"Zee baby wine is wine for storing in a cellar for a couple years, not for drinking straight away!"
This was the education we received today from one of Vougeot's oldest wineries during our degustation. Actually, only Mer was brave enough to taste the "baby" wines. Claire, our host was shall we say, quite proud of her heritage and her wines and was very particular about what was and wasn't acceptable:
1) If you don't have a cellar then there is no point in buying these "baby" wines, as they need maturing and they are expensive.
2) The taste is highly acidic and tannic
3) You also shouldn't eat a chocolate cookie with the wine and leave the wrapper in the vineyard. As some Chinese lady had done in the past.
Although quite proud to begin with, she did warm towards us in the end as it was worth her while.
Following this, the next stop was Le Chateau Vougeot. This was a museum of where the monks used to make wine. It was very interesting to see the presses that were used. Mer was interested but she was very quickly distracted by the chefs preparing food for a party. In particular she managed to wangle a date from one of them for later tonight.
We then made our merry way to Dijon, known for its mustard. The highlights of the visit to this city were:
1) The Mustard store, where we got to taste different mustard concoctions. Who would have thought that blueberry and mustard would go together?
2) Our lunch... Finally some much needed veggies among all the rich French food. And crepes. Soooo good.
Following our whistle stop visit in Dijon, the frantic antics began. We were a little late leaving Dijon, which meant that we were late getting back to Beaune, which meant that Mer was late for her hot date!
We finally got back and got ready, by which time Mer was quite antsy about being late. We were all going to the same place, Bar Du Square, for food and drinks, so Mer led the way. Ruth and I were wearing high heels, not conducive for walking on cobbled stones, so Mer actually led the way from a few metres ahead.
As Ruth and I didn't have a map, we had to keep an eye on Mer who was steaming ahead frantically trying to navigate the streets. At one stage we see her in the distance asking a policeman quite loudly "oú est Bar du Square? Bar du Square? Bar du Square?" whilst waving her hands frantically from left to right. I think the policeman finally gave her an answer as she turned to us and pointed to the left before disappearing down the street. As we approached the policeman to walk past him, he had a bemused expression on his face. Ruth and I could only shoulder shrug as we giggled past.
When we finally got to the bottom of the street, Mer was nowhere to be seen. I made a guess to go left and all of a sudden Mer popped up, hands waving in the air pointing at us to go up the hill.
We didn't see Mer for the rest of the journey, until we got to the top of the hill where Bar du Square was. On arrival we were summoned to the bar. Uh oh... Ruth and I thought we were in trouble for taking a long time. But in actual fact it was because she had spilt his drink in her frantic state. We arrived at the bar with Mer frantically asking the bar man to pour her some champagne. She quickly went to check on her date, whilst the bar man was sorting out the drinks.
"Apologies for our friend she's a little stressed"...Ruth and I said to the bar man. "That's ok" he replied, but she insists on talking to me in French and I keep responding in English. I'm Canadian!"
With Mer all settled into her date, Ruth and I sat down and got our drink on. The first bottle of "Cremant" went down very well. And so did the next. We were quite jolly by the end of it. Although not jolly enough to enjoy this pear liqueur thing that Ruth had to hold her nose for to even take a sip.
