Chablis and golden slopes

ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE, exhausting (exhilarating) French foray has come to an end. It in fact ended with a rush to see 'Eros', three films in one, playing at the Curzon, Mayfair 'for one night only'. My sleep-deprived state in tandem with projected racing, frolicking nudes, celluloid-captured by Italian auteur curio, Michelangelo Antonioni, left me thoroughly bemused...

My colleague, Robert - now a familar fixture in this blog - and I sampled the bitter, inferior grapes, left behind, hanging from a vine belonging to one of 96 owners in the Clos du Vougeot at dusk. I write this safe in the knowledge that 96 owners probably won't collectively prosecute. We absorbed the expensive energy of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's hallowed turf. The liquid itself is reserved for the elitely affluent. Tasting the suprisingly muscular Pinot Noir at the smart Domaine d'Ardhuy, amongst the drip-drip of the free run juice and tipsy fruit flies was a more tangible experience.

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More to follow. I now need to depart for this evening's instalment of the Douglas Blyde wine course. I have some treats for the students, including a Chateau Montus '01 Madiran made by winemaking legend Alain Brummont. Tannat is back. And it has (blackened) teeth.

Further link: Fine Things Pictorial (including Burgundy)