So this morning I'm waiting for the U Verse guy to show up, and simply move my modem from upstairs to downstairs. One would think they could give me a more accurate timeframe than "From 8-12" as to when they will arrive. I'm a prisoner in my own home, until he gets here. The best part- I'm paying for it!
It does however give me a few minutes with which I can make up for the missed French Class yesterday. Since we are talking Burgundy (by the way, notice the spelling difference- burgAndy is a color), I think we should move North to South. This puts us in Chablis. This wonderful area is the second most northern wine making region in France (Champagne is the first), and is part of the Burgundy area. It is located about 100 miles North of the rest of Burgundy, and surrounds the town of Chablis. Nearly all of the wine produced here is white, and as we learned last week, this means it is made from the Chardonnay grape. When you are blind-tasting a Chablis, the way you can tell where it is from is the distinct "flintiness" of the wine. This comes from the fact that the area has a type of soil called Kimmeridgean Soil, basically chalk, limestone, and crushed up fossilized seashells. The wines are normally produced in either large, old oak barrels that impart very little oakiness to the wines, or stainless steel. Some modern winemakers are starting to use a bit more oak, much to the chagrin of the traditionalists.
Chablis is broken into AOC wines, labelled "Appellation Chablis Controlee" on the bottle, and then into Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards. The 7 grand crus are: Bougros, Les Preuses, Vaudesir, Grenouilles, Valmur, Les Clos, and Blanchots. These make up less than 3% of the wines produced in Chablis, but are stunning examples of Chardonnay. If you are looking for Chablis, your options will likely be limited in the Midwest. If you can find it, try La Chablisienne Petite Chablis (from a Junior appellation in the area)- it's good and inexpensive.
Please note that the big jugs of wine from california labelled "Chablis" have nothing to do with the real thing- those wines are gross, and should only be used to wash cats.
This weekend, try a dessert drink that we dubbed "Donde Estan Mis Pantalones"- use 1 measure of Patron Cafe, 1/2 measure creme de coco, and either egg nog or whole milk to top it off (chocolate milk works fine, too). Es muy bueno.
Have a great weekend,
Cheers!
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Nice post. I grew hearing my parents referring to chablis meaning the jugs from California, so I never really knew much about the real stuff.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the color is still spelled the same way as the wine. Burgundy the region is capitalized.