Caves Madeleine – Introduction

Caves Madeleine is a restaurant and wine shop in the wine town of Beaune in Burgundy. It serves comfort food of excellent quality using carefully selected produce from nearby and it has a wall of wine that you can select from and either consume in the restaurant or take it away.

The first thing we always notice when we walk in is the famous “épaulé-jeté” poster created by the Bretons in the Loire. This is the poster adopted by the natural wine movement throughout the world as an indicator of what the restaurant stands for.

If you see this poster it is quite likely that the wines will be mainly natural. We won’t try to explain the poster because it is a completely obvious joke once you see it.

The welcome at Caves Madeleine is always warm and genuine. The staff are friendly and also anxious that you have a good time and understand the produce you are eating and the wines you can choose from.

They source some of their vegetables from local superstars Christine and Yannick Loubet who maintain a farm in the village of Ruffey-lès-Beaune (which lies just a short distance east of Beaune) where they grow a staggering variety of vegetables.

And it was the quality of the source ingredients used at Caves Madeleine that hit us when we tried the Salmorejo soup, a tomato and bread-based soup from the Pays Basque country which was originally from Cordoba in southern Spain. This was a killer dish with just the right amount of vinegar to enhance the seasoning.

The Spanish are very good at cold soups which are de rigeur for their hot summers. We have, at various times, enjoyed Salmorejo soup as described above, but they also have two others that rank highly namely Ajo Blanco and Gazpacho. Ajo Blanco is an almond-based cold soup and Gazpacho is made from fresh vegetables, left-over bread and garlic loosened up with vinegar and olive oil – delicious. But it is the Salmorejo that we inevitably enjoy here.

Our other starter was a salad with very good, fresh salad leaves piled over a poached egg and topped with slices of brebis cheese.

Main courses were equally stunning. On one occasionwe enjoyed a parmentier of veal which was topped with creamy, mashed potato that was topped with comté brûlée and cut into a disk around which was served a pool of very intense broth. This was a very flavoursome dish with the signature perfect seasoning displayed by the chef.

On another visit we equally enjoyed a confit lamb shoulder which you can see in the photo below.

Our other dish was “maquereaux de ligne” which saw two blades of mackerel served over some very fresh vegetables such as beetroot, celery, zucchini and small, but intensely-flavoured carrots. The mackerel was stunning and the vegetables perfectly cooked. This was a very satisfying dish!

With the last of our white wine we enjoyed a plate of cheese consisting of comté, chèvre and époisse from the nearby village of the same name – each was of very good quality.

We enjoyed a Jura Chardonnay throughout the meal. The slightly oxidative nature of the wine we chose was perfect with all of the dishes including the cheese. These Jura whites are just so versatile with food!

The restaurant also has a large display of wines down the right side of the room as you enter and all are available to purchase for take away.

All the wines at Caves Madeleine are natural and carefully chosen including wines from local producer Yann Durieux, Vezelay producer Montanet-Thoden who produce lovely, precise white wines and soulful red wines and Alice and Olivier de Moor from Chablis with their classic white wines.

The Caves Madeleine sommelier is very knowledgeable and is anxious to ensure that you order a wine that suits you and suits the food.

Caves Madeleine is a very pleasant address which we try to visit whenever we are in Beaune.

You can find more about this great restaurant on their Web site here.

We have also included this venue in our story about where we eat in France outside Paris here.