Boulder Burgundy Festival begins this weekend! Pianist Walt Lott joins for Grand Tasting Sunday!

The Boulder Burgundy Festival begins this Friday, October 20!


A few seats for the Friday night marquee dinner at Frasca have just become available. Click here to reserve.

There are also spots available for the Sunday morning seminar “Rethinking the Négociant” and the Grand Tasting Sunday afternoon. Click the links to reserve.

The Grand Tasting is an event that many Boulder Burgundy lovers look forward to each year. More than 200 wines will be poured, including many higher-end and exclusive labels. But the thing that really takes it over the top is the wine professionals who come out to pour: They are some of the top people working in our field and their knowledge of Burgundy is astounding.

And wait, there’s more! The icing on the cake this year is that locally based concert pianist Walt Lott will be joining us for the Grand Tasting. And he’ll be taking requests!

A note from Walt:

“As there is no shortage of excellent French music throughout the centuries, French compositions will constitute the bulk of my repertoire at the Boulder Burgundy Festival. Debussy’s Preludes, Estampes, and Images, and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la Nuit will certainly be on the menu. I find these works to be a great counterpoint to wine tasting: as a quality wine displays balance of weight, acid, tannin, et cetera, these pieces demand attention to the balance of tone, color, and dynamics. In addition, attendees can expect a smattering of Beethoven (I’m currently planning a recital series of all 32 Beethoven sonatas), Bach, Francois Couperin, and jazz standards. And as always, I encourage listeners to make any requests!”

Debussy and Burgundy? Sounds great to us! We hope to see you this weekend! Please click links above for event availability.

About Maison Ambroise, this year’s featured producer.


We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome winemaker Bertrand Ambroise (above right, with his son François) who will be pouring wines by his family’s estate Maison Ambroise in Premeaux-Prissey, a small village near Nuits-Saint-Georges. His wine’s will be featured at the Friday evening marquee dinner at Frasca (SOLD OUT) and at our Sunday seminar at noon.

Of course, his wines will also be poured at the Grand Tasting on Sunday afternoon and he’ll be making an appearance at the Paulée lunch (SOLD OUT).

A note on Maison Ambroise:

The origin of the domaine goes back to the 18th century. In this period, only some small parcels were worked during several generations. It took 300 years for the Ambroise family to settle down in Premeaux-Prissey, a small village near Nuits-Saint-Georges in the heart of the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits appellation where the best wines produced in the village can bear the Nuits-Saint-Georges appellation. In 1987, Bertrand Ambroise took back the domaine. Fascinated by the work of the vines and an avid lover of wine, he developed the domaine which now includes approximately 52 acres.

Started in 2009 at the initiative of Francois (Bertrand’s son now working along his father in the vineyards and cellar) the organic certification has been granted in 2013 by Ecocert. The appellations covered by the domaine include both red and white wines.

About this year’s featured speakers: Sommeliers Jeremy Schwartz, Gili Koren Lockwood, and Andreas Harl.

The Boulder Burgundy Festival is less than a month away!

This year’s seminar will be devoted to “Rethinking Négociants.” For the occasion, Brett has asked three of the top sommeliers working in Colorado today to talk about some of their favorite négociant wines and how they “apply” them in their wine programs.

We couldn’t be more thrilled that they’ll be joining us for this year’s Boulder Burgundy Festival panel. For a complete list of this year’s events, please click here.

Read on to learn more about our three featured speakers, Jeremy Schwartz, Gili Koren Lockwood, and Andreas Harl.

One of the most beloved wine professionals in Boulder, Jeremy Schwartz first started working as a sommelier at Frasca Food and Wine in 2016. He became the restaurant’s lead sommelier in 2020. He often attributes his achievements in the industry to his time working with restaurant and wine “greats” Bobby Stuckey, Carlin Karr, Grant Reynolds, and Brett Zimmerman, among others. He became interested in gastronomy after an extended trip to Spain and other destinations in Europe. It was then that he abandoned his career in medicine to devote himself full time to his work in hospitality and his studies. He’s currently studying to become a Master Sommelier. A father and husband, Jeremy travels back to Burgundy whenever he has the chance.

Gili Koren Lockwood is an advanced sommelier with a deep passion for the worlds of food, wine, and wellness. Gili graduated from the The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, the most highly regarded cooking school in the United States, and soon after, she began her foray into the restaurant scene at Myth in San Francisco. She relocated to Napa Valley where she helped open and manage the exclusive hotel and spa, Bardessono, before moving to Boulder, Colorado, where she learned under the tutelage of Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman at the Boulder Wine Merchant. Gili received her ranking as an Advanced Sommelier and, soon after, landed a role at one of the country’s most prestigious restaurants, Le Bernardin, under head sommelier, Aldo Sohm. Today, alongside three partners, she is working on creating a new culinary venture due to launch in 2024.

Andreas Harl is the founder of Vail Beverage Consulting. He was born and raised in Salzburg, Austria where both his grandmother, a chef, instilled in him a love for food and wine at an early age. He graduated from one of Europe’s most prominent tourism and hotel management schools and moved to the Vail Valley in 2003. He achieved the title of Advanced Sommelier in 2017 and has been trusted with running the Beverage program for Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s Vail location since its opening in 2011. Through his program at the restaurant, he’s become well known as a pioneer of pairing classic European wines with Japanese cuisine. “We turn up the music, and there are no white tablecloths,” he told the wine trade magazine MarketWatch in 2017. “The ambiance is fun, and I keep the beverage program in tune with that vibe.” Andreas lives in Vail, Colorado with his wife and dog.