Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Oh, the things I have seen


This is Day 3 in Burgundy and I am still in amazement and often overwhelmed by the things I have seen. Just the beauty and magnificence of it all. The vineyards, the grapevines, the winemakers, the food. They feed us here like we were starved! Lunch is 4 courses!!

But I have learned so much. Today we studied the Cote de Beaune and I saw how barrels were made. The cutting of the wood, the toasting, and watched a few being put together. Lunch was with 2 winemakers who were phenomenal. I think we had about 6-7 wines at lunch. Our late afternoon tasting was at the Hospice de Beaune wine cellar. The Hospice de Beaune actually gets donations of grapes from various wine growers in the Burgundy region and they make wines from them to sell at their auction in Novemeber. A few guys from the group may be getting a barrel from the auction this year. Good luck to them...barrels go for anywhere from 3 - 10,000 euros!

Dinner is in 30 mins, another 4-5 courses and 10 wines. Gosh, this is such a hard job!!