Wine just happens to be grown in the most beautiful places on Earth.
“I have noticed that,” said Margaux Laroche with a laugh.
She should know.
She is the seventh generation owner and winemaker at Le Domaine D’Henri in Chablis, an appelation in France’s stunning and renowned Burgundy wine region.
“I love how we respect the soil and it gives us the beautiful green lines of the vineyards,” added Laroche.
“The grapes and wines they produce are traditional and classical, just like the landscape.”
I’m having this discussion with the winemaker at ChaBio, a wine tasting event that’s part of the every-two-years Grand Jours de Bourgogne.
It’s a massive, multi-day, multi-venue promotion of Burgundy wines to sommeliers, restauranteurs, wine buyers, importers, distributors, retailers and media.
Okanagan's beautiful, too
The Okanagan industry has touted its eye candy ever since the Valley got seriously into wine 35 years ago.
The Valley with its 100-kilometre-long lake, ideal weather and vineyards spilling down mountain slopes.
It’s a setting that attracts winemakers, locals and tourists alike to oogle, create, sip and enjoy.
Burgundy, too
If you transfer the concept to France’s stunning and renowned Burgundy, you'll discover a place where people have been growing grapes and making wine for 2,000 years.
While this story starts as one of wine, it really is a travel story of going to a fabled destination and discovering that what’s in the glass, exploration and discovery are inexplicitely intertwined.
My first revelation of this is just an hour earlier when our tour group hike out to the Vue Les Clos viewpoint.
The village of Chablis and its surrounding vineyards divided by the Serein River are Old World idyllic in the twiight.
By the way, Chablis wines are almost always exclusive made of Chardonnay grape either with no time in oak barrels or very light oak to preserve freshness, minerality and deliciousness.
There will be more tastings and discussions of the business of wine, but really its the joie de vivre of French wine country travel that resonates.
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Hop a bike
For instance, taking a break from the mass tasting at the conference centre in Beaune, I pedal with Active Tours along the Voie de Vignes.
It’s the 60-kilometre well-marked and well-maintained bike path through and around the vineyard, wineries and villages of Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits.
Active Tours co-owner and guide Guillaume Feltin leads me on a 34-kilometre loop that takes in the stone and church-spire villages of Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrahet and the wineries of Domaine Bernard Delagrange and Chateau Famille Picard.
There are ample stops througout the Burgundy eye candy for photos, tidbits on what makes the soil, vineyards, wineries and topography so spectacular and, of course, tastings at the wineries.
This is the land of both red and white wines – delicate Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that tend to see a little more oak for lushness and complexity.
Food and wine? Yes, please!
France is not France without pairing the local wines with regional fare.
Thus, roast chicken with a Chardonnay during the cycling lunchbreak at L’Agastache Restaurant in Volnay; escargot (yes, snails) in gravy with a Cremant de Bourgogne sparking wine at Le P’tit Paradis in Beaune; and foie gras and sausage atop roasted vegetables with a Pinot match at Le Biz’Tro, also in Beaune.
All in all, this is a double-barrel travel-wine story urging you to visit Burgundy if you can to enjoy both the vibe and the wine.
If you can’t physically get there, buy a Burgundy wine at you local liquor store and be transported to France via your taste buds.
Hop a plane
Air Canada is the best way to get to Burgundy.
It flies non-stop from both Toronto and Montreal to Paris, which is a two-hour train ride from Beaune in the heart of Burgundy wine country.
Air Canada also flies non-stop Montreal to Lyon, which is an hour-and-a-half train from Beaune.
As well, Air Canada flies from Montreal to Nice, Toulouse and Nantes, which all have surrounding wine regions.
Check out https://bourgogne-evasion.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
