<a target="_blank" href="http://www.maisonducolombier.com/">La Maison du
Colombier</a><a target="_blank" href="http://www.maisonducolombier.com/">

</a>1, rue Charles Cloutier

21200 Beaune, France

Phone: +33-3-80-26-16-26

The
food:

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131282627-The+daily+menu+at+La+Maison+du+Colombier+burgundy.jpg"> 

The wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>
 2011
 Cédric Bouchard Champagne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs &nbsp; 
 
 </td>
 <td>
 92
 </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>
 2012
 Rotem &amp; Mounir Saouma Châteauneuf du Pape Magis
 </td>
 <td>
 94</td></tr></tbody></table>

Roland
Chanliaud looks up from the tiny counter of his open kitchen and beams as you
enter the restaurant of La Maison du Colombier in Beaune. For years Chanliaud
was the wizard in the kitchen at Le Jardin des Remparts, a restaurant known for
its classic cuisine though decidedly not for the warmth of its accueil. Now he and his new wife preside
over this self-styled gastro-bar, housed in an ancient tower with five rooms to
let and a terrace that attracts a jolly crowd in temperate weather. The
Colombier sits at the center of town, just a few blocks from Chanliaud’s old
digs on the Péripherique, but it’s leagues away in terms of culinary
mood and approach.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131329236-Sous-chef+Bertrand+Gueucier+and+chef-owner+Roland+Chanliaud+%28r.%29.jpg">

From
their cluttered station, the chef and his sous-chef, Bertrand Gueucier, send forth a stream of wondrous
tapas-style dishes, all the while chatting up the customers perched on bar
stools at several raised tables that crowd the wood-beamed main room (a few
steps down, two very snug low-slung rooms have been carved out of the thick
stone walls). Now and then he stops at a table to joke with regulars and
recommend specials. You sense Chanliaud’s ebullience and spontaneity in the
chalkboard list of dishes that change daily, and you can taste those qualities
in his clean, spare preparations of charcuterie and fish, served family-style
on wooden cutting boards and thin sheets of slate. The place hums with
conviviality.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131360581-63-degree+%28C.%29+eggs+with+shiitake+mushroom+reduction.jpg">63-degree (C.) eggs with shiitake mushroom reduction 

Ingredients
here sparkle: glistening raw herring, bright orange-yoked eggs, split red
berries on a row of sardines. Prices are moderate (ranging from 20 Euros for an
assortment of charcuterie down to a healthy number of 7- to 9- Euro plates of
tartines piled high with marinated fish). Our table of four sampled liberally
according to the chef’s recommendations and our own rapacity.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131402559-Filet+of+lightly+smoked+herring.jpg">Filet of lightly smoked herring 

Here’s
the procession of dishes we shared: Silken tranches of herring topped with
scallions and a drizzle of olive oil. “Gateau” squares of foie blanc, pooled in
a tomato concasse, the liver whipped and molded to velvet density. Sardines
sprinkled with raspberries and blueberries, whisps of chervil and sea salt. Guacamole
à
la Basque, the avocado (unencumbered by tomato or onion) enlivened by coriander
and piment d’espelette, a ground red pepper from southwest France with a
distinctively hot/sweet piquancy. Resiny-smoky brandade nîmoise—a smooth
spread of salt cod in the style of Nîmes—served on
crusty toasted baguette. Melting chunks of mackerel tartare, accompanied by
large chewy rondels of pasta, the whole napped in a soy-sesame oil dressing
with notes of ginger and cilantro. Then there were the eggs, from the nearby
organic Ferme de la Ruchotte, and not just your farm-fresh variety, but eggs
issuing directly from hens that are personally known to the chef, who gives
them his “63-degree” treatment: slow cooked to the point of gelled divinity,
enrobed in a meaty shiitake mushroom reduction, bestrewn with little
oil-softened croutons, and nestled on a low bed of greens.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131901080-Sardines+with+raspberries+and+blueberries.jpg"> Sardines with raspberries and blueberries 

The
dishes here are sufficiently varied and full-flavored to stand on their own,
but this is Burgundy and that would be tragic. Chef Chanliaud has spent many
years cultivating relationships with local wine producers and his carte des vins will make you moist.
Beyond a who’s who of the top producers of the Côte d’Or and
Chablis, Chanliaud offers an outstanding selection of grower Champagnes as well
as top bottlings from the Rhône and Loire valleys and elsewhere in France.
I suspect that many visiting enophiles lose all control here and simply stagger
upstairs afterwards to their rooms in Chanliaud’s gîte
urbain.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469132302833-Mackerel+tartare+with+pasta.jpg"> Mackerel tartare with pasta 

While the list is chockablock with cult producers
(e.g., Vincent Dauvissat, Dugat-Py, Dujac, Lafon, Leflaive, Lucien Le Moine,
D’Angerville, Leroy, Méo-Camuzet, Mugneret-Gibourg, J-F Mugnier, Raveneau,
Roumier, Rousseau et al.), there are also many excellent and extremely
affordable bottles from unusual suspects. And while lots of other local
restaurants merely pay lip service to the great names with the odd village wine
or lesser vintage, at Maison du Colombier you’ll find top cuvées­, from village to grand cru level, not to mention older
vintages and mini-verticals of some of France’s most lusted-after collectibles
(eight vintages of Lafon’s Meursault Perrières, six vintages each of Vincent
Dauvissat’s Chablis La Forest and Dagueneau’s Pouilly-Fumé Pur Sang, and the
like).

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131584225-Cedric+Bouchard+Champagne+Inflorescence+Blanc+de+Noirs.jpg"> 

We began our
meal outdoors with Cédric Bouchard’s
extraordinary entry-level bottling, the Champagne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs, which, along with his pricier
single-vineyard, single-vintage, single-variety wines, has drastically improved
the reputation of Champagne’s southerly Aube region for high-quality Pinot
Noir. This superb value provides a rare combination of concentration, structure,
ripe fruit and taut minerality, and it’s hard to imagine a more food-flexible
liquid. We enjoyed it with bread and tapenade but it would have gone well with
all of our oily and salty fish dishes, and I’d love to have tried it with jambon de Bellota, which is also on the
menu here.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131624834-Rotem+%26+Mounir+Saouma+Chateauneuf-du-Pape+Magis+%282%29.jpg"> We then moved on to Rotem
&amp; Mounir Saouma’s 2012 Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Magis, a large-scaled, honeyed yet vibrant white wine with the
palate presence, smoky depth and minerality of a top Burgundy cru (from the
same husband-and-wife team responsible for the Lucien Le Moine wines in Beaune).
Its salinity, suavity and silkiness made for a perfect match with the foie
blanc and salt cod.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469131471313-Salt+cod+in+the+style+of+N%C3%AEmes.jpg"> Salt cod in the style of NîmesOur
desserts at La Maison du Colombier were light and refreshing, welcome choices
after a repast weighted heavily on the side of protein. Two standouts:
Clafoutis&nbsp;la
pistache was served with tonka ice cream, the tonka bean imparting an exotic
blend of spicy-caramel-vanilla to the almond-pistachio cake; and Cremeux au
citrons Corse, a bracing circlet of lemon curd on shortbread, crowned with
lemon chantilly and grated green lemon zest.

Put
this place at the top of your list for your next visit to Beaune.

&nbsp;--Stephen Tanzer

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