The best thing about living in France is that if you look hard enough, somewhere there is always a little wine festival or celebration that involves drinking. Harvest is all done by October (sans late harvest wines) everywhere so clearly the festivals are in celebration of a successful vintage or to put their 2010 wines on display. Last weekend some friends and I took a trip north about an hour and fifteen minutes from Dijon to the small town of Chablis. Chablis wines are all Chardonnay (even though some winemakers may make red wine from Cote de Nuits and sell it in Chablis) and use little to no oak when aging. This puts the main focus on the acidity and the minerality in the wines as well as interesting tropical and passion fruit notes. There are seven Grand Cru vineyards in Chablis (sometimes eight when La Moutonne is included (it's a vineyard that lies in between all of the grand crus so when it has a good vintage it can classify itself as a grand cru (yes I just put parenthesis within parenthesis within parenthisis because I'm f*cking crazy))).
The purpose of the trip was to visit Albert Bichot's Chateau (decanter's white wine maker of the year this year) and taste the good stuff and then hit up the Chablis wine festival across the street. His wines we had in the tasting room and at his table at the festival were the best wines in the region in my opinion. From 11am to 6pm we drank wonderful Chablis premier and grand cru and let me tell you, at the end my mouth was cashed out after tasting all of those acidic youngsters. I had probably around 40 wines total (probably around 15 grand cru). My mouth felt the way my hands used to look after a long day at Arbor Heights swimming pool; The pruniest. It was a great experience that many would classify as a "hella drastic" day. The weather was sunny and cool without a cloud in the sky. I had an oyster platter paired with a Les Clos grand cru (favorite vineyard) from 2008 and I ate my first snail (bomb).
I have been having trouble sleeping the past few days because I am extremely excited for the first weekend in December. That weekend will host the Grand Tasting in Paris, and I just bought tickets to it. I can't figure out why this won't turn into a hyperlink but www.grandtasting.com is the homepage.
Over 150 producers from mainly France with some Alsace and Italian wines on display, as well as tasting classes and food pairing classes. If anyone wants to help broaden my mind and palate, feel free to sign me up for any of the master tastings and I will take in depth notes and call you after to tell you how awesome it was...They range from 40 to 200 euros which isn't a bad deal if you look at the wines they are presenting (Champagne and Bordeaux). Anywho, I am really looking forward to being in Paris again and tasting all of these wines.
But until then I will pass the time by studying and watching youtube videos of ex wrestlers being interviewed and discussing their various addictions and their best matches ...Does that make me a loser? Probably. Do I give a shit? Kind of. Am I addicted to Nutella? Absolutely. Did that make any sense? No.
Happy Halloween, be sure to check for razors in your apples and egg anyone's house who gives you an Albertson's good for one cookie coupon.
Because if I don't make moves in the wine industry some old guy in a smoking jacket will.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I Remember My First Blog Post
It has been a little over a month living in Dijon, France the capitol of Burgundy and I am now finally writing my first blog post. That is a bit embarrassing but guess what? I've been a bit preoccupied going to school and drinking gallons (sorry, litres) of le grand vin de Bourgogne. I am extremely excited to see what that future has in store for me in the next year. By that I mean I am eager to learn as much about the wine business as possible in France and see if I can get my mitts on some of the best wines in the world while I'm over here!
To clarify, yes, everything you've heard about France is true, the food and wine is the worlds best, the pastries and bread are ridiculously amazing (Apricot pastries = Game Changer), and people do not wear deodorant. It is strange because even the little old ladies that pass by leave a trail smelling like they just did five sets of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
People here also smoke a LOT. More than any other country I've ever seen. They aren't subtle about it either. The school I am attending (ESC Dijon Burgundy School of Business) has a smoking area that consists of the whole French student population blocking the only entrance into the school. Also, at the school last week, the US ambassador to France came and did a speech for the students and I swear to God the longest time the crowd was silent during his chat was probably 15 seconds, and that is being generous. Time to kick the habit guys. Students were coughing so much I thought someone was attempting an assassination on the ambassador and planted mustard gas in the crowd. Then I realized no one would want to kill that guy because he was a huge tool. Talking about following dreams when your daddy was an ambassador and you attended Yale and Harvard Business School, doesn't really convince me that "anything is possible" Mr. Ambassador. Oh well. But the Champagne and hors d'oeuvres hour for American students was awesome (Me and two other guys). Thanks brah! 'Merica.
I plan on writing at least once every two weeks while I'm studying in Dijon so I can discuss the world of wine and probably vent about French people. My writing is rustier than Oprah in the sack so I'll definitely write my next blog post here in the near future.
Next time: I had the opportunity to work the 2011 vintage down in Nuits St. George with winemaker Ray Walker at Maison Ilan. He is the first American to make wine out of grapes from the world famous vineyard "Le Chambertin" in Gevry-Chambertin. It was a great experience that I am looking forward to sharing.
Here is an article written about him in the NY times just so you have an idea of the kind of guy he is. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/dining/with-maison-ilan-an-american-winemaker-invades-burgundy.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
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