The last time we were here (which was our first time at Caves Madeleine) was last summer and our dinner was so unbelievably good, I had a feeling this second time around wouldn't be able to match it. And I was right. I was slightly disappointed to see they changed their menus around. Last year they had a standard/regular menu plus a daily menu, which is what we ordered from. Now it’s just a lunch and dinner menu. The options seemed less exciting and prices seemed higher. While our dinner was still very good, it didn't come close to hitting the heights of our last meal here. One thing that does still remain is the excellent and well-priced wine list: our bottle of ’08 Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre was 59€. While this year’s experience wasn’t as off the charts good as last year’s, Caves Madeleine is still highly recommended in my book.

My wife started with the ‘Salade de tomates de Yannick Loubet’, essentially a tomato salad which was simple, fresh and tasty. I started with the ‘Cassolette d'escargots de Bourgogne’ which, like all the escargot I've had in France, was excellent. My wife had the ‘Fricassée de Rognons de Veau aux quilles’ (veal kidney) as her main which had excellent flavours but the texture wasn’t great—it was quite rubbery. My ‘Epaule d'agneau de lait des Pyrenees confite’ (lamb shoulder) was very tender with excellent and delicate flavours with a beautiful and tasty rillettes of vegetables. We shared a bowl of Valhrona chocolate and salted caramel gelato for dessert.

We met with Anne who gave us a tour of the facilities and explained to us how they are one of the few Domaines in Burgundy that do not sell their wine closely after bottling. They age them in bottle for at least a few years, many vintages much longer, in order to release the wines when they are closer to drinking well. Because of that, they have a large cellar full of bottled wines and a large library. When we sat down to taste, we were joined by Alexandre and Madame Gaunoux who were both very gracious as well fun to chat with while sipping on a beautiful bottle of 1999 Pommard Grands Epenots. Anne suggests, in any one vintage and if all else is equal, typically it’s best to drink the Grands Epenots first, then the Corton-Renardes and lastly the Rugiens as it is the most masculine. I have bought a good amount of Michel Gaunoux wines, relatively blind as I haven’t tasted many examples, and after meeting the people behind the label, as well as tasting the ’99 Grands Epenots, I’m quite pleased to be well stocked.

We met with Jeremy, along with NY board members Leo and David. Jeremy gave us a quick rundown of how Dujac does things (organic, but not full biodynamic as they don't do things for commercial reasons or so just so they can claim “we are full biodynamic”. They think some practices help the vines and ultimately the finished wine so they do them, others practices that they believe do not help the wines, they don’t do). We then went into the cellar to do some tasting while having some great conversations about premox, recent vintages in burgundy (mainly 06 08 09 and 10) along with some good laughs. Jeremy is a knowledgeable and funny guy and we had a great time spending a few hours with him along with the NY crew. It was hard to focus on writing my tasting notes as there was so much good conversation going on so I apologize for some of them being rather simplistic. Let me just say that after tasting the 09s last year with Alec and the 10s this year with Jeremy, Dujac has some of the best and nicest people making some of the purest and most exciting wines in Burgundy.

Caveau des Arches is quickly becoming one of our favorite restaurants in Beaune. The atmosphere, service, quality of food, wine list and relative value are hard to beat. As we did last year, my wife and I both ordered from the Menu Traditionale (28.50€) and were once again thoroughly impressed. The escargot was as good as anywhere and while it is pretty hard to screw them up, a dozen snails of goodness is hard to beat. The seared duck breast with mushrooms and bacon was excellent, although personally, to make it even better, I would add bits of apple to the mix to add some acidity and lift to the dish. There are two cheese dishes to choose from, so my wife picked the ‘Berthaut Epoisses Ripened with Marc de Bourgogne Small Green Salad’ option so I took the ‘Fromage Blanc with Cream, Sugar and Herbs’ dish. The Epoisses and salad was the clear winner as my cheese and cream tasted like buffalo mozzarella blended with cream sitting in a watery juice (kind of like the juice that packaged Feta cheese comes in). For dessert my wife got the chocolate moelleux which served with vanilla ice cream which she said was outstanding and I got the lemon tart which had a good balance between sweetness and tartness. Overall the food was excellent and we drank quite well with two bottles of Coche and a beautiful bottle of Henri Boillot Caillerets.

When we first arrived we chatted with Florence, who remembered us from our visit last year, while we waited for Nicholas. Once Nicolas joined us, we headed down to the cellars where we got our first taste of 2011s. Based on what I had read about the 2011 vintage regarding possible green notes (a la 2004), I was consciously looking for them but to my nose and palate, there were no signs of green in the 2011s I tasted here at Rossignol Trapet (the only aroma or flavour I got that’s even somewhat close to being ‘green’ was on the Chambertin I got some hints of fresh herbs on the nose). Having said that, this is only my second vintage barrel tasting in Burgundy and I did not taste the 04s from barrel, so my sensitivity and ability to detect green notes in barrel samples is probably less than perfect. Also, it seems the green notes seem to appear after bottling so I think this is a vintage to taste from bottle before you buy.

Our meal at Le Chassagne was probably the best food and service we had this entire four week trip in Italy and France…it was also one of the most expensive. The presentation was outstanding and the quality and creativity of the dishes was second to none. The service was attentive and well-timed, but not overbearing. My only complaint was the pricing of the wine list. Not many bargains to be had and I felt like I was back home with 150-250% markups for current release wines. But besides that, this is an exceptional place to go to for a fine dining experience...just don’t forget your platinum card if you plan to drink exceptionally well too.

After our fantastic visit here last year with Audry I was really looking forward to this appointment. Once again Audry hosted us for a wonderful tasting and spent almost three hours with us chatting while we tasted through the 2011s and a few wines from bottle as well. As expected, the wines are excellent across the board showing loads of elegance and finesse. Tasting here is always a treat.

Our visit with M. Bertheau was quite an experience....he is an interesting character: animated, colourful, energetic and very passionate. The language barrier made things a little awkward at first, but my wife speaks French quite decently and I can mutter a few words so we got by just fine after a few initial awkward moments. Most importantly, his wines are crazy good, and even though many of them had a decent bit of reduction going on (none overwhelmingly so), the purity, transparency and elegance always shone through. Overall the wines seem to share a common profile: lacy and delicate with high toned aromatics with drive, cut and precision on the palate. To put it mildly, I'm a big fan.

My wife and I spent the morning at the Beaune market to grab some goodies for dinner, and after that went to Caves Madeleine for a spectacular lunch. We both started with the ‘terrine de campagne maison’ which was excellent and for our mains we got the ravioli in a cream and chive sauce (creamy and rich but with great lift from lemon zest, herbs/chives) which was also outstanding. But the highlight of the lunch was the flight of DRCs Lolo had left over from an earlier tasting that he poured for us to try.