Decanter Magazine – February 2015 issue – Steven Spurrier.
“Raymond Blake, wine editor of Ireland’s Food & Wine magazine, is a dashing Dubliner married to Fionnuala, the city’s premier classical violinist, to whom he has dedicated this book. Under the subtitle A Hungry Irishman in the Belly of France, he treats the reader to a two-decade romp through their first idea of buying a house in the Cote d’Or to becoming part of the Burgundy furniture. People, places, endless menus – some simple, some inspiring – and bottle upon bottle, all are recounted in a manner as gloriously coloured as the roof of the Hospices de Beaune. If you already own Jasper Morris MW’s approachable encyclopaedic tome Inside Burgundy, this will complete the picture, bringing Burgundy alive on a daily, seasonal basis.

Having shared the author’s passion for la table in the Veneto and a memorable dinner at Dublin’s Kildare Street & University Club (unsurprisingly he serves on the Wine Committee there), I knew what to expect: this is personal experience at an emotional level. When my wife and I lived in France in the 1970s, we, too, bought a house in the Cote d’Or – no running water and not much roof – and were there most weekends from Easter to the Hospices de Beaune weekend in November. My memories of those years were fading until Blake brought them all flooding back. He says that ‘Burgundy must be enjoyed by the senses first, the intellect second.’ This is a book for the senses.”

Tags: Wine, Burgundy

BREAKFAST IN BURGUNDY

It was six years in the making but I am now delighted to report that my latest book Breakfast in Burgundy was published in New York recently. There’s limited ‘physical’ availability on this side of the Atlantic just yet but deliveries from Amazon have reached the length and breadth of Ireland & the UK – and points further away too, as far as New Zealand in fact. Check these links to place an order for delivery before Christmas – it makes the perfect stocking filler.

amazon.co.uk amazon.com

"An Under the Tuscan Sun set in fabled Burgundy, Irish wine writer Raymond Blake's lyrical, and personal, memoir of falling tangle-footedly in love with a grape (Pinot Noir), and then a region where it reaches its apotheosis, to a ramshackle cottage that he and his wife impetuously purchase to embrace their seeming cockamamie dream of residing there, is as heartbreaking and funny and emotionally honest as any Pinotphile's wallet-emptying odyssey for that singular levitational moment when a truly great Burgundy takes him through the whole fairy tale three-act narrative to sensorial sublimity and, finally, vinous redemption." - Rex Pickett, author of Sideways

"'A hungry Irishman in the belly of France'--what self-respecting female foodie wouldn't be hooked by that line? Blake's book romps along with pace and energy and provides a giggle on every page; it's about the food, sure, but the travel snarl-ups, home-reno dramas, and his conversations with wistful winemakers were highlights for me. Loved it!" - Yvonne Lorkin, wine writer

"A charming and witty read that delightfully evokes the Burgundian countryside, its food, wines, and its people; a book that made me want to immediately return to this wine-lover's jewel of France." - Chris de Burgh, singer-songwriter

READER COMMENTS

“Blake balances wit, charm and emotion beautifully to deliver a lively but touching story of his connection with this great wine region. An old-world Sideways, if you will. I think it'd be a great present for any wine-lover this Christmas.” (amazon.com)

“This is a suburb read; well written and entertaining. It would make the perfect Christmas gift - especially for anyone who has been to France, who likes food and has ever had that dream of owning a home there.” (amazon.co.uk)

Tags: Burgundy, Wine, France

“Sangliers sur la ligne,” said the announcement as the TGV, France’s high-speed train, ground to a halt somewhere between Paris and Burgundy. We got a good view of the wild boar, about a dozen of them, as they left the tracks and sauntered across a field before disappearing into some forest. Then we were on our way again. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Wine

I first met Ray Walker at Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis during harvest 2010, Tuesday 28th September to be precise. I was talking to Jacques Seysses, patriarch of the domaine, and Walker was standing off to one side. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Pinot Noir

Fake: a thing that is not genuine; a forgery or sham.
Counterfeit: a fraudulent imitation of something else.

