I'm going to Burgundy and Alsace later in the month for about ten days. Any ideas on hotels, restaurants, and wineries to visit? TIA

I've never been there, but in Alsace, I'd love to visit Albert Mann and Zind-Humbrecht. Have a great trip.

In Alsace, try staying at the Clos St. Vincent, a four star inn in the middle of Trimbach's vineyards in Ribeauville. We stayed there in September 2000, loved it and I highly recommend it. Here's a link I found through Google:

http://www.directa.net/france/alsazia/strasburgo/hotels/saintvicent.html

Agent,

We spent some time in Burgundy back in 2001, here are a few recommendations:

Starting in the North, if you make a visit to Chablis (which I would highly recommend), Le Petit Manoir des Bruyères outside Auxerre is a simply wonderful place to stay. Pierre and his wife (her name escapes me) are wonderful hosts, and if you choose to take you evening meal in the country French cooking is delicious.

Right in downtown Nuit-St.-Georges isDomaine Comtesse Michel de Loisy. Madame Loisy is an absolutely wonderful lady, and if you are interested in a package which give you an introduction to the area you would be well served to give this a go. Her program involves wine dinners at the Domaine for her guests, winery and vineyard tours, and wine education. The accomodations are comfortable, the food delicous, and wines well choosen.

While in Nuit-St.-Georges, don't miss a visit to the terrific wine shop there, Le Cavon de Bacchus. Great selection and good prices.

A bit further to the South in Vougeot is theChâteau de Gilly. Very nice accomodations, and a terrific restaurant with a very nice wine list (the only downside of the restaurant is the ventilation sux, so if you are near a smoker you're screwed).

Lameloise in Chagny is arguably the most notible restaurant in Burgundy. Sadly we visited in winter and they were closed for the season - I would not pass on an opportunity to dine there.

As far as vignerons to visit, you will find many producers open and available for drop in tasting, but don't expect to taste the better wines. One such that is open and worthy of a visit isPhilippe LeClec in Gevrey-Chambertin. However you are better off picking some of your favorite producers and calling ahead to make an appointment. Give yourself plenty of time for each visit, tasting in France is an unhurried affair.

Enjoy your trip!

There are two good hotels in Beaune. We stayed at the 2nd best one and it was cozy and cute, but next time I would stay at the best one (not that much difference in price). I need to look it up. We enjoyed Ma's Cuisine (again in Beaune) which was recommended and it did not disappoint. Food is very good and they own a wine store next door so all of the wines are very good a reasonably priced. Have to watch their hours since it is a husband and wife operations (the wife cooks) and they don't work long hours because of their children.

The one thing about Burgundy is that the vineyards are very small and they are not set up for visitors. I took one of the tours and they drive you through most of the Grand Cru vineyards, but it is not really that impressive. The names are well known, but it looks like one big vineyard to me.

In Beaune theHotel Le Cep was quite lovely. I would stay there again anytime and I'm quite picky when it comes to hotels.

To add on to Eric's comments - If you want to taste the best wines make sure you make appointments. The best way to do this from the USA is to draft a nice formal letter (English is OK) to the estate and fax it requesting dates and times. Many of the wineries are small so there are not formal tasting rooms. Many times our tastings were down in the cellars (real underground ones) so they were cold and damp.

In Beaune, Bouchard Pere & Fils was a good tour and tasting. They are a large producer and most of the people spoke good English. We had someone translating in many visits but be aware that out in the country there were places were they spoke little English. Basic polite French will get you a long way in those places. The language of wine is universal but you want them to let you taste the good ones. And there are always good ones tucked away if you get along well with your hosts.

Also in Burgundy very few places sell wine from their properties so don't expect to be able to purchase them directly. Eric's recommendation of Le Cavon de Bacchus is great. Terrific wines at good prices. The wines at the stores in Beaune are greatly marked up so make sure you have some pricing for reference for your favorites.

Enjoy your trip! Alsace is one of the areas on my list to go to so please tell us about your trip.

Small producers can be hit or miss to visit. We had our local retailer (who buys direct in Burgundy)make appointments for us with Robert Arnoux, Chateau de Meursault and Remoissonet. Roland Remoissonet is one of the most unique individuals in all of winedom.

As for restaurants, I echo others: Ma Cuisine in Beaune, Lameloise in Chagny and Greuze in Tournus (http://www.relaischateaux.com/site/us/rc_greuze.html) are musts.

MTpockets - Did you get to go into the Remoissenet castle in Beaune? We met Roland there as well and I thought it was a great tasting and tour. Like a movie except it's real! I think I took over 50 photos in there.

Winetex,

I was with one of my winepals and we did get to go the castle after spending hours in the caves. Did you see/hear the calliope?

In the castle, Roland has ancient weapons of all sorts stuffed into every nook and cranny!

We went down into the castle cellar to pick out wine for lunch. IIRC, 8 bottles for 4 wine drinkers. This after tasting all morning and believe me I wasn't into spitting Grand Cru burgundy onto the floor. Jean Pierre, the current Baron and owner of the Thenard estates (owner of one of the largest parcels of Le Montrachet) was with us all day.

As we were walking up the stairs from Roland's personal cellars, he stops, picks up a 50 pound medieval candleabra, hands it to Jean Pierre then picks up the second of the pair and places that one in Jean Pierre's other arm and says "Here, these will look better in your castle than mine" as he watches Jean Pierre struggle up the stairs.

From there we proceeded to a 3 hour lunch, consumed all the wine and staggered back to our wives many hours late. Our wives were rather gracious about it as they had already taken revenge in filling the car up with their day's purchases in the old city.

MTpockets - We did get to see the calliope. Very cool. A great tasting and we purchased a bunch of old wines to drink with our dinner that night. There is an amazing amount of wine down in that cellar.

It is truly amazing how many wines including vintages from the 50's on he has stored down there.