We woke up once again to some rain. Luckily, it passed by early and things were drying up by the time we were ready to head out. We have three wine tastings planned for the day and our first one was a breakfast tasting that started at 10:30 am.

The first tasting was at Domaine Laroche, which just so happened to be right across the street from our hotel. However, the tasting room was up the street and around the corner. We gathered with the rest of our group, met our tasting leader and then headed over to the winery for a brief tour.

The building was originally a monastery for Cistercian Monks back in the Eleventh century. They prayed on one side and made wine on the other side. I presumed they were praying that the wine turned out good.

Inside, we saw the barrel cellar where wine from the current harvest was beginning the macération process. It was like watching the grandkids taking their first steps.

Then we went into a room which contained a 15th century wooden wine press – that still works! Currently it is more for ceremonial purposes, but it was interesting to see.

Next we walked back over to the tasting room to taste some wine. We tasted their range of wines – Petite Chablis, Chablis, Premier Crus and Grand Crus. We enjoyed them all, with the Chablis Saint Martin and Premier Cru ‘Les Clos’ being favored by all of us. As a special treat, we were able to taste some of the freshly pressed juice that was just starting the fermentation process. We ended up buying two bottles of wine for the room and getting a free tasting pass for Maison Champy in Beaune.

Our next stop was a lunch break. Jan and Dave stopped at the corner grocery store, while Sue and I bought sandwiches at a small bakery. A nice ham and French cheese sandwich on a crunchy, fresh baguette was a perfect lunch.

We met back up and went to our second tasting of the day , which was at the Domaines Albert Bichot estate – Domaine Long-Depaquit. What a beautiful Chateau and what great wines!

We started with a tour of the facilities. They had just finished their harvest and pressing last week, so the smell of the grape juice lingered in the air. It’s like a seductive perfume pulling you in to some forbidden place – luckily we were invited, so we didn’t get into trouble.

We walked through the pressing room and then went down to the barrel room where the new crushed juice was just relaxing.

After the tour, we were all ready for the tasting. Our tasting consisted of five wines of increasing levels of the Chablis appellations, one Village, 2 Premier Cru and 2 Grand Crus. All of the wines were exceptional.

Since we had some time before our last tasting, we walked over to the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin of Tours. It’s really a cathedral, but because they don’t have a bishop, it can’t be called a cathedral. Such silly rules!

Back in the olden days, people would nail horseshoes to the door for good luck. Many of them are still there today – ten centuries later.

We had one last stop for the day and this time, it was just Sue and I. The tasting was at Domaine William Fevre. This is another renowned producer and we were not disappointed. In total, we tasted eleven wines, all exceptional Premier Crus and Grand Crus and they were all excellent.

Now before you get all excited, the tastings were literally a splash of each wine, not a full glass. But we had a chance to compare the wines from each of their climats (vineyard parcels). And yes, there is more wine being shipped home.

Our final dinner in Chablis would be at Les Trois Bourgeons. It’s a small restaurant, opened by three Japanese friends, that has delicious traditional Burgundian food with a little Japanese touch. It was delightful and very reasonably priced.

Honestly, I wish we were staying here for a few more days. There are so many interesting towns and villages nearby, plus it just feels relaxing.