The guest list was a Who's Who of Burgundy. Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Michel, Frédéric and Clotilde Lafarge of Volnay. Fred Mugnier of Chambolle-Musigny. Denis Bachelet of Gevrey-Chambertin. Dominique Lafon of Meursault. Pascal of Gérard Mugneret of Vosne-Romanée. David Croix of Beaune. MW authors Anthony Hanson and Jasper Morris with their respective wives Rosi and Abigail.
Becky no longer travels, so, while Decanter's celebrations are usually in London, this one was in Becky and her husband Russell Hone's favourite restaurant Caves Madeleine in Beaune, a wonderfully simple, small, local place run by chef-patron Martial Blanchon, pictured below with the star of the event.
In the picture above right, left to right are Anthony Hanson MW (visible when you see the image on the home page), the diminutive Becky, Michel Lafarge and Aubert de Villaine.
Aubert and Pamela de Villaine were some of the last to arrive, while we were all enjoying their delicious Bouzeron Aligoté 2017. Below he is seen greeting Russell and Becky's 'daughter' Christina Otel of The Burgundy Wine School. Christina's husband Dominique Lafon sits opposite her. The hair in the foreground belongs to Clotilde Lafarge, representing her mother Chantal, who had fallen and injured herself.
In her brief speech Becky told of how many years ago Aubert had burst in on her when she was in the bath and announced that he had met the most wonderful girl in California and was going to marry her. He did.
The menu is below. Challengingly Burgundian in extent but absolutely delicious in execution. All food and wine matches had clearly been considered carefully but my favourite was the beef tartare with that wonderful Volnay Clos des Chênes 1990. I will be adding my tasting notes to our nearly 180,000-strong collection of wine reviews.
I sat opposite Frédéric Lafarge (left) and Denis Bachelet, whom I have known since featuring him in my first TV series The Wine Programme in the early 1980s – as recommended by ... Becky. Who would have thought we would have been sharing pictures of grandchildren nearly 40 years later?
At the end of a stunning meal and a beautifully warm occasion (attended by both Becky's sons Peter and Paul), Martial checked out with Russell that the food was up to scratch. The arm in the foreground belongs to Michel Lafarge, one of Becky's closest friends, who is still going strong well into his nineties.
My favourite image of the day was Becky making her way to the taxi that awaited them after the lunch, clinging to the (rather extensive) waistband of Russell's trousers that was virtually at her shoulder height.
