Maison en Belles Lies, Friday 13th Sept

On Friday morning ACC had an early appointment in Meursault and it was agreed that G and I would join him there for lunch. We caught one of the few trains going south that stops at Meursault. The thing to remember is that it's a good half hour uphill walk from the station into the village, but the sun was shining and as we walked past vineyards with rough tracks we were reminded of the previous day's exciting tour of Chablis with Nathalie Fevre.

We passed this road sign, which put me in a very good mood - lots of my favourite things!

Then it was time for lunch at Le Bouchon. Here they do an amazing 12.70 euro three course lunch menu, including a buffet starter which had pate en croute and similar nice things. There's also a good range of wines by the "pot" so you don't have to have a whole bottle, which meant we could indulge in both red and white.

Afterwards G and I had a wander round Meursault. The market was just closing up and unfortunately the wine shop wasn't open, but there was quite a lot of activity and the ubiquitous cyclists wandering around looking lost.

Then it was time for our taxi which took us over to St Aubin where the winery of Maison en Belles Lies is located. Here we were greeted by Pierre Fenals. We sat along a bench at a trestle table and it was rather like being at school. We tasted seven wines altogether, all biodynamic.

The Aligote 2012 had a lovely, quite floral nose and was very appealing and easy-drinking. The other 2012s we tried were all red. The Hautes Cotes de Beaune had amazing red fruit on the nose but needed some time, as it had just had its final blending and wasn't quite knitted together yet. The Aloxe-Corton had very strong blackcurrants on the nose and was very pretty, while the Corton grand cru Les Perrieres was very Corton on the nose (undergrowth, and that foxy thing) and was serious and complex. The finish went on forever. This would be a wine to keep, definitely.

Then we tried some wines in bottle. The Aligote 2011 again was relatively soft on the palate and very drinkable, with a great finish. The Santenay blanc 2010 wasn't my kind of thing but G liked it, while as always the Beaune 1er cru Greves 2011 had a beautiful perfume on the nose and was very elegant, with succulent fruit. The view was that this needs 4-5 years. I have a six pack of this so am looking forward to 2016! Many thanks to Pierre for a very interesting tasting.

Afterwards we had some time to kill before Alain collected us, so we took some photos. I'm more a premier cru type myself but one had to do one's best with the props available.