Call them what you will but the bottles of Domaine Ponsot wines consigned for sale at an Acker, Merrall & Condit auction in New York on 25th April 2008 were definitely not genuine. Most definitely not. Read More...

Tags: Ponsot, Burgundy, Auction

It rained in Burgundy on Wednesday 26th September. Then it rained some more. And then some more. In all, about 50mm fell in 24 hours and, in the darkness of the early morning, it was accompanied by crashing thunder and sweeping flashes of lightning. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest

I called to see Michel Lafarge in Volnay on 26th July last, with only one question that I really wanted to ask: Had he ever seen a year like this before? He didn’t have to consider long before answering no. And this from a man who started work at the family domaine in 1946. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest

It has been some time in the pipeline but I am delighted to announce that this day four weeks the Diploma in Wine and Wine Culture at Independent College, Dublin kicks off for a 12-week ‘run’. Quoting from the College’s website: Read More...

Tags: Diploma, Burgundy

News of Neil Armstrong’s recent death brought the memories flooding back, not just from that historic day in 1969 when he became the first man to walk on the moon, but also of a splendid bottle of Burgundy drunk to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that historic moment on 20th July 2009. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Armstrong

The church bells boomed out over Meursault yesterday morning, just prior to the weekly mass at 10.30, as a dazzling sun vied with a brittle breeze to warm or chill any exposed flesh. Inside, the congregation ranged from youngsters of just a few vintages to stooped old-timers whose memories stretched way back into the last century. Read More...

Tags: Meursault, Burgundy

“When sorrows come…” Poor old Burgundy! As if the battering endured for the last decade – thanks to the scandal of premature oxidation – wasn’t enough, she now finds herself in the headlines again for all the wrong reasons. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Fraud

Readers familiar with John B Keane’s play The Field have an advantage when it comes to understanding the wine region that can easily claim to be the world’s most fabled: Burgundy. Burgundy is a state of mind as much as a name on a map and its citizens are characterised by a visceral attachment to the land; you could be forgiven for thinking that if some of them stood still for long enough they would put down roots. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, UNESCO

Readers familiar with John B Keane’s play The Field have an advantage when it comes to understanding the wine region that can easily claim to be the world’s most fabled: Burgundy. Burgundy is a state of mind as much as a name on a map and its citizens are characterised by a visceral attachment to the land; you could be forgiven for thinking that if some of them stood still for long enough they would put down roots. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Clos de Vougeot, UNESCO

During Ireland’s property boom it was said that to be a successful developer you needed a spine of steel, with another part of your anatomy cast in iron. Or was it the other way around? It hardly matters, for investing in a turbulent, overheated market requires nerve and verve. It is not for the faint hearted. Wine is no different, except in one critical respect: if the bottom falls out of the market you can always drink the wine; eating share certificates or dining on bricks and mortar is not such an enticing prospect. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Jayer, Wine Investing

The hill of Corton sits, serene and squat, above the villages of Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix-Serrigny in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. Topped by forest and swaddled by vineyards it rises to a height of 350 metres and is the most distinctive natural feature for miles around. It lends its name to one of Burgundy’s most fabled white wines, Corton-Charlemagne, and also a red, Corton, whose reputation is less assured. The emperor Charlemagne is said to have owned vineyards here but today the most famed proprietor is the Domaine Bonneau du Martray whose holding extends to 11 hectares. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Corton-Charlemagne

The harvesters’ dinner at Aubert and Pamela de Villaine’s eponymous Bouzeron domaine takes place at 7.30pm each evening and is announced by a hand-held and enthusiastically rung bell – of the sort that used to do service in schoolyards across the world. Unlike the pupils’ reluctant retreat from the schoolyard, however, the bell here summons an immediate response and soon a veritable United Nations of harvesters descends on the long table. They come from Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Canada, Italy, Spain and France and on the evening I visited they sat down to a meal of white bean soup, girolles tart, cold roast pork, salad, cheese, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, DRC, Bonneau du Martray

