As a refresher…On Monday we drove up to Gevrey-Chambertin and then headed backed to Beaune, passing through Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée, Vougeot, Nuits St. George and Aloxe-Corton.

While Jan and Dave headed off to Avignon for a few days, Sue and I decided to explore some of the other white wine regions over the weekend. So with that in mind, we drove south to Chassagne-Montrachet to start things off.

We stopped by the Chateau de Chassagne-Montrachet for a photo op, then kept going along the route and through the vineyards until we reached Puligny-Montrachet. It’s a cute little town with a small amount of restaurants and a few other shops that we passed by. While driving through the vineyards, we passed through Batard-Montrachet. I was surprised that there weren’t armed guards in those vineyards.

Our first real stop was in Puligny-Montrachet for a lunch tasting at Bistro d’Olivier. What a wonderful way to enjoy the afternoon !

One highlight was having an older gentleman come to our table and introduce himself. It was Olivier Leflaive. He was very friendly and asked where we came from, even knowing that there really is not a distribution network there, but did say that NYC and Boston should have plenty that we could get. Such a delight to meet and talk with him.

The second highlight was tasting seven Domaine Olivier Leflaive wines while enjoying a scrumptious lunch.

Upon finishing, we treated ourselves to a glass of Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne. We savored every drop and pouted when it was gone. To ease our pain, we put some numbers on an order form that will ensure that we will enjoy more wines when we get home.

Moving on, we next stopped in Meursault. We drove through the picturesque town and then stopped at the Chateau de Meursault for another photo op. Overall, it was a lovely ride on a beautiful day.

Just a few more pictures from the vineyards as we drove through.

Arriving back in Beaune, we needed to rest up a bit before dinner. Tonight we were trying La Tavola Calda for something a little different. It’s an Italian restaurant specializing in pizzas.

It was a rather quiet night in Beaune. We walked over to the restaurant and had our pick of tables. All the tourists must have moved on, as there seemed to be tables open at many of the restaurants.

No matter. We each ordered a pizza, got a pichet of wine and truly enjoyed our evening. The owner stopped over and we chatted a bit. We managed to remember a few Italian words and phrases and ended up being offered a glass of his homemade Limoncello. A perfect way to end the evening.

We walked back to the hotel and washed up for bed. We were tired from driving…or maybe the wine had something to do with it. No, it HAD to be the driving!

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So we have a final recap on the caramels…

They were all tres bon! It is very likely that we will be stopping back when we return to Paris.