A Lovely Drive through the Countryside in Bourgogne

Dominique, Roger, and we have been talking about going wine tasting in the area around Mâcon for quite some time. But, getting the four of us together for a full day with pleasant weather has proved difficult. Finally, last Wednesday we pulled it together.



David was to do some research on wineries and wine areas, Roger was our chauffeur, and Dominique did research on restaurant possibilities in the area. (I got to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of their labors!) The original plan was to go to one winery in the morning, have a leisurely lunch, and visit one winery in the afternoon. After a bit of unplanned sightseeing, we settled on lunch and one winery in the afternoon.


But, let’s have David give some background on the wines and area before I continue with the narrative:
The southern part of Bourgogne is an area that produces both red and white wines.  Because we had both red and white wine preferences in our little group, I looked for wineries that produced both.  Because we got a bit of a late start, and as Anna mentioned, we did a bit of unplanned sight seeing as I attempted to figure out French country roads before we got out the GPS, we wound up in a different town from the one originally planned.  However, since the town we stopped in was Fuissé, one of the most famous white-wine producing towns in France, we decided to do our tasting there.  The area is famous for Chardonnay-based whites produced from a number of AOC areas as described below.  While I tend not to be a fan of Chardonnay, the examples we tasted were indeed remarkable, from several of the near-by appelations.  They revealed a variety of styles, from minerally to more fruit based-flavors.  Needless to say we came away with several bottles for our 'cellar' in the apartment.



Finding a place to have lunch turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We searched in vain through one small village for a restaurant. There were some, but an early-spring Wesnesday was not a day normally given to tourists, so they were not open.  Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to continue our search through the countryside. We drove past a chateau that has been converted to hotel and restaurant just outside Crèches sur Saône assuming it must be very expensive. But, Dominique found it on her list of reasonably priced, well-rated restaurants, and we decided to give it a try.

Château de la Barge turned out to be a great choice for lunch!  We had a pleasant table in the lovely, formal dining room.  And, we were all very happy with choices from the specials for the day on the “formula” menu (i.e. entrée + plat + dessert or entrée/plat + dessert).  The food and service were excellent!  Our lunches came with two delicious “amuse-bouches”; the one before the plat was mushroom purée with some sort of a cheese topping.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am NOT a mushroom fan, but I’ll happily eat this dish anytime!  I’m sorry I can’t remember what the one before dessert was, but I do know it was amazing.  After lunch we moved outside for coffee.

Then it was back into the car in search of a winery. We didn’t have to look far – Bourgogne is simply littered with them. We decided to back track to Fuissé and settled on Domaine Thibert, a winery with several AOC appellations, including Pouilly-Fuissé , Pouilly-Vizelles, Saint-Véran, and Mâcon-Fuissé. The Thibert family has been owners for a mere seven generations. Christophe and Sandrine Thibert, brother and sister, are the current owners; Sandrine was our hostess as we tasted several of their wines.



Here’s how the winery looks from the street:

And, here is the interior courtyard (the tasting room is in the door just to the right of the stairs):

And, here is a view of the countryside from the courtyard (note the beautiful, blue sky):

After we made our purchases, we bid fond fairwell to lovely sourthern Bourgogne.  At least a temporary fairwell – it’s just a short drive from Lyon, afterall.