During our recent visit to France, we made a point of spending a couple of days in Beaune, located at the northern edge of the Cote de Beaune appellation.  The city has quite a history dating back to the time when Julius Caesar founded the town as a Roman camp and later becoming the seat of the dukes of Burgundy until the 13th century.  By the 18th century, Beaune was already on its way to becoming the center of the Burgundy wine industry, establishing houses such as Champy and Bouchard.  Today, you can add names such as Jadot, Latour and Bouchard Pere & Fils.

The city, encircled by a single street, is packed with history (Hotel Dieu, founded by Nocolas Rolin in 1443 and the hospices de Beaune) and quaint boutiques, bistros and restaurants.  The cobblestone streets are intimate, allowing for only one lane of traffic, as browsers casually drift in and out of the stores.  If you’re visiting over a Saturday, be prepared for the very energetic and festive farmers market that literally takes over the center of town from 7:30 in the morning until shortly after noon.  Freshly cultivated culinary goods take front and center stage.  The aromas of fresh vegetables and fruit intermingle with stands of freshly cut provincial flowers.  A few booths down, you begin to pick up the mouth watering scent of freshly roasting chickens on spits.  If you’re in the mood for the raw version or freshly prepared sausage, there are endless choices.  If it’s samples you’re looking for, the vendors will be more than pleased to offer dips of fresh olives, tomatoes, spices and oils.  Then, of course, there are the freshly dried Provencial spices and mustards, both of which we took advantage of by adding to the local economy.  Away from the culinary theme, you’ll find the usual market stables such as outer, underwear, shoes, pocketbooks and the like.  To add “mood’ to the event, a few native Ecuadoran flutists instilled the air with waves of rich musical notes, the melody creating its own sea of tranquility.

Our first evening, we scanned out the town and then settled at a local bistro called Bistro Bourgogne owned by Jean-Jacques Hegner since 1985.  Keep an eye out for our video with him.  Sitting outdoors, sipping on some lovely white Burgundy as the sun was setting at a cool 9:50PM,  a chance meeting with a young lady who resides in Beaune and works with the US importer Kermit Lynch, convinced us to try a local restaurant called Caves Madeleine.  She said that the food was great, the wine list extensive and the pricing fair.  I always prefer to discover restaurants that locals admire figuring that they know the difference between “travel agency” sells and real Mccoy. 

The next day, we decided to walk over to the restaurant to check out the menu and browse on that side of town.  The “Caves” was laid out in a very warm and welcoming style, a heavy wood rectangular table in the center with benches for seating that could accommodate perhaps six guests to a side.  As well, there were a limited number of two some tables.  In all, I would guess that the restaurant could seat around thirty guests.  The daily menu was printed on a blackboard and offered plenty of delicious dishes.  One wall was essentially stacked with hundreds of French reds and whites categorized by cubby hole.  We elected to reserve two spaces at the center table, giving us the chance to casually socialize with guests.

After freshening up early in the evening at our hotel, we trekked it back to Caves and were greeted warmly by both the owner, Laurent (who prefers to go by LoLo), and staff with whom we spoke earlier.  No sooner did we take our bench positions than we began kibitzing with our neighbors.  Just completing their appetizers, we picked their palates about the dishes and wines.  Turns out that he’s a wine maker in the states so we had a lot to talk about.

My mouth watered for the escargot a la bourgignonne bathed in a rich garlic and spiced butter sauce, a recipe apparently passed down by LoLo’s father.  As for the wine to pair, I asked LoLo to do the choosing.  He knows the flavor profile and texture of his dishes and wines.  He politely asked me to offer a price range and returned with a well chilled 2008 Bouchard Pere & Fils Meursault Perrieres 1er Cru.  At first, I questioned whether this was ready to drink but he reassured us that it was.  While it was a little tight on its own at first, the flavor profile improved significantly with time, refreshing stony lemon and peach notes filling the glass and a lovely sense on minerality on the palate.  The freshness of the wine cleansed the palate after each bite of the dish.  My goal here was to pair this wine my appetizer, my wife’s fresh organic salad and leave enough for her to pair with the delicate monkfish entre.

For the main course, I couldn’t refuse the classic beef bourguignon.  Once more, I asked LoLo to dig into his inventory, this time working with a classic red Burgundy.  He suggested the 2006 Lucien Le Moine Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Ameureuses.  One sniff of the wine told me that this was a wine with some underlying structure, dare I say muscle.  Intermingled with scents of ripe plum and red cherry were waves of smoked meat and black tea.  However, on the palate, the wine was very well integrated adding notes of classic chalkiness and spice.  By the time I had made serious headway into the entrée, the Ameureuses and Beef Bourguignon has melted into one on my palate, the fruit, spices and smoked meat notes of the wine wrapping around the meaty flavors and texture of the dish.
 
After nearly three hours of outstanding food, wine and conversation that included exchanging some glasses of wine with our table neighbors, we just about closed the restaurant for the night, only one couple remaining.  If you get into Beaune, this is a Caves that should be on your list.

Tags: Beaune, Burgundy