“Écouter moi!” barked the vineyard supervisor as a dozy grape carrier failed to respond quickly enough to instructions about precisely which group of pickers he should be collecting grapes from. The shout had the dual effect of emboldening the hapless worker and shattering the rose-tinted spectacles through which I had been viewing proceedings up until then. Picking grapes is hard, grinding work, only imbued by dewy-eyed onlookers with some sort of bucolic romance, not by the pickers themselves. It was late afternoon on a baking day in Burgundy, with the mercury touching 30ºC and I could partly empathise with the pickers, as I had rashly decided to explore the village and vineyards of Chassagne-Montrachet by bicycle. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Chassagne, Ramonet

The wind was whipping the conkers from the chestnut trees at Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair in Vosne-Romanée last Wednesday morning as I walked past, prompting a wimpish dash to the other side of the road to escape them. (You might have done the same if you had seen them bursting apart as they hit the road.) My destination was just a few yards further along rue du Château, where perhaps the most diligent sorting team in the world was hard at work, picking out anything that was sub-standard amongst the bunches of grapes that today are now well on their way to making Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Richebourg 2011. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Richebourg, DRC, Vosne-Romanée

“This year the sorting table will be the key.” So said Gregory Patriat, wine maker at JC Boisset, when I called to see him last Friday morning in Nuits-St-Georges, just a few hours before he was due to commence the 2011 harvest, starting in Beaune Grèves. With him having only 15 minutes to spare I managed a few rapid-fire questions before he dashed away again to see that was all was in order prior to the off. In terms of the amount of sorting that will be required Patriat reckons that 2011 is similar to 2004. Continuing, he expressed bewilderment that some people had already finished harvesting: “They must be magicians.” He could have started the previous Monday but was glad that he had waited a few extra, sunny, days – necessary to dry the grapes after the 30mm downpour a week earlier. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, Boisset, Beaune

“À table!” hollered Mark Haisma in French yesterday morning at 11.49, prompting his sorting team to move from the makeshift table they had been using back to the more conventional mechanical one, now repaired having ground to a halt earlier. With the noise from the ghetto blaster at conversation-drowning volume it’s a wonder anybody heard him. That, together with the Coopers Original Pale Ale in the fridge, might leave you thinking you had stepped into an Australian winery, and not one on the outskirts of Gevrey-Chambertin. Don’t be fooled. Haisma knows his stuff and his wines are far removed from the brash palate-thumpers you might expect. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis

If I said that this bunch of Montrachet grapes fell off the back of a passing truck no one would believe me but that is what happened last Saturday afternoon. I picked them up and hollered, sotto voce, after the driver but he didn't hear me (that's the untrue bit). Could I make a few centiliters of wine with them? What to ferment it in? The bowl of an unused pipe made of oak? No, I didn't think so either. And they taste so good. Perfect for breakfast, in fact, intensely juicy and mouthwatering, sweet ‘n’ sour all in the one bite. Impossible to stop eating them. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, Montrachet, Drouhin

These 6.00am starts are not easy, particularly now with the days shortening and the sky still dark at that hour – save for a scattering of stars on a clear morning. But I was rewarded yesterday as I drove through Chassagne-Montrachet, crossing the D906 that links Saint-Aubin with Chagny, before climbing up the small hill between Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet on the right and Blanchot-Dessus on the left. Cresting the rise, the colours changed from muted greys to opulent reds, pinks and oranges and the vineyards went up a few notches in quality too; Bâtard-Montrachet now to the right and Le Montrachet on the left. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, Beaune

When I first became interested in Burgundy Remoissenet was a name to be avoided, along with others such as Mommesin, Chanson and Maufoux. However, the great thing about Burgundy is that, despite appearances to the contrary, it is always changing, like a slowly turning kaleidoscope. The result is that a correctly held opinion, written in stone today, can be turned to dangerous fallacy by the events of tomorrow. And ‘tomorrow’ arrived at Remoissenet a few years ago when long-time patriarch Roland Remoissenet sold the business to a group of American investors, with Louis Jadot also taking a small holding. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Remoissenet, Harvest

