As promised in my earlier post, Bourgogne, this is the first of a few posts that will focus on individual vineyards / producers. During our visit to Burgundy last autumn we were keen not only to taste wines at the vineyards, but also to gain some insight into the history and wine making practices of the places we visited and to spend time there, if at all possible enjoying a meal with paired wines. Our visit to Comte Senard ticked all the boxes.
Aloxe Corton is about 4 km north of Beaune in the Cote d’Or region of Burgundy. It consists of just under 700 acres of vineyards and is the only appellation that has both red and white Grand Crus. The Comte Senard estate consists of prestigious appellations such as Corton Clos Des Meix, Corton Clos Du Roi, Corton Bressandes and Corton Paulands. We were able to visit the closest vineyard (Clos Des Meix), the historic cellar that was only relatively recently discovered and we then enjoyed a wine paired meal and tasted 2 regional wines, 1 village appellation, 1 Premier Cru and 2 Grand Crus.
We were really impressed by the wines we tasted but particularly one of the Grand Crus, Corton Bressandes 2004, which the sommelier serving us said had been undrinkable until very recently but had suddenly come into its own. It really was a taste of Burgundy at its best. Red fruit, oak, spice, good body and acidity and gentle tannins, smoothed out by the passage of a few years maturation. Needless to say, a few bottles found their way back to England and on a flying visit in April (en route to Beaujolais, the Rhone and Provence) we stopped in and bought a few more! Just a couple of weeks to go before we are Burgundy bound once again. Wouldn’t mind betting that Comte Senard will get another visit from us …