Wine bogan

I was such a wine bogan last night.

The Bourgogne Wine Board invited me to a media workshop last night and I literally had NO IDEA where Bourgogne was.

Well, I knew it was in France, but I’d never heard of the region.

You should have seen the look on the face of one of the wine journos in attendance when I expressed my ignorance.

It turns out Bourgogne is Burgundy. Well, why didn’t they say so?

We kicked off with a Chardonnay and then I worked my way around a few of the Chablis wines available for tasting.

I’ve since learned that Chablis is made from Chardonnay grapes. As UK wine writer Rosemary George writes: “Chablis is Chardonnay, but not every Chardonnay is Chablis.”

Right.

I think what she means is that it’s Chardonnay but not as we know it. It’s not oaked and has delicate mineral and citrus characteristics.

While it tends to be a bit expensive in Australia due to our taxes, we can’t get enough of the stuff and have become one of the top 10 export markets for Chablis.

The wines we tried were in the more affordable $40-60 range.

I am now madly in love with Chablis and am considering lifting my ban on European travel to go there to drink it in the late afternoon sun in the town square of a sleepy village that produces it.

Two French blokes attended from the region, François Labet, President of the Bourgogne Wine Board, Jean-François Bordet, President of the Chablis Commission of the Bourgogne Wine Board.

François discussed how he loved a description of Australians he’d been given as being “Brits who know how to make wine”. He was very self-deprecating about how Aussies “drink yours first and ours second”.

I also did a – ridiculously – revolutionary thing at the event and attended in a sleeveless top.

I swear, my upper arms haven’t been seen in public since 2007. But it was so bloody humid that I thought bugger it.

No one in the room gave two hoots that my upper arms were pale and tuck shoppy. However, I’m hoping my friend Jimmy the influencer who was the official photographer for the event doesn’t share any images of me on social media.

The masterclass kicked off with a tasting of about 30 Bourgogne wines while standing around, which I wasn’t very good at.

My tendonitis and inflamed disc were quite annoyed that I was on my feet and insisted I sit by myself in the room next door where everyone had dumped their bags.

I was relieved when it was time to sit down for the masterclass, which featured eight Bourgogne white wines matched with fancy nibbles.

I found it quite fascinating to learn about the difference between Petite Chablis and regular Chablis. One is grown on chalky soils made from ancient seabeds and filled with little shells, while the other is grown on flinty limestone. As a result, each one has quite distinctively different characteristics.

We had to do a blind tasting of four wines after the masterclass and I had no bloody idea what the first three were, but I was 100 per cent convinced the last one was Chablis and I was right! Very chuffed.

There were goodie bags at the end that didn’t include wine, which I thought was a bit of an oversight, but otherwise it was both bulk fun and very informative.

Well, apart from sitting beside a woman who kept coughing into her hand at regular intervals and then TOUCHING things.

When we had to share a chilli oil bowl for our wine-matched wantons I snatched the spoon first before she could put her germ-laced fingers on it. Gross.

Can everyone please stop coughing into their hands and use their elbows instead?

Oh, and have a good weekend.

Song of the day: Art vs Science “Parlez vous Francais” – bloody awesome Aussie song!