This is a ladybird with impeccable taste, nestled snugly on a bunch of Montrachet grapes at the Drouhin winery on the outskirts of Beaune yesterday. And you needn’t worry that she soon met her doom in the press. Far from it. Having first noted that her presence was evidence of the success of their biodynamic practices, Véronique Drouhin then carefully removed her and brought her outside where she was placed gently on a white rose. The cellar hands get a good laugh out of Drouhin’s concern, though ladybird rescue is not all that she does during harvest. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Drouhin, Montrachet, Harvest

After a growing season that witnessed extraordinarily variable weather, harvest is gradually getting underway in the Côte d’Or. It is an early harvest, about three weeks earlier than last year, mainly thanks to the summer-like weather experienced in April. This continued through May and into June, with the mercury creeping towards a furnace-like 40ºC at times, leaving the ground parched and the vines badly in need of a drink. Which they certainly got in July, when the temperature plummeted and the rain came down, and down. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest

Weather-wise, it has been a roller-coaster year in Burgundy. Scorching heat in June, cool and rainy in July, better in August, with the harvest now due to start in about one week’s time. It’s anybody’s guess how 2011 will eventually turn out and I have never pretended to be one of those soothsayers who, with confidence unbounded, pronounce judgement on a vintage before hardly a grape is picked and then carve that judgement in stone. No wine region deserves to have a whole vintage pigeon-holed in such cavalier fashion and to do so in Burgundy is just plain stupid, so I am not about to try. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest

One of the most sacred rituals for holidaymakers in France is a visit to the local market to stock up on fruit and vegetables, bread and cheese, meat, fish and fowl. Critical judgement will usually be abandoned and in its place will come a dewy-eyed Arcadian vision, which always results in first time visitors buying far more than they need. Arms will be dragged nearly from their sockets as ton-weight bags are lugged laboriously between stalls and the throng of other shoppers. And that is when you spot the clever market shopper, nonchalantly pulling a trolley bag, stopping to examine everything carefully before making a purchase. Read More...

Tags: Beaune, Burgundy, Market, Poulet de Bresse

Any lady who has successfully negotiated the cobblestones of Trinity College Dublin’s Front Square in high heels should have no difficulty making her way along the Passage Sainte-Hélène in Beaune (off the Place Carnot) to dine at Ma Cuisine. Others may wish to approach from the Rue Poterne end where the traverse across the cobbles is but a few paces. Either route shouldn’t be too much of a trial for the gentlemen and both will lead you to this gem of a restaurant, long-time favourite of wine producers, merchants and writers. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Coche-Dury

The Wednesday market in Beaune, wine capital of Burgundy, is not the grand affair that takes over the heart of the town every Saturday. Come Wednesday, it has shrunk back on itself, out of the adjoining streets and the Place Carnot, and huddles outside the Place de la Halle, venue for the annual Hospices de Beaune wine auction. For the auction the hall is robed in scarlet, and every Saturday it is crammed with stalls, but yesterday the solitary butcher’s stall belonged to Pascal Gravelais, the best butcher in town. With a steady drizzle falling from a pewter sky we were not tempted to linger; the necessary purchases were made and after a brief confab under dripping brollies it was agreed that we should cheer ourselves up with a light lunch in Le Gourmandin. Read More...

Tags: Beaune, Burgundy

Aligoté is a rubbish grape – correct? That is a point of view to which I largely subscribed for many years, until I had the chance to taste and drink numerous examples more recently. As with everything Burgundian the mantra when searching for good Aligoté is: ‘Producer, Producer, Producer.’ (Just like the equivalent phrase from the property world.) Three of the best are Pierre Morey, Bernard Moreau and Marc Morey and I have never failed to be satisfied with the wines they produce from this humble grape. Read More...

