A giant tent covered the terrace overlooking the vineyards, complete with pink roses and matching pink carpet leading up to the terrace. We were slightly early, as we skipped the vine-planting ceremony, but Guillaume Perrin was setting up and showed us to our table.
The menu looked very promising, and we watched various other groups arrive, often bearing ice boxes. Vincent Perrin introduced us to the other people on our table and on his table, and explained the process to us. We were all given three glasses, and people would be going round with bottles giving us tastings of various wines during the course of the evening. G kept scrupulous notes and calculated that by the end we had tried 40 different wines!
It was 10pm before the starter was served, which was a seafood course. I was sitting between G and ACC both of whom have a shellfish allergy, so I did rather well... White wines were coming round at this stage, including the 2014 St Romain from the Perrins which we had tasted earlier in the day, but this time was served from a magnum. This was a revelation and confirmation that wine really does taste better in magnum (which is very annoying when you live in a studio flat without space to entertain lots of guests). ACC had contributed a magnum of Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre, which fortunately had survived the trip in my suitcase and went very well with this course.
We also had the privilege of tasting a number of Meursaults from Domaine Perrin, of which the 2008 and 2002 stood out in particular. The 2008 was a beautiful golden colour and was drinking very well now with honey and nuts, while the 2002 had that classic mushroom quality on the nose and was reaching the end of its life but for me was the best white of the evening. Other great whites included a 2012 St Aubin 1er cru Murgers des Dents de Chien from Charles Allexant, and a 2011 Beaune 1er cru les Reversees from Domaine Clos de la Chapelle.
We had noticed a table of young men sitting nearby who reminded us of a rugby club; they had been getting stuck in to a double magnum of something pretty tasty-looking. When G accidentally swiped a glass off the table and there was the sound of glass breaking, they gave a great cheer and broke into loud song.
Soon the entire room was joining in complete with hand gestures and clapping - the above gives you some idea. This song was sung many times during the evening and even I had got the hang of it by the end. Apparently the hand gestures are something to do with opening the taps on a barrel. It was all very jolly and one sensed that G had done them a favour by breaking his glass and giving them the opportunity to start singing it. We were definitely at the rowdy end of the room!
G seems to have failed to take a photo of the fish course, possibly because he fell upon it like a person who hasn't eaten in days, and there was also a sorbet, and then we had the main course which was Bresse chicken stuffed with foie gras, truffles and morels, along with asparagus and some historic cheesy crisps. The suffering!
Occasionally proceedings were interrupted by speeches and this memorable performance from two ladies taking it in turns to read out a poem, each verse ending in the phrase "le vin est féminin". I'm sure it was very witty but my French wasn't up to understanding much of it. We wondered if they read it out every year and if it gets longer each time... An honourable mention should also be made of Niseema Theillaud, who was this year's "Ambassadrice" (what a great word) and who gave a brief and dignified speech. She's a comedian, but I was excited to find out that she's mainly known for being Marion Cotillard's mother. This event was a long way from Hollywood, thank god.
Here's an action shot G took of the middle of the proceedings, with Guillaume about to go in for some Meursault...
On to the cheese course, which was described as La Boîte à Fromage. I don't think I was the only one delighted to see the selection - some Comte, some Delices de Pommard, and a lovely oozy Epoisses which the Baron described as "sprawled over the plate like a big lazy dog".
By this stage we had moved on to reds, and sampled many of the Perrin Volnays from magnum. We thought that the 2014 1er cru Gigottes will be very good in time, but the 2012 1er cru Mitans hit the spot right away ("classy") and the 2011 was delicious, easy drinking. It was a struggle to keep up with everything whizzing round and my notes were becoming increasingly incoherent, but we particularly enjoyed the 2007 Volnay Champans from Joseph Voillot, which apparently is available at Harrods, the 2009 Aloxe Corton les Fourneaux from Domaine Arnoux (my notes are enthusiastically rude about this), and the 2003 Pommard 1er cru Rugiens from Pillot which G said was very successful and I described as "très Pommard".
Pudding was this lovely strawberry thing with ice cream and something involving salted caramel. Top marks go to the caterers for the evening - everything they produced was very fine, quite an achievement considering the large scale of the event.
Then some Cremant appeared and Guillaume went into racing driver mode. I only got splattered with a few drops unlike the lady sitting next to him who was positively soaked, and fortunately ACC did not fall to an untimely demise standing on the terrace outside the tent i.e. next to the ten foot drop into the hedge (which became a 100 foot drop in the re-telling) while summoning our taxi. It was now one a.m. and I understand from Vincent that they carried on till four, and certain people ended up smoking cigars in a swimming pool. How decadent!
There was time for one final photo of vines, roses and pink carpet before we were whisked back to our digs in Beaune. I was relieved we didn't end up spending the evening in a ditch somewhere, but fortunately our taxi driver had succumbed to the emotional blackmail of the Baron being on crutches, and we made it home unscathed.
This was a wonderful occasion, and I have to thank the Perrins for suggesting it and inviting us, ACC for his logistical expertise in making it happen, and all the generous Volnaysiens, if that's the word, for making us feel so welcome and sharing their goodies with us. Bravo!
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