From Epoisses to Aloxe-Corton

Today was an early morning as we were en route from Lyon to Dijon.  Most of us were stumbling around the breakfast area at the hotel, tripping over our baggage and making a final attempt at coaxing a somewhat passable cafe au lait from the machine.  No such luck.

Ninety minutes of sleep-induced bus silence later, we filed out to Gaugry Fromagerie to learn the ins and outs of the (in)famous Epoisses cheese.  This third generation family business since 1946 prides itself on Brune, Simmental and Montbeliarde raw and pasteurized milk that arrives daily from within a 100 km radius.  The cheese is controlled carefully: fermentation in tank for acidity, placed in molds for 24 hours, and ripens for one month.

During this ripening process, the cheese has a very fine salt added on the surface of the rind, then washed with marc de Bourgogne or vin de Chablis first, then washed with salt, water and natural red bacteria and turned eight to ten times, or every two to three days.  After thirty days, the Epoisses is packed and sold to specialty shops.

It's a comprehensive process, and one that is highly tested.  And the results are, ahem, ripe.  After our tour and lecture, we were instructed in official cheese tasting and evaluation techniques and then presented with three examples.  Not surprisingly, our class overwhelmingly prefered the raw milk cheeses, although there was substantial debate on factory versus farm produced cheeses.  The shocking bit was that the cheese uniformly detested by all for its barnyard aromas and taste was the pasteurized, factory produced Epoisses.  Hmmm - maybe we are learning something after all...

Our first wine stop came after lunch at Pierre Andre, Chateau de Corton Andre.  A gorgeous chateau and cellar, it was perfectly set up for tourists.  Finally - our first taste of the fabled Chablis and Burgundy Pinot Noir.

The Meursault was beautiful - but at 27 euros a bottle, I hesitated.  As for the reds?  Well, they didn't leave much of an impression.  I do realize that wineries aren't going to pour the good wines, but it was difficult to get any sense of how these wines would age.  So I left empty-handed.

Our hotel in Dijon was in a fabulous location in the old town . . . and next door to the H&M.  At any point during our stay, you could be guaranteed to find at least three of us cruising through all three floors.  Cheese, wine and shopping . . . could we be any more French?

Dinner that night was a class affair in a charming little bistro tucked off a main street, followed by another walk back to the hotel in the cool fall air.