Burgundy - Home of pinot?

We had only been in Burgundy a couple of days and already we were in crisis.

Sure the railway strike had caused delays, heartache and an outbreak of midlife crisis white man dancing on the train platform - but that wasn't it.

Sure we'd discovered that Dijon is a big noisy place with beggars, no proper mustard but plenty of soulless sky scrapers - but that wasn't it.

The problem was we were in Burgundy, the home of pinot noir, and we hadn't found a single decent pinot. Not one.

As expected the beaujolais continued to be fantastic. We had discovered a four year old one that the makers were practically giving away. The malbec was brilliant. Full, rich flavour with a 'where have you been all my life' finish.

But the pinot? Well it looked great, smelt amazing, but the taste. Frankly some of them made English reds look good. Far too many were thin, acidy and just plain nasty.

To say we were shocked was an understatement.

Before you rush to compose your shouty emails, pen your death threats or rustle up a pinot loving lynching party bear in mind we didn't reach this unfortunate conclusion lightly. It was based on a relatively large sample size. 

We had picked just the right place to stay. We were in Beaune which is in the heart of the Cote d'Or (Coast of Gold). The French call it that because of the colour of the vines in Autumn. Unfortunately there is no coast or gold. Beaune is all about the wine. It's a very nice looking town but people live there and visit there because of the wine industry.

We knew we were in the right place because on the very weekend we were missing out on the 2010 White Wine Weekend in Hobart there was a wine, cheese and bread festival being held 10 minutes walk from our accommodation. 18 local wine producers had teamed up with a dozen cheese producers to display a dazzling and frankly immense spread of food and wine. 

Most of the wine exhibitors offered at least one chardonnay. All of them were fantastic. As one punter told us "Burgundy made me fall in love with chardonnay again". He was right, you simply will not find a bad Chardonnay in Burgundy, we don't think they know how to make one.

However the pinot was another story. The day before we had been to a tasting in a former convent and had been introduced to a couple of dodgy pinots. One of them was a grand cru and it was a bit like meeting your favourite 'hunky' actor only to discover he had blackheads, out of control nasal hairs and left the toilet seat up. Disappointing doesn't even begin to describe it.

The only thing to do was to keep tasting ... but where?

Fortunately Beaune is a wine lover's paradise. There are a number of wine merchants in the town who buy wine at auction and store it in massive underground cellars. Most encourage visitors by offering combined cave tours and wine tasting.

Our first stop was the highly recommended Marché Aux Vins. This has to be the world's greatest wine tasting venue. Now before you scoff at our over enthusiasm we've got two words to say to you - 'self serve'. That's right, you pour the wine yourself and no one is around watching!

After paying €10 you head down into the cellars, or caves, and every 20m or so is a wine barrel upon which sits a candle, for romantic effect, and a bottle of wine, for even more romantic effect. The tour ends in an old and imposing church which rounds out the atmosphere generated underground quite nicely.

The collection of wines, 3 chardonnays and 12 pinots, is extensive and very cleverly put together. The pinot range covers all the wine producing areas within Burgundy and is structured to take you from entry level through premier cru to grand cru. Each wine is better than the one before to the point that you get sick of saying 'this one is the best so far'.

This impressive experience is fun, educational and incredible value for money. All up it takes around 2hrs to try all the wines and don't even think about driving or even walking in some cases. Most importantly it restored our faith in the fine folk of France. At last we could say a Burgundian pinot could be magnificent. Whew!

Now that our fears had been allayed we could see what the other tasting places had to offer.

Beaune is home to a wine making school which allegedly offers tastings of the 'award winning wines made by the students'. We say allegedly because we went there three times with no success. The first time, open but no one around. Second time, closed for lunch and no one around. Third time, open after lunch but no one around.

Discouraged but not daunted we tried another place.

Patriarche is a bit of an institution in Burgundy and is easily the slickest place in town. It boasts the largest number of bottles, some 4 million, and the most extensive tunnels. There are also slightly cheesy video presentations at regular intervals throughout the tour.

The only problem with this impressive bottle collection is that they make you walk past damn near every one of them before you get to try any wine. Pleasingly the notion of self service has caught on and after all that walking you do get to try a lot of wine.

The set up is similar to Marche but the range isn't as well structured. You start with some chardonnay and then move on to the reds. There doesn't seem to be any order however. You are happily trying a premier cru selling for say €40 and then the next one will be an €8 quaffer. In the last room on the tour there is a sparkling and then you are offered a couple more chardonnays.

Frankly you and your taste buds are left a bit confused but this is offset somewhat by the happy glow from too much swallowing and not enough spitting. It was fun but just not as good. There are also more staff here who try very hard to sell you bottles. It's not time share selling but a bit full on nonetheless.

Overall Impressions

Don't go to France and then not go to Beaune. The food is unbelievable and you will find out why some people swoon at the mere mention of Burgundy pinots.

The whole town is easily walkable and has a lovely relaxed feel. If you want to explore the rest of Burgundy then this makes a great base. Other villages are easily reached by car, bike or even on foot.

To get the most from your visit try to be in Beaune on a Saturday morning. There is a fantastic gourmet food market, just watch out for the smooth cheese selling dude who managed to make us buy a kilo of cheese for €18.  It was lovely but we were still eating it days later in Switzerland and by then we'd had enough.

The wines on the other hand were a mixed bag. We have nothing but praise for the chardonnay but there's no doubt that the gap between the best and worst French pinot is much greater than what you find in Tasmania. Even though we thought it before we are now firmly convinced that Tassie pinot is world class and superior to much of what we tried in Burgundy.

It was pretty satisfying to leave France feeling very proud of the Tasmania wine industry. If fact we got a little teary.

Next it was on to our final destination .... Tuscany .....

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