Updated August 25th, 2021…
I recently caught up with Youri Lebault, by phone. During the pandemic the owner of Bourgogne Gold Tour has been rethinking what he’s been doing since he started in 1999. In June he purchased a Mercedes Marco Polo luxury camper van, to offer a truly unique kind of tour.
Youri explained to me how his thinking has changed.
“I wanted to create a new experience: I’ve been doing wine tours for 20 years,” he told me. “I think now, maybe due to the Corona Virus, people want a return to the earth, to authenticity, to more simple things. People want to feel, touch, smell and enjoy. And they want a tour guide who treats them more as a good friend. To be honest, I want to work not with my brain but more with my heart.”
Youri says he asked himself, “What if I made dinner at the end of the day, after we’ve been for tastings in different wineries?”
“Now we can have a picnic at the end of the day—right in the vineyard, with charcuterie and different cheeses, such as Epoisses Citeaux or Comté du Jura. We open the chairs … We have the food from the land, and drink the wine … And we can see the difference between the climats.” (The small plots of land specific to Burgundy, which produce such distinct wines with different personalities.)
“You watch the sun set in the vineyard, you experience the smell of the earth, and you hear the birds. You are in the ambiance of the Bourgogne. You are for a while just a little bit Burgundian!”
If your post-pandemic plans include a trip to Burgundy, I can’t recommend Bourgogne Gold Tour highly enough!
Contact Youri at bourgognegoldtour@gmail.com
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Bourgogne Gold Tour owner Youri Lebault
Always a map at the ready …
Thinking of going on a wine tour? You’re not alone. Wine tourism is growing by leaps and bounds. I don’t have the numbers at my fingertips but, from Argentina to Azerbaijan, the ever expanding world of wine culture is driving a big audience. Even here in BC—still an infant by world wine standards—you can find a broad range of operators to escort you safely (and often knowledgeably) on your tour. They range from small group, limo or luxury van services to full sized coach tours and everything in between.
The key to a good tour
I’ve been on more than a few media wine tours, at home and abroad. Some were more memorable than others. But all were worthwhile.
Knowing where you are is the first rule of getting to understand a region
However, without exception, no matter how much planning has taken place, in the end, the key to any successful tour lies with one person: the driver.
Usually he or she not only knows how to get from winery A to winery B but also, hopefully, has plenty of local wine smarts to share. Not to mention a supply of bottled water on board to stay hydrated.
However, when I visited Burgundy (in 2013), my perceptions and expectations of what a good wine tour guide can truly accomplish were forever changed.
Putting the Gold in the Côte d’Or
Enter Youri Lebault, who owns and operates Bourgogne Gold Tour. Lebault is Burgundy born and raised. He really walks the talk, so much so that he’ went back to university to complete his wine studies. And he’s just been appointed a “Chevalier du Tastevin.”
Never a dull moment! Youri tries his hand at Pommard’s 16th century press
From the moment he picked me up in his immaculate Mercedes S Class to saying “au revoir” a few days later, Youri turned out to be an indispensable guide and wealth of information, who knew just how to take everything to the next level.
Hitting the high notes: Clos des Perrieres
I was hosted by BVIB, Bourgogne Wine Board, who regularly contracts Lebault, and who structured the main elements of the week. He used to work for them before leaving to start his tour company.
Picamelot Cremant Brut Rosé—worth the find!
During the first day we spent together a lot of information was exchanged. I tried to explain what I do and he went to work, tweaking our program. For example, I expressed an interest in Crémant (sparkling wine) and Youri used his extensive contacts to work in last minute calls with two leading producers, including Maison Louis Picamelot. This small but significant producer has been a pioneer of Burgundian sparkling wine since the 1930s.
Hitting all the high notes: La Grande Rue
As we wove our way through Burgundy’s maze of Climats, Crus and Villages, Youri would pull over at an ideal spot, spread a map on the hood; and explain to me exactly where we were; who was who; and discuss the terroir, climate and so on.
By the last day we were flying. And the program had grown further to fit in extra, quick appointments to make the most of the time…
If you’re Burgundy bound, you might just want to talk to him … In fact you should.
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