Burgundy beckons

December 31, 2014

Almost as the final lines of Auld Lang Syne (first verse only) fade away into the 2015 air this evening, Tania and I shall be packing vests, thermals, ridiculously thick sweaters etc etc and bracing ourselves for what was, until recently, the annual pilgrimage to Burgundy. The combination of modest vintages, full cellars chez Connolly’s, new shops to open and worldwide recession has meant that this will be the first year since 2012 that we have made such a trip and we are almost uncontrollable with excitement at the prospect.

Twelfth night will, largely, be spent on the road until we reach Beaune in the late afternoon for a tasting with Nicolas Potel at Maison Roche de Bellene. Frighteningly, in some respects, I have known Nicolas for 20 odd years (where did they go?) and remember well spending the evening of the Epiphany with him and his parents at Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in about 1994. James Handford MW was with us at the time and was crowned  “King for the Day” for finding the fève in the galette des rois – happy days!

Wednesday will see us taking on a whistle-stop series of tastings with Gerard Thomas in St Aubin, Thierry Matrot in Meursault, the legendary Michel Lafarge in Volnay, Comte Armand in Pommard and finishing with Pascal Marchand in Nuits St Georges. If we survive that we might even head off down to Givry the following morning to catch up with Vincent Lumpp.

I shall hopefully be blogging along the way so watch this space……

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