I have a good friend who is soon traveling to France to visit wine country and asked me for some information. I got a little over excited and ended up writing a small treatise so figured I should share it with all of my Blog readers as it has a lot of good recommendations.
Chateau Recommendations.
The Chateau's to visit are in the Loire Valley which is about a 1 to 2 hours train or car ride from Paris. In addition if you are visiting the Chateau's you are not that far from the D-Day beaches like Omaha Beach and you can visit those and a Chateau or two in a day. It's best to get a hotel in Tours to visit the beaches and Chateau's as it puts you really close to everything there and getting around by car is a breeze and roads are well marked. Chateau St. Michel is the most famous and photographed Chateau but it is further South and may take longer to get there,. You also have to walk us down a steep road and causeway at St. Michele as you may not be able to park close to get to it but it is spectacular. There are over 200 Chateaus in the Loire but if you have seen one or two you have seen most of them with a couple of exceptions which are must see and unique Chateaus with extensive architecture and history. The ones to visit are Chateau Chambord, Château de Chenonceau: The Fairy Tale Chateau of Dreams, and Chateau d'Amboise in the town of Amboise is where Leonardo Di Vince is buried. While out visiting Chateaus a great place to have lunch is La Cave Aux Moines on the Loire River(http://cave-aux-moines.com/fr/) near Amboise.
Visiting wine areas in France. Again you must make advance reservations sometimes months in advance. If you are in the alcohol business and have relationships with distributors they can make reservations for you. Southern for example, can make these for you but you will need to rent a car and drive around yourself. Driving in wine country is easy especially with GPS like Google Maps. You can download current maps of any area in France prior to going so you don't need the internet to travel around. You do need to be on-time. If you are 5 minutes late they will not see you most of the time. Clark and I however have hired agents over there who provide us with a one stop experience. They pick us up at the hotel in the morning, drive us around all day, introduce us to everyone, act as translators if needed as some of the owners speak no English, take us to a nice place for lunch(we buy their lunch) bring us home at night and then arrange for and make sure our wine is shipped with no problems back to the US. They used to charge a group of 4 to 6 1000 Euro per day, many have now gone to a per person charge, last time it was 300 Euro per day per person. Be aware under French law the agents cannot drive any vehicle over 9 passengers including the driver so you are restricted to 4 couples doing the wine tours. In addition many winemakers prefer no more than 2 couples. You can discuss these things with the agent. You may ask why don't we just do the tours with the companies there like Viator? The reason is they are going to take you to totally unknown un classified vineyards who make jug wine and not the well known or better reputation vineyards. You will never see the inside of Lafite with them. We on the other hand have been to most of the famous ones. That is the difference
Let's start with Bordeaux
It is easy to get to Bordeaux from Paris by a very fast train. Under 3 hours. The agent you need to use there is Frederic Borliachon.(email contact@rendezvousauchateau.com, phone(+33 6 28 35 00 95). I emailed with him 2 weeks ago sending him someone new. Tell him I referred you. He knows everyone in Bordeaux and gets you into any vineyard both left and right bank. I strongly recommend Chateau Montrose, Pichon Leland, Haut Brion, Pontet Canet, D'yquem, Giraud, Cheval Blanc, Gazin, Leoville Las Case and whatever Frederic recommends or you want. He could not get me into Petrus, not sure why. Avoid Chateau Chalet. They are ripoff artists and cheat on shipping. I also recommend he take you to the lesser known areas Blaye and Bourge which are right bank vineyards across the river from the left bank who have compelling outstanding red wines at 10% the cost of the left bank wines. On the right bank ask him to take you to the Castillion vineyards, especially Chateaux Madam Pitray whose wines are imported through K&L wines of San Francisco. Most people don't know this but they have prehistoric caves art you can visit on the right bank and Frederic knows where they are. Not as big as the famous ones but good enough to see what they are like and a quick stop while out touring. Bordeaux city is great. The main square is where the Opera is directly across from the Hotel International which is great to stay at and has a wonderful Gordon Ramsey 1 star Restaurant in the hotel. Be aware Bordeaux city is 60 Kilometers from the vineyards both north and east. It takes an hour drive to get to the vineyards from your hotel. The best place to buy and ship wine from a store in Bordeaux is Vineotechnique(also have a shop in Beaune in Bourgogne) 1 block north of the Opera and Cave Ulysses is in the main square of village Margaux again far north of town. There is also a very small mom and pop place for lunch close to Cave Ulysses which is great. The owner of Cave Ulysses is Dominique and he usually gives my referrals a small discount just mentioning my name unless he has forgotten.(I receive no kickbacks). So far Dominique has had the largest selections of Bordeaux wines I have seen anywhere. As a general statement over the years on average shipped to my front door including shipping my wine prices from France are about 30% less than here or NYC. Bottom line: I am cutting out Southern.
