Get your Macon

After a steady 10 year relationship with Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, I cheated and had a torrid affair with the Maconnais. I have no regrets at all.

Normally you’d consider it bad wine-making luck to grow up in the awesome shadow cast by Burgundy’s Côte d’Or; but this is the only reason I can think of why Macon is not overrun with tourists and tasters, discovering what could reasonably claim to be one of the most beautiful parts of France. It’s awash with good wine, studded with beautiful villages and chateaux, and easier to get to from Paris than, well, most of Paris itself. 90 minutes in the TGV and you’re hopping out in Macon and driving off into a rolling, vine-covered countryside of reasonable hotels and B&Bs, classic French food, and tastings au domaine. Beaune in northern Burgundy has had the effect of a giant booze magnet sucking all tourism out of the areas around it. And that’s so much the better for a weekend wine-touring in the Maconnais.

You may be aware of the small appelations of Pouilly-Fuissé, Macon-Fuissé or Macon Villages. You’ll certainly have heard of Chardonnay—the grape, if not the town just outside Macon that it took its name from. You’ve probably not heard of Charolles, a tiny village with nothing to commend it, but you should have heard of Charolais, the most delicious beef this side of Argentina. In this way Macon is full of surprises—both gastronomic and cultural. The chateau of Brancion was once the principal residence of the Dukes of Burgundy, and overlooks a vast swathe of northern Macon, but in keeping with the quietness of the current era, it’s now owned by a barman.

The best of the B&Bs we found was La Source des Fées in the village of Fuissé, run by wine-makers Philippe Greffet and Thierry Nouvel, who have an unusual eye for detail and a great sense of style, as well as making excellent appelation wines. From here, you’re well placed to explore the whole area, as well as the northern part of the Beaujolais, which technically begins just the other side of the hill. Various other enormous chateaux offer bed and breakfast (see below) while the Montagne de Brancion puts you in north Macon, with one helluva view.

Jack is an honourary Frenchman (don’t tell the British or Canadian governments). If you’re looking for a tour of wine country minus the tourists, contact him at jack@trufflepig.com.