Gourmet Promenade In The Vineyards Of Nuits Saint Georges

As I hiked up the pebble strewn  path that meandered through vineyards as far as my eyes could see, it seemed like my legs had gears of their own, which was fine with me.  After all,  I had just enjoyed my first  sparkling “fortification” of a day of fun and frolic in the revered vineyards of Nuits Saint Georges and the day was full of promise!

The air was cool and moist for a sunday in June, and soft drops of rain had started to fall again, both of which failed to dampen my spirit as I happily trudged along.

Le Chemin Gourmand of Nuits Saint Georges is a very popular event full of good food, excellent wines, live music and great cardio exercise hiking through the picturesque vineyards of Burgundy. What more could I wish for?

After gathering our black knapsacks, walking sticks, and tasting glass hung around our necks at the welcome station, we were off for the first stop of the trek; aperitif and amuse buche.

Set, in the middle of this old wine village was a table offering the biggest gougeres I had ever seen.  Gougeres are the well known and delicious cheese puffs made from cream puff pastry, grated gruyère or comté , without the cream filling of course!

They are excellent to drink with champagne or this case the excellent Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne, made in Nuits Saint Georges.

Cremant is the name given to excellent sparkling wines made in the other wine growing regions of France, as only sparklings wines from Champagne can be called as such.

The cremants of burgundy are generally my favorites, as not surprising the department borders the Champagne district.

I often drink Bouillot cremant at home, and had even brought along a bottle for my weekend retreat studio I rented at Ladoix Serrigny ten minutes away.

The village of Nuits Saint Georges is one of the cutest along the famous wine route about 20 minutes north of Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy.

When driving either north and south of Beaune, you pass through villages that each bears the names of expensive wines that for the most part, with the exception of holidays and birthdays are out of my wine budget!

Both make up the Côte d’Or region of Burgundy.   Aptly named the “golden” slope, the wines produced from these grapes are like liquid gold.

Some bottles easily command soaring prices well over 100 euros and up depending  on the domains and vintage.

Chateau Corton Charlemagne producing Corton Charlemagne, one of the most sumptuous white burgundies, is just one example, seen with its golden turrets.

After chatting a bit with fellow promenaders, I gingerly carried my glass of cremant crossing over the bridge into the vineyards to sip as I walk.  The still warm gougere proved to be too big, and  I ended up tucking it inside my wine pouch for safekeeping.

Getting to the aperitif station was as easy as pie, but making it to the first course presented the first of several challenges of hiking up rather steep ascents.   T’was a good 15 minutes before I started to hear a band playing announcing we must be near, though there were only vines in sight.

Finally a line came into view eagerly waiting to be served the first course.  Tables were full of merry promenaders who were wildly swaying back and forth,  hands aloft while singing to the top of their lungs.

The sounds of clinking glasses, laughter and singing abounded, and it made for infectious good cheer. Nothing like a little wine to get the French to open up from their normally over conservative selves.

The band was playing old wine drinking songs with cute lyrics such as “a little drop la la la, a little drop la la la, is sooo wonderful” referring to the wine of course.

I enjoyed listening and found myself singing along to the wine drinking songs, that I had learned the lyrics many moons ago during my student years on Paris.

First course was a congealed wine gelee of marinated vegetables, topped with whipped cream mildly flavoured with mustard, hiding a poached egg.

Poached eggs in a luscious red wine sauce is a famous Burgundian dish, and this was an interpretation that I might have found more interesting if the temperature was sweltering, rather than cold enough for a coat, at least for this Louisiana girl.

With that, both white and red “plain” burgundies were offered , neither commanding much interest yet from me.  Nice, but  nothing exceptional.

Getting to the main course proved to be not any easier, with more steep hills to climb!  At least the rain had stopped and the views made up  for any muscle fatigue experienced by this time.

Finally, the sounds of music once  again reappeared, this time to the tunes of the Stones and Elvis, high above the hills of Nuits Saint Georges!

Main course was a filet of pork in mustard cream sauce, served with a nice gratin of vegetables.  Pleasant and rich, but I thought the mustard theme was overdone a bit.

For those of you who do not know, Dijon about 45 minutes northwest of Beaune is the mustard capital of the world, so it flavours many dishes of Burgundy.

The 2011 Nuits Saint Georges offered made up for any culinary deficits, with its rich perfume and well rounded baritone flavours hinting of cherries, cassis, chocolate and pepper, that make Nuits Saint Georges a luscious wine to drink.

It looked to me as if we had reached the summit, but unfortunately that was not the case!  Certainly they weren’t going to make us up go up some more hills for the cheese course, but of course, I was wrong!

Ho Ho Ho! Surprise, surprise and no kidding!  It made me think that  sometimes you have to suffer a little to get to the top and the best things.