Bourgogne
The French hate "Burgundy" and insist on Bourgogne. Clark and my hearts are in Bourgogne. If we could, we would move there. There is just so much to see and do and we have been there for months and years now almost a dozen times and we have not scratched the surface. Our best agent and Personal friend who came to Amelia 3 years and provided a tasting of Bourgogne wines both for me as well as the Ocean Club is Stevie Bobes. An American expat married to a French woman with 3 young adult children like Frederic knows everyone within a 100 mile radius. Just an amazing individual and has done more for us in the wine world than anyone. Stevie's email is stevie@wineambassadeur.com and his phone number is +33 6 48 17 46 81. He is busier than Frederic so there are rare times where we had to change our trip to meet his demanding schedule but it was always worth it. Sometimes he has a helper to fill in. Train from Paris to Beaune is 2 hours and you can also get a direct train from the airport CDG straight to Beaune as well as Dijon. If you elect to use Stevie he prefers to pick you up at the Dijon train station and take you first to lunch in Dijon with the youngest Michelin Chef in France who is spectacular after you stop and buy Dijon mustard from the original store from 1750 something. Another idea that Stevie may help with is a side trip to Lyon which is the culinary capital of the world and where Daniel Boulard came from as well as Chef Bourse. The food and wine in Lyon is second to none. If you go to Lyon, look up in the old city my friend Georges Dos Santos, owner of Antic Wine with one of the largest wine collections in the world. Last time I was there he had Peter Michael and Kistler, go figure? There are three hotels to consider in Bourgogne. #1 5 Star in Puligny Montrachet about 10 KM north of the train station in Beaune is Hotel Le Montrachet. Extreme beauty as well as price. At a minimum, have lunch there. It is across from Cave Puligny-Montrachet owned by Julien Wallerand, a good friend, whose father was the first Master of wine in the world and wrote the seminal book on the Montrachet vineyards. We have known Julian for decades and he takes great care of me and my friends. He specializes in affordable local high quality wines and our usual wine price is around $50 US from him. In addition there is a similar set up called Cave Chassange Montrachet in that village we don't know the owner as well but it is the same set up with 100's of local high quality affordable wines, both cave’s are liker coops. We usually buy a lot of wine from both of them when there. You have to have a car to get to them. The second hotel is Hotel De France directly next to the train station in Beaune. It is a 3 star Logis hotel run by a family who we know well and wonderful to work with. The owner's name is Nicholas and he has a nice wife and daughter who we have watched grow up over 2 decades. You walk out of the train station, cross the road and the hotel is right there. It is a very comfortable and frankly cheap hotel but was remodeled and updated 3 years ago and is clean, comfortable and safe. You can reserve online but for unknown reasons half the time it will say not available but if you call Nicolas directly at +33 3 80 24 10 34 he or his wife will make the reservations. One reason we could not make reservations was when he was renovating and taking vacation the Hotel was closed but because of our relationship he allowed Clark and I to stay there by ourselves and leave a check at the front desk when we left. It is a 20 minute walk anywhere in town. Directly there at the train station and Hotel Der France is ADA Beaune car rental which to us is the best place to rent a car and very convenient and you can park it at the train station at no charge. We wrecked one of their cars years ago and they could not have been nicer or easier to work with. There is another car rental, the more famous Europa car rental but they are on the other side of town on the road to the vineyards south and you have to get a taxi to get to them but they are fine also easy to use. Our last rental with them we picked up the car in Beaune and dropped it in Geneva with no hassle. Be sure and check office times for car rentals they are weird and you may end up waiting for them to open or maybe Stevie can pick it up for you and have it ready. Another option is LeClerc which to us were the cheapest and Stevie helped. We rented an van for like $15 a day but again you need a taxi/uber to get there. The third place to stay is Hotel d'Bistro which was featured in Wine Spectator 3 weeks ago and is a Grand Award winner. It is right off Park Canot in the middle of town and is 4 or 5 stars. It is small, maybe 20 rooms. You have to have dinner at the restaurant as they are famous for table carved Blue Foot Roasted Chicken. Park Canot is the main area of