Tags: Aligoté, Burgundy, Moreau

If there is one thing worth remembering about Burgundy it is this: despite appearances to the contrary it is always changing, like a slowly rotating kaleidoscope, as I am fond of saying far too often. Thus you should never let your opinions about vintages, producers, vineyards, or anything else for that matter, get too entrenched. A case in point is the house of JC Boisset where change (in the right direction) has been in the air for a couple of years now. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Boisset, 2009

What is the most overlooked red wine from Burgundy’s Côte d’Or? That’s a no-brainer in my book; it simply has to be red Chassagne-Montrachet. Mention the name to almost anybody outside the immediate region and they will start licking their chops in anticipation of glorious white wines, with nary a thought of reds. It is the ‘Montrachet’ in the name that does it. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Chassagne, Ramonet

For many people Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare is Ireland’s premier resort hotel offering, as it does, a huge range of activities for every member of the family. I take a narrower view and return year after year with just one purpose in mind – to meet the roster of top-notch winemakers that proprietor Bill Kelly (above) brings over from France in the spring and autumn to present a week’s worth of wine tastings. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Kelly's

You can tell by the colour. Honey-gold when it should be no deeper than full yellow. And the smell. Caramel, marzipan and nuts. In other words heavy, sweet and full, like a cheap perfume, with no ‘brightness’, no fruity tingle. The taste follows on dismally from this sad litany: lacking in life and ‘bounce’, usually low in acidity, plodding rather than fresh, fit only for flinging down the sink, certainly not to be sipped and savoured. I speak of prematurely oxidised white Burgundy. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Montrachet, Premox

Harvest, or la vendange, is the summit of the year’s work, a period of frantic activity that is curiously at odds with the normally well ordered pace of life and work on the Côte d’Or. It follows on from one of the quietest periods in August when vineyard work ceases, holidays are taken and winery equipment is cleaned and checked. There is nothing to do but wait. Then, the normally sedate villages come alive with activity and noise. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Harvest, Côte d'Or

It is Easter Monday in Burgundy and the temperature is hovering around zero. Snow has been falling gently since midnight and now the fields and vineyards are generously blanketed. The bare branches of the trees carry a thick icing of snow too, but the roads have remained clear and traffic is moving easily. Except, that is, for those hardy gastronomes who are driving to La Ferme de la Ruchotte for their lunch. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Chicken

My first attempt to find La Ferme de la Ruchotte, buried deep in the Burgundian countryside, almost ended in failure a few years ago. It lies between the villages of Bligny-sur-Ouche and Bessey-en-Chaume, about 15 kilometres north west of Beaune. It was well worth the search for it is one of France’s gastronomic jewels. Read More...

Tags: La Ruchotte, Burgundy, Chicken

Yesterday being the feast of Saint Patrick I dug deep into the cellar and came up with a gem that a friend had given me some five years ago. It was a Chambolle-Musigny, Les Cras 2002, Domaine Michèle & Patrice Rion (13%). Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Chambolle-Musigny

The latest news from Burgundy’s Côte d’Or is that Alex Gambal, originally from the Washington DC area, but with his own domaine and negociant business in Beaune since 1997, has completed the purchase of some prized parcels of vineyard in the grand cru Bâtard-Montrachet, along with Puligny-Montrachet ‘Les Enseignères’ and Chassagne-Montrachet ‘L’Ormeau’. Read More...

Tags: Gambal, Burgundy, Santenay

Sometimes you hit a winning streak, when a succession of bottles, drunk over the course of a week or two, all deliver complete satisfaction. Such was my luck in recent days and here are three that were particularly memorable. Read More...

Tags: Laroche, Bellene, Lafon, Burgundy

An offer, received today from Corney & Barrow in London, for a mouthwatering array of white burgundies straight from the cellar of Domaine Leflaive prompted an indulgent bout of wishful thinking and brought back some memories too. Read More...

Tags: Leflaive, Burgundy

Obtaining an entrée to the cellars of top winemakers in Burgundy is notoriously difficult. Many of them operate on a tiny scale and simply are not set up to receive visitors. Others simply like playing the cussed curmudgeon and, anyway, “We have no wine to sell.” Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Volnay, Lafarge

Those vineyards qualify as some of the most fragmented and parcellated in the world. Thanks to the Napoleonic code of inheritance, holdings are continuously divided between all heirs. Add to this changes of ownership through marriage and purchase and the whole patchwork becomes baffling in the extreme. Read More...

Tags: Burgundy, Côte d'Or, Beaune