The medical aid station wasn’t there by accident, for those who had by that time determined not to finish the course. I saw that they had stretchers and such for the lame of heart or purely exhausted.

With my second glass of Nuits Saint Georges for  the road, tightly gripped in my hand out of fear of spilling such delicious liquid pleasure, I headed up feeling absolutely no pain and even gleeful about some more cardio!

Bring it on!   What are a few more hills to conquer!

Fortunately, with all walking I do in Paris, my legs are in good shape, even though they are not always going up the steep hills of Montmartre.   I find a certain enjoyment in the physical challenge, and being grateful that I can do it.

Besides the wonderful wines, the widely stretching vineyards below were just magnificent to look at from this view-point and so far, well worth all the effort it took to get up this high!

Finally, the very welcome sound of music started to echo around us, coming from yes, another hill above.  Knowing that the best wines were awaiting us, made these last few ascending steps seem like nothing, as I plowed through with ease.

The 2004 premiere cru Nuits Saint Georges was more than an adequate reward!  Deeply flavoured of accentuated mature black fruits, dark chocolate,and pepper, it was really a lovely and rare experience for a wine lover, who does not often have the chance ,nor deep enough pockets to buy such vintages for my home table.

When buying and tasting old wines, your best advantage is to do so directly from the vintner or a very reputable cavist or renown restaurant that you know takes cares of older stored vintages.

I was hoping to find some Époisse, the majestic orangey soft runny cheese from the village of what else, Epoisse, in northern Burgundy.

Unfortunately the orange piece in my box wasn’t, but the Fleur de Nuits Saint Georges and herbed goat was nice enough, but certainly not worthy of  the magnificent wine I was enjoying  much more!

The lady laying in the grass in front of me was either exhausted and had over imbibed too much of the excellent wine, which can certainly happen. Too bad she seemed oblivious to the Dixieland Jazz combo that was as spirited as you could have hoped for, being from Louisiana.

I enjoyed singly along to the lyrics that I had grown up to; such as “you know what it means to miss New Orleans” etc and complimented the musicians on their talented renditions.

When you are at the top, it is all downhill right?   Well no, not exactly!

Those wicked Machiavellian trek planners had us once again go what seemed straight up for a while until we joined the path going down!

Duly fortified with a second glass of that 2004 in my hand, I was ready to go forth, not feeling withered at all!

I was wondering what was going to be the dessert offering down in the village, as I had not looked at the menu beforehand.

At least for me, going down is more treacherous as you have to really watch your step so as to not trip or slip on any slippery pebbles, made more so by the rain.

We passed downed some walled off vineyards that probably belonged to the most prestige premieres crus, hoping to keep out those who might want to pluck away some of their  prized grapes, that were at this stage nothing but tiny buds.

Finally the little village of Nuits Saint Georges came into view!

In about 20 minutes we crossed over the little white-capped river Meuzin,  back into the village at last!  One of the houses passed had a very curious engraved plaque on the wall with metaphysical writings that I always find curious as well as welcome.

The little posts set around that guided us, lead us into the courtyard of the ancient church of Saint Symphorien, still standing from around 12 century.

It was  a lovely moment for me to offer praise and gratitude to God for all of my blessings and for being able to come here to celebrate being alive and well in these famous hills of Burgundy.

The old adjoining graveyard looked as weathered as the church and perhaps as some of the promenaders who looked a little ragged after such a rigorous hike!

Inside this small romanesque gothic church was a reliquary of the saint, Saint Symphorian and had engraved crosses on the floor in memory of those who died during the tragic epidemic of the black pest in the 16oo’s!

A good reminder that life wherever your path takes you is to be lived fully as best you can, as life is fragile and we are not here forever.

Don’t wait to do the things you always wanted to do!  Putting pleasure and joy in your life is for you to do, not sitting back waiting and hoping that happiness will come to you some later day. 

Strive to find something of joy each day, even when it seems fraught with everyday chores that often are boring or tedious.    Reward yourself, instead of expecting others to do in for you.

A delicious tarte of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries made for a perfect finish, accompanied with some more cremant de Bourgogne  and lively music.

There was feeling of exhilarated satisfaction of having conquered those beautiful hills!

The trek up for me was an analogy of life in that in each of our lives, we are presented challenges that stretch us to the nth degree and can at times seem so much of an obstacle that we want to give up and turn back in defeat.

Yet around each of these challenges are lessons to master and wisdom to be gained that hopefully make us a gentler and kinder human being towards ourselves and others, especially those in the processing of still climbing the tree of life, which for the most part never ends.

Sweetness of life, like the dessert at the end of a fine meal, comes with awareness of self as being apart of the cosmic whole and intertwined with others, who hopefully has lightened the burden by our own unique gifts and ways.