Beaune in a circle around a park with lots of restaurants. Highly recommended is Cave De Arches in a basement cave right off Park Canot. It is Clark's and mine favorite place to eat dinner and we have gone there now for 20 years. Have the chicken in Epoisse cheese sauce. In terms of vineyards I always start and end with Bouchard Per et Fils right down the street 2 blocks from Hotel France. At least 30% of our wine purchases come from them. Their selection is extensive and maybe they are not as famous as some others but many of their wines are highly rated. I have a case of the 2017 Chevalier Montrachet that was rated by Wine Spectator #2 white wine in the world and they sold me one of the last cases and did not raise the price after the rating. They are super people and I got to know the cellar master. In Meursault visit Thierry & Pascale Matrot, a great family we know. Years ago we met the daughter, Elsa Matrot, who at the time was 23 and had just taken over as winemaker and cellar master from her father after graduating from University of California Davis in wine production. Great people right next to the church in the village Meursault. In Puligny Montrachet I recommend visiting the Carillon brothers, Paul Pernot, and Oliver Laflavie all worth a visit. They are all great folks, have great wines and Paul I am afraid is in his 90's so most likely the son is in charge now. Paul speaks no English. Up north is where the red wines are and we recommend Domaine Rapet Pere & Fils. We met the patriarch years ago, most likely now gone, and he was a famous member of Tastevin in Bourgogne. Makes great affordable reasonable wines. Domaine Rion Armelle et Bernard makes good wine in Vosne-Romanee and uses dogs to hunt black truffles. Our current love in Vosne-Romanee is Domaine LeMarche owned by Nicole Lamarche who in a sense jointly owns the DRC grand cru vineyards. DRC and Nicole each own ½ of the Le Tache vineyard and decades ago they traded sides God only knows why? Nicole’s portion is known as Grande Rue. We have now been to her home 3 times and despite years of getting to know her like DRC it is very difficult to buy her wines though we were fortunate to find some. For lunch in Vosne-Romanee we highly recommend La Toute Petite Auberge right off the main road through Vosne-Romanee. Look quick or you will miss it. Owned by Frank Boyer who we have known for close to 20 years, last year for the very first time he recognized me as a repeat customer and gave me my first 5% discount on my purchases. I was honored but don’t expect it. He speaks no English, but for some reason me and him have always seemed to communicate and hit it off well. Does not hurt that I have always purchased thousands of dollars of wine from him. To wit, in the restaurant he has a public wine shop in the back where he sells Vosne-Romanee wines including Nicole Lemarches wine so he has been a good source for me. Turns out he is Nicole Lemarche Godfather, a story for another time. If you really hit it off he might let you visit his own private cellar under the restaurant where he let me buy a couple more LeMarche wines. When in Beaune try Epoisse Cheese especially the older ones. There is a Cheese shop in Park Canot. Also both in Beaune and 20 Km south in Chagny are open public markets on Wednesday and Saturday or Sunday, you will have to look up when, where you can buy a ton of local stuff. If you want to stay in a rented home in Beaune Steve Powell email steve@locationburgundy.com has lots of nice places 1 to 3 bedroom. On the outskirts of town there is our equivalent of Super Walmart called LeClerc. It is massive and has everything you can think of to buy including food, gourmet food, clothes, appliances but most important wine. In France wine is sold in all Supermarkets. LeClerc's is the largest. You will find "Bargains" there. We purchased Bouchard Pere & Fils Chardonnay there for $15 US a bottle and Stevie shipped it home for us. LeClerc also has a cheap and not bad Italian restaurant inside the massive store, and again outside rents cars. 3 blocks from Hotel France is a supermarket called Casino where we get snacks, water, mustard's, etc from. They have a cheap wine section just not as big. A few years back I purchased Grand Cru Eschezeau from them for under $50 a bottle. For just Chateau visits we recommend Chateau Savigny De Beaune which houses an extensive collection of airplanes in an entire large building as well as vintage motorcycles and automobiles. In St. Aubin you can visit Chateau de Rochepot which features classic Bourgogne architecture.
If you need help in Paris we use Steeve Calvo The American in Paris. Helped us a lot with hotels, restaurants, and can book trips to Champagne, Versailles, etc. Steeve phone number is +33 6 82 87 60 60 and you can Google him online.
For more information please review my other Blogs on France
