactic, incomplete malolactic, structure, perfume.... All from white wines. All from the Chardonnay Grape.

And we did this sort of thing for 10 days, including a lot of wines at Dom. Joseph Voillot where we were treated to perfect bottles of their 1974 Volnay Les Champans, 1969 Pommard Les Rugiens, and a 1961 Volnay Les Champans. Does anyone want to suggest that Pinot Noir, light and delicate as it seems, does not age? The 1969 Les Rugiens was life changing stuff. I now own a 1980. Only 11 more years...

Every day we tasted wine and ate like royalty. It was so hot, I did not gain any weight.

Plus two dinners at 1-Star Michelin Restaurants, and many excellent lunches and meals in our villa, over countless bottles of wine shared among friends.

We did several "guerilla wine expeditions" led by former wine writer, turned winemaker, turned winemaking consultant Thomas Bachelder who led the over tour. Just walking up to a winery after hours, ringing the bell and asking to taste the wines. In tiny villages, with rustic wines (and winemakers). He was fearlessly curious, and able to talk his way into any place. Like wine touring with Michael Moore.

So ask me about Chardonnay. Or Pinot Noir. I think I've got it. I know I just had a chance to learn it that is almost unmatched nowadays. Mark DeWolf and his ByTheGlass tours (based here in Halifax) did it up right.

Now, to get back to work, and start paying for it.

Oh, yeah....

From memory, Villages (and towns) south to north, starting with Mercurey... I think this is close, depending on what map you look at.

Mercurey, Rully. Santenay, Maranges, Saint Aubin, Chassagne Montrachet, Puligny Montrachet, Saint Romaine, Auxey-Duresses, Monthelie, Meursault, Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Chorey-Les-Beaune, Savigny-Les Beaune, Pernand Vergelesse, Aloxe-Corton, Ladoix. Nuit-St. Georges, Vosne Romanee, Vougeot, Chambolle Musigny, Morey St. Denis, Gevry Chambertin, Fixin, Marsannay.