Back again to Burgundy
By Leslie-Ann Sheppard
In April of this year, I traveled around France for two weeks, exploring and tasting as many wines and cheeses as I could manage. After the first week in the Rhone Valley with a day here and there in the Languedoc and Provence regions, we headed north to Burgundy. In an earlier travelogue I documented my return to the wonderful city of Beaune, and my musings were so fond that I ran out of space in my column before I even got to the wine.

Our first appointment was in the town of Vosne- Romanee, with Bernard Gros, the owner and winemaker of Domaine Gros. The Gros family, like most in Burgundy, has been in the winemaking business for many, many decades - since 1830, to be precise. When Bernard's famous winemaking father Jean retired in 1995, his estate was divided among his children. Sister Anne and brother Michel also make wine, and combined, the family's holdings are certainly among the most enviable properties in the Côte d'Or.

Bernard Gros is a jovial gentleman who ushered us immediately down rickety steps into his musty cellar. A bit shy about his English-speaking abilities (and our French abilities were only what we gained listening and repeating the Pinsleur audio CD collection), at first our conversation was a bit of a struggle. A few sips of his excellent wines somehow seemed to put us all at ease, of course.

PHOTO BY LESLIE-ANN SHEPPARD Old bottles found in a 100 year old wine cellar in Burgundy.

Being in Vosne-Romanee, one of the most famous communes for Pinot Noir production in the Côte de Nuits, the northern part of the Côte d'Or, we expected our tasting to be red wine only. We were almost right.

We started with the Hautes Côtes de Nuits, the only one of the Gros wines made from a larger area than his more specific cru to follow. As we tasted, we moved up the hierarchy of quality wine, to Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru, then to the tiny production and highly allocated Grand Crus of Clos Vougeot-Musigni, Grands Echezeaux, and Richebourg. This was no "slouch" tasting; these are some of the best Pinot Noir in the world. We were utterly seduced by the fragrance, the texture, the complexity of flavors in each of these wines. Berries, truffles, cocoa, earth, spice… these were some of the flavors that came to mind when tasting. Each wine was different; each one amazing in its uniqueness. Knowing the exclusivity of these wines added an element of appreciation to the tasting. In the U.S., the wines are available only in the states of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

The tasting finished with a rare treat: a tasting of Bernard's white Hautes Côtes de Nuits, both out of barrel (the 2007), and out of bottle (the 2006). This is a gorgeous chardonnay that is not exported out of France. Production is just too small. Pineapples and custard danced out of the glass. It was a wonderful way to cleanse the palate after the reds (not that I wanted those flavors to go away). …

While tasting, we learned that Bernard is both a traditionalist and a modernist. His winemaking is all about tradition; he hand-picks grapes, uses minimal intervention in both vineyard and winery, bottling without minimal fining and no filtration and using a combination of newer and older French oak barrels for aging. His lifestyle merges the new with the old, however, as we saw when he led us through the old part of the hundred-year-old cellar into the newly excavated area. Here, to our surprise, was Bernard's other joy— his grand piano, sitting upon his 1980sstyle floor, complete with colored lights shining from below the floor. Talk about a merging of ways!

This new part of the cellar was fascinating, because the exposed walls showed the various stones and minerals that comprise the soils of the famous vineyards of the area. As Bernard explained, this composition is essential for the Grand Cru vineyards in the Côtes de Nuits and is what gives the wines their complexity.

After our tasting we stopped for lunch in the town of Morey St Denis, another storybook village with open air cafes and wine shops, and sipped a half bottle of another local wine, Gevrey Chambertin. Life could definitely be worse. … I

Leslie-Ann Sheppard is the owner of The Cellar, a wine and cheese shop on Surfside Road, now in its fourth season.