The wine experience
If you stay at the place of a  winegrower, you can start the wine experience. In June we stayed at Chateau de la Velle overlooking the Clos (walled vineyard) de la Velle and the small tractors on high wheels which are used to prune the grapes gently. During our stay, the harvest  for white wines 2010 was bottled in the courtyard by the family Darviot. The clinking of the bottles sounded like music to my ears.

Respect for nature
What appeals to me to this wine producer is that over 15 years no more fertilizer was used and  pesticides is  used limited and only for emergencies to protect the environment and to express the terroir properly in the wine.

The wines
Our room has a wine rack with 12 different wines from the range of Bertrand Darviot. That way we could decide really spontaneously which wine we liked for dinner. Bertrand Darviot not only has a vineyard in Meursault, but also several vineyards in Beaune and Pommard. He is in good company, most winemakers in Burgundy have different small pieces of land at several places.

Tasted from Chateau de la Velle (village - vineyard - vintage):
1.Beaune Blanc ‘Clos des Mosnières' Chardonnay 2007 Lovely aromas such as flint, fire and bread. Quite high acidity in the mouth.
2.Beaune Marco Nets premier cru blanc 2007 is very closed in the nose (may come with a couple of years waiting) and gives a slightly sour feeling under the tongue, but is softer and more balanced than 2008.
3.Beaune Marco Nets premier cru blanc 2008. Smells like freshly baked bread and has hard acids in the back of the mouth.
4. Clos de la Velle, Meursault 2009. This white Burgundy tickles the tongue a bit, the nice bread aroma and taste is in the middle of number 2 and 3.
5.Savigny-les-Beaune 2007, no notes
6. Beaune St. Desiree 2007 Vieilles Vignes. This is our favorite red Burgundy from this house. Many flavors which can be characterized as true Pinot Noir, like earth tones, mushroom, clove / cinnamon and currants. This wine has mouth-drying tannins, but still taste smoothly. Food and wine match with this wine: excellent with cheese and fried duck fillet with white peach from the French cookbook and travel ripened Brillat Savarin cheese on toast.
7. Beaune St. Desiree 2008 VV. So the same wine, but a later harvest. This wine has a distinctive scent (like glue?) and fruit. Mild flavor.
8. Beaune Marconnets Premier Cru 2008 (red) sorry no notes.
9. Pommard Les Chanlins 2009. Red Burgundy from the more powerful kind, so thicker / stronger flavor and a little more tannin. 2009 is still very young for this Pommard. So we have taken some wines at home, we put in the storage so that we may forget it for a few years .
10.Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2009. This red Burgundy is made from grapes that grow all over Burgundy, that is why the village is mentioned on the label and not the grape. Normally, wines from Pinot Noir grapes are very clear in color, but it is almost burgundy red and very full and round in flavor, low tannins and therefore very easy to drink. Good wine for a stove.

General conclusion is the white Burgundy (Chardonnay) from this producer has high acids and we like the red Burgundies better (Pinot Noir).

Go and give it a try!

This review comes from the Smaakboutique blog.