We caught a train to Beaune, which is about half an hour out of Dijon to have a wine tasting and lunch. The Bouchard winery has been a family concern for hundreds of years and was only sold to a bigger company a few decades ago. They have several hundred properties througout the region and their wine is all categrorised by the type of wine, region, town, family and (if it's really good) plot of soil. We started down in the cave, which keeps a moist, humid and consistent temperature for the thousands of bottles of wine that are stored there. In addition to the stock they store to age, this particular cave had a 'library' of wines going back to the 1800's where they have kept a selection of each vintage. Every few years they take a vintage upstairs, taste and then recork the wine so that it stays good. Wouldn't you love to have the job where you have to taste hundreds of years old wine!
After the tour we had a little tasting, trying out three red and then three white wines. The reds from this region are all Pinot Noir and the whites are all Chablis - just with different blends and flavours.
Our next stop was a chance to tick something off our bucket lists - we had lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant - L'epicerie & Cie.
We ordered from a selection of set menus and I had snails in a sort of pesto garlic sauce, rack of lamb with a sauce from heaven and potato stack, some local cheese with a spicy salad, and a molten chocolate cake with homemade vanilla icecream. It sounds simple to write it here, but each course was just an experience in taste and texture. It was seriously one of the best meals I've ever had and I enjoyed every bite.
We started lunch at 12.30 and at 3.30pm, we rolled out of the restaurant and started a slow walk into the centre of town. We visited a hospital museum which was established in the 1700's by some wealthy patrons to provide medical services to the poor, but everyone was so full of rich food and wine that we didn't really do the poor thing justice. We declined the offer of an extra walk around town and set off on the half hour walk to the train station. It was a bit of hard going, but it helped to shake the lunch down a bit. Once on the train everyone fell into a food coma until we had to get off at Dijon. Once back at the hotel, everyone went to their rooms for a much needed nap. I crashed out on the bed and was asleep in minutes, only waking up when I got cold about an hour later.
No one wanted any dinner, but we'd arranged to meet in the hotel foyer to head out for a drink at 8am. I went down at the alloted time with the full intention of saying I wasn't coming out, but somehow got convinced and the next thing I knew we were in a quirky little pub drinking Chablis in the basement to the accompaniment of Melody Gardot's crooning tunes. Several glasses of wine and lots of chat and laugh later, we crawled back to the hotel and crashed out.
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