Thanks for letting me know. I've never seen it in California nor Chicago suburbs. But I haven't looked extensively.

They serve Crémant de Limoux in the KLM lounge at AMS.

we drink a cremant de bourgogne from bailly-lapierre. right decent and right inexpensive. went to a moet tasting a few years ago, and they served a cremant they said was only served in house and not sold.

if the grapes do not come from a speifically defined area, the wine is a cremant, not a champagne.

This is what we drank last night. http://www.vitteaut-alberti.fr/en/wi...le-agnes-4.pdf

Excellent for about $10. ^

Could I trouble you with naming a few examples...? If you dont mind, approximate price points would also be greatly appreciated. Would a visitor to your area have access to these wines at the same prices...? Please forgive all my questions... thanks !!

Last time I was in Burgundy (2009) the restaurant I dined in (fabulous meal though heavy in the Burgundian style) sold cleanskin Corton from their own vineyard for circa EUR 50 a bottle. Great quality, no doubt in my mind that it was genuine Corton, but not labeled and "sold out the back of a truck" . My impression was that this was typical, and how they keep the locals supplied with wine for a fraction of the world price, without compromising the export market prices.

more likely from one of the growers and custom labeled for the restaurant. although there are many tiny plots in burgundy, most restauranteurs do not have the time to also maintain a vineyard. a number of the growers do also have B&B's i do not know of any who have a grand cru vineyard burgundy and a michelin * restaurant.

Many Grand Cru's can be easily found in the €50 range if you buy early. For example I bought a case of 2010 Corton Grand Cru Rouge (Cuvée Charlotte Dumay) from the Hospice de Beaune auction at €53.21 per bottle. I won't actually get the wine til sometime this spring but once it is bottled and put on sale through normal channels it will likely go for over €75 per bottle. And if you happen to see this wine at one of the worlds top restaurants sometime after 2015, it will cost hundreds. The same can be said for the two cases of 2009 Château de Pommard I put on reserve long before it was bottled. It is already going for over €75 per bottle direct from the Château.

But finding Grand Cru's under €40-50 is not easy for the public. You have to know someone, or be in the wine business yourself. Gaucho, as I think you are in the wine business, perhaps you should come to this event? http://www.grands-jours-bourgogne.co...,798,4545.html

That being said, the Hospice wines are sort of a special case because you are buying a future through a wholesale channel in bulk, and the Chateau de Pommard is not in fact a Grand Cru. It may well be as good as many a Grand Cru, but it itself is merely a monopole Premier Cru. But that was one of my points in my earlier post, that Grand Crus are essentially unattainable at those prices, but if you really know what you are doing and have access directly with the producers (and apparently, both of these factors apply to you, Stimpy), you can buy some of the handful of very select Premier Crus that are as good as many an actual Grand Cru, at more reasonable prices than the Grand Crus can be obtained. I used to make a buying trip to Burgundy every 2-3 years during which I would buy several cases of these handful of Premier Cru wines that are actually hitting above their class, and which are in fact at the Grand Cru level. And I found that the sweet spot of these wines tended to be in the $35-50 USD/bottle range circa a decade ago bought directly from the domains they were produced at, and even then, they tended to sell in the U.S. for at least double, often 2.5x the prices I paid directly at the producers (I had a deal with an importer in Dijon who would bring the wines into the U.S. for me for $25 a case).

Hospice wines are a special case, but they are freely available to anyone to buy, even over the Internet and even with quantities as low as 6 bottles.

And the part about Château de Pommard is debatable. The Château does not do business in the usual Burgundy way. I don't think their wines are even officially Premier Cru. I'd write more, but I have a plane to catch!

I've decided to pop round for a drink.

there are Premier C. found this in their wiki"Pommard wine is produced in the commune of Pommard in Côte de Beaune of Burgun.................The AOC regulations also allow up to 15 per cent total of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris as accessory grapes in the red wines, but this not very often practiced.

i recall in the wasserman book(which i cannot find) that the popularity of pommard in britain stems from the proximity of an airfield in WWI.

Wow, thanks to everyone, I have learned a tremendous amount in this thread!

ETA:



Oops, I just saw Porgy & Bess in NY. Turns out I was chanelling Sportin' Life.

Just supply some bottles!

Agreed. I will never understand FlyerTalk's obsession with chugging free champagne on flights either. It's an alcoholic beverage readily available everywhere wine is sold. What's the big deal.

It isn't just FT. It is the elegance of flying in a cramped F cabin drinking marginal swill, sometimes with a screw cap. It is elegant. It is special. It is, after all, first class