Unexcused Absences France 2013 - Week11 Recap (he said)

France 2013 – Week11 Recap (he said)

by Kent 6 Aug 2013

Late Sunday morning we were getting ready to untie from our rural mooring, east of Montbéliard, when an old river cruiser (Avalon) arrived. We walked over to meet the owners, Pam and Nick, who we found out were English, but had lived in the south of France near Narbonne for several decades. They invited us up for a glass of rosé (it was almost noon…) and we joined them after putting together a cheese and bread and sausage snack plate, intending to stay for an hour or so. After a delightful chat up on deck for what seemed like two hours, we stood up and checked the time and discovered it was just shy of 5pm! Wow, that day flew by.

Cruising west on the Doubs River

Because it was now too late to make it to our next mooring before the canals closed, we decided to stay a second night and invited our new friends over for a cheesy pasta dinner that Heather pulled together. And in the “very small world” department, they asked about our boat purchase – they could tell we had bought a hire boat from Le Boat – and we said we bought her in St. Gilles in the south. Pam got an amused look on her face and asked what we remember from the boatyard there, and I said that a very nice British man named Paul had been incredibly kind in helping me get Aprés Ski modified and ready for moving aboard, and she said “he’s my son!” So there you have it, proof (as if we needed more) of the small world of the French waterways.

Sunday night we got our first proper rain in over four weeks, and Monday the showers continued on and off. It was actually cool enough Monday morning to boil water for some oatmeal! We drove to Isle-sur-les-Doubs, and by the time we arrived the sun had returned. I filled the tank with 60 liters of diesel from the Intermarché next to the quay, and we had nice weather for a dinner on deck.

Our hike above Baume-les-Dames

Tuesday we drove to Baume-les-Dames, and the next morning were able to take a nice hike to the cliffs above the town that we had missed on our way through here a few weeks previously. Wednesday afternoon we arrived in Deluz, home of my earlier Pétanque training, and the same gang was out playing that evening so we walked over to watch. This time they convinced Heather to take a few throws, so we both gave it the old college try. The game is simple on the surface, but quite challenging once you start to play.

Another vista from our hike

Thursday morning we left early to get to Besançon in time to get our rental car before the shop closed for lunch. We needed a car because we had a gift for the Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, the winemakers whose harvest we visited last fall. We had arranged with Constance and Louis-Michel to come by at 5pm to drop off a hardcover book of photos we took of the harvest. She mentioned something about a small tasting, so we were well motivated to get there on time. And to review from our post on the harvest last fall, the domaine’s wines are regularly listed in compilations of the world’s finest and most expensive wines.

After a chat on their patio (I think they really loved their gift), Louis-Michel led us and a handful of other guests through his cellars, and we tasted close to a dozen wines straight from the cask! These were all from the 2012 harvest that we photographed and wrote about back in September 2012. We started with Louis-Michel’s only white wine, from their Clos des Grandes Vignes plot in the southern Nuits-Saint-Georges – great potential, a nice balance of mineral and fruit and acidity. Not as strong a mineral flavor as Vézelay or Sancerre, nor as creamy/buttery as a Chablis, but quite subtle and delicious.

The tasting with Louis-Michel and his guests

Next up were two reds from the plots around their Vosne-Romanée chateau, Colombiere and Clos du Château. Even though the Clos plot is only a Villages Appellation (ranked above table wine but below the good stuff), and one of the Domaine’s least expensive wines (only about $75 a bottle), the expected minerality was augmented by a nice spiciness that really balanced well with the fruit and tannins. And yes, it is inevitable, I’m becoming the dreaded “Wine Snob”.

A special corner of Louis-Michel’s cellar; who knows what deliciousness lurks?

The Premier Crus wines were up next, and we tasted samples (all from the 2012 harvest) of Les Suchots, Les Brulees, Aux Cras, and Les Chaumes plots (if my memory – which admittedly was starting to swim upstream against the wine – hasn’t failed me). The one that stood out for me was Les Brulees, it had a really interesting “middle” taste, after the initial hit of fruit and mineral, and before the tannin and lingering fruit flavors as the tastes trailed off.

Closeup of a Liger-Belair cask

There is only one way to step up from the Premier Crus, and Louis-Michel led us over to an Echezeaux Grand Cru barrel. I never imagined when they invited us over that we’d get to taste the expensive stuff, and yet he pulled the stopper on the cask and inserted the glass suction tube and announced that the final taste would be from the Echezeaux plot (his other Grand Cru, the really expensive one, is La Romanée). He poured some into our glasses, and one sniff told us this was something special. What amazed me is that this was a wine meant to be consumed no earlier than 12-15 years from now, and yet it still presented an amazingly balanced and nuanced array of flavors. I could almost imagine what a properly aged Côte de Nuits Grand Cru would taste like, but with our humble means we’d never be able to taste such an extravagance.

Here we go! The 2012 Echezeaux Grand Cru straight from the cask

And then, almost as an afterthought, Louis-Michel walked into a side room and returned with a bottle. All I could see was “2007”. Could it be…? He inserted the corkscrew… extracted the cork… walked over… and poured some in my glass! Oh my goodness. Swirl… sniff… taste… HEAVEN! This wine presented a whole new level of deliciousness. Creamy yet bold, hints of oak and mineral and earthiness, a thousand flavors that lingered for close to a minute on the tongue – I can report that I have now seen the promised land, and it is right… over… there… just up the slope north-west of the Vosne-Romanée village, a stone’s throw from the Romanée Conti plot, and its name is Echezeaux. This was truly a watershed moment in my Wine Snob training regimen. Here’s a review of that wine from an actual wine snob:

The Echezeaux 2007 is a delightful almost decadent wine. In the bouquet red and dark cherries, liquorice with the oak very well integrated. On the palate quite rich and lush pinot fruit, almost silky tannins and a good mineralic backbone – very well balanced and seductive. A sexy, delicate and intense wine … brings back memories of a nice Jayer wine. Impressive for the vintage … this is one sexy wine!

So to Constance and Louis-Michel, if you read this, please know that we are truly grateful for the time you took to share your wines with us. It was especially generous for you to let us try our very first real wine, the 2007 Echezeaux Grand Cru from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair.

The view from Fort Bréguille

After that, Friday and Saturday were almost an afterthought. I visited Fort de Brégille, on the hill above Besançon, on my way to return the rental car, and we did some work and I processed photos and then we socialized up and down the dock. By Friday evening we knew or had met previously over half the boats on the long pontoon, and we visited with John and Judy on Vivienne, Rory and Jenny on Paula, Richard and Julia on Ettie. We finally got to have a nice chat with John and Judy, he had a career around boats as a professional electrician and diesel mechanic. They, too, have an ex-hire boat from Le Boat they bought three years ago, just like us. Lovely folks.

Saturday we sadly had to start thinking about wrapping up our summer 2013 trip aboard Après Ski, and we sorted through the accumulated brochures and travel guides we’d accumulated this year, and began making lists of chores to do in the next week before we arrive back at St. Jean-de-Losne. Evening was spent aboard Paula, Rory and Jenny grilled a delicious pork loin on their brai (how South Africans refer to a barbeque grill) and Heather and I provided salad, fresh strawberry and dessert, and a bottle of Sancerre 2011 white.

Next week we’ll continue down the Doubs River, and will probably arrive in St. Jean-de-Losne (the boat’s winter home) by Thursday or Friday.

France 2013 Week 11 Numbers: