If I had to pick one wine, and only one wine to drink over the remainder of my days, it would be a toss up between pinot noir from Burgundy or the effervescent bubbly from Champagne. Coincidentally, on our visit to France this spring, we spent a couple of days touring these respective wine regions to help me solve this dilemma to which there really isn’t a wrong answer. I’ll leave the account of a day in and around Reims tasting world class Champagne for another post… this one is all about a spectacular day spent in Burgundy.

We took an early morning train from Lyon to Beaune and waiting for us at the quaint station was Patrick, an expert on all things Burgundy. He was our guide for the day and after some quick hellos and a sketch of our plans, we got into the back of his car to make our way to Auxey-Duresses for our first tasting and visit with a winemaker.

It couldn’t have been a better start to the day. Michel Prunier warmly welcomed us into his small facility. Although Patrick was available to translate where needed, Michel spoke in French slowly and we followed along except for the most technical of winemaking jargon. Michel explained his winery and its 5 generation family history and spent some time showing us the small batch of bubbly he makes each year in addition to his pinot noir.

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