Marche Aux Vins- Beaune

Hospices de Beaune, across the street







Marché Aux Vins


Beaune, France

Visited 21-12-2010

What a way to spend an afternoon, wandering around an underground cellar in the heart of Burgundy country. The Marché Aux Vins is located directly across from the Hospices de Beaune, and would be considered a big player in the region. They are one of the oldest players as well, and source wines from every part of the Bourgogne region and house them in a fairytale atmosphere. For 10€ one can take an unguided tour, without a Sommelier that is, and not only get to see the underground caves turned into cellars, but also taste a total of 16 wines in the process. It is a daunting task, even for the trained palate. The fee includes a Tavestin, the old school metal cup that is used to check the clarity of wines when you’re down in the cellar. To me it was kind of a touristy thing, but you get to take it with you so now I have a novelty to play with next time I am doing floor service in a restaurant.

A picture/chart worth a thousand words



The tour begins by going down some old dusty stone steps, and a feeling of stepping back in time. There are vaults mixed around the caves and the first 2 you see are the best, containing basically every vintage from one place or another for almost the last century. As you can tell it is worth a photo or two. The wines are set up on barrels, opened and there for you to sample, it is that simple. Here is the lineup:

Whites

Pouilly Fuissé

Savigny-Lès-Beaune

Meursault

Reds

Cote de Nuits-Villages

Monthelie

Santenay 1er Cru

Aloxe-Corton

Mercurey 1er Cru

Savigny-Lès-Beaune 1er Cru

Vosne-Romanée

Pommard

Pommard

Gevrey-Chambertin

Chambolle-Musigny

Beaune 1er Cru

Corton Grand Cru

Pretty impressive huh? I repeated the Pommard twice because they had a 1998 and a 2001 on that barrel to try. All of the labels were the Marché Aux Vins labels, except for a couple of wines bearing the Hospices de Lyon label, wines from their auction, which are not as famous as the Hospices de Beaune auction held every year. All in all the experience was great and a fun time for Margaux who got to understand a little bit about how the craziness of Burgundy works. The winners in my book



The Meursault was definitely the most structured and well rounded of the whites. The wines before the Vosne-Romanée were good, but not much exciting except the Santenay 1er Cru. The Vosne Romanée 2005 was solid, showing dense red fruits and just the right amount of spice element for a communal wine. The 2001 Pommard was holding up a lot better than the 1998, and Gevrey-Chambertin was solid. The Chambolle-Musigny 2006? was a sleeper to me, as it was very good and kind of snuck in there towards the top, and the Corton Grand Cru 2007 was very firm and restrained, needing some time to wake up.

Cheers Margaux!



All in all this is a great place that is open almost every day of the year. For a novice it helps you to understand the differences and the region in general, and for me it was a great place to start and discover a piece of history for one of my favorite wine regions in the world, Salute!