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The Boulder Burgundy Festival adds two new causes this year

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Now in its fifth year, the Boulder Burgundy Festival continues to support locally based charities like the Growe Foundation and the Davis Finney Foundation with proceeds from the gathering.

This year, festival founder Brett Zimmerman has added two new causes: The Family Learning Center and There with Care.

The Family Learning Center “is an inclusive community where children and families of all races and cultures, and from all walks of life, are welcomed. We believe that family and community offer the best support system for healthy social, academic, civic, and ethical development. By offering educational opportunities to the entire family, we create families who value education, self-reliance, and community service.”

Click here to learn more.

There with Care provides “support to hundreds of families being treated at 12 hospitals and medical facilities across Colorado. Through the kindness of volunteers, generosity of business owners and the philanthropy of donors, we have been able to ease many of the burdens of children and families facing critical illness.”

Click here to learn more.

A note of thanks to one of our partners, Audi Boulder

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Above: Among other community-building partnerships, Audi Boulder also sponsors the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center Masters Cycling Team.

The organizers of the Boulder Burgundy Festival would like to take time out to thank one our partners, Audi Boulder, one of the event’s official sponsors.

It’s a case of “one local business supporting another,” said the showroom’s Audi brand ambassador, Craig David, “and keeping in step with the uniqueness of what Boulder has to offer.”

Audi Boulder will be providing some of the VIP vehicles for the event and it’s offering tickets and reservations to festival gatherings to its clients.

The partnership is just one of Audi Boulder’s many relationships with local businesses and charity.

Craig asked us to give a shout out to the the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center Masters Cycling Team, which raises money and awareness for the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center.

From the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center website:

Since 1992, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers (RMCC) has been a leader in cancer care. We began as a small group practice of six physicians with a new approach to treating cancer—administering chemotherapy on an outpatient basis—and have since developed into Colorado’s largest and most comprehensive provider of cancer care with 58 physicians treating patients in 20 community-based locations across the state.

Some spots still available but going fast…

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The following events at the Boulder Burgundy Festival (Oct. 22-25) events still have some availability. Click the links below to purchase tickets!

Champagne and Petrossian Caviar Kickoff Party
with food provided by Cured
Thursday, October 22, 5:00-7:30 pm
$75 per person

Click here to reserve.

“Best Value Burgundy Wines” Lunch
Oak Restaurant
Friday, October 23, 11:30 am
$95 per person
(includes tax & gratuity)

Featured Lunch Wines:

2013 Domaine Ferret Pouilly-Fuisse
2013 Moreau-Naudet Chablis
2013 Marc Colin Saint Aubin Village
2013 Francois Carillon Puligny-Montrachet
2013 Bernard Moreau Chassagne-Montrachet VV Rouge
2013 Domaine Joblot Givry Servoisine 1er
2013 Domaine Sylvain Pataille, Marsannay
2012 Montille Beaune Sizies 1er

Click here to reserve.

Old and Rare Burgundy Seminar
at the St. Julien Hotel
with Master Sommeliers Jay Fletcher,
Brett Zimmerman, and Sean Razee
Benefits the Guild of Sommeliers
Friday, October 23, 1:00-2:00 pm
$295 per person

Old and Rare Seminar wines:

1978 Domaine Louis Remy, Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru
1985 Faiveley, Nuits St Georges Les Saint Georges 1er Cru
1996 Domaine Bachelet, Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru
1996 Marquis D’Angerville Volnay Clos Des Ducs Monopole 1er Cru
1998 Domaine Philippe Charlopin, Chambertin Grand Cru
1998 Michel Bonnefond (Christophe Roumier), Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru
2000 Hubert Lignier, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
2004 Alain Hudelot-Noellat, Richebourg Grand Cru

Click here to reserve.

An Element 47 Pop Up
Featuring the Wines of
Génot-Boulanger and Domaine Dujac
Benefits There with Care
Friday, October 23, 6:00 pm
$395 per person
(includes tax & gratuity)

Featuring Wine Director Carlton McCoy, MS; Assistant Food & Beverage Director Csaba “Chubby” Oveges; Executive Chef Matt Zubrod; Chef de Cuisine Matt Padilla and Executive Banquet Chef Keith Theodore.

This dinner will include a vertical tasting of wines from Domaine Dujac and Domaine Génot-Boulanger preceded by a Champagne reception.

Click here to reserve.

Dinner with Jean-Charles le Bault de la Morinière of Domaine Bonneau de Martray
at Frasca Food and Wine
Benefits The Family Learning Center
Saturday, October 23, 6:00 pm
$435 per person
(includes tax & gratuity)

Click here to reserve.

Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Seminar with Jean-Charles le Bault de la Morinière from Bonneau du Martray and Ray Isle from Food and Wine Magazine
at the St. Julien Hotel
Sunday, October 25, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
$150 per ticket

Click here to reserve.

Grand Tasting
at the St. Julien Hotel
with over 200 featured wines
Benefits The Growe Foundation
Sunday, October 25, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
$85 per ticket

Click here to reserve.

Is Burgundy still a minefield or was it ever? The Best Value Burgundy Lunch is a great way to explore

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In 2003 Robert Parker, Jr., the founder of the Wine Advocate and the English language’s “über [wine] critic” as he has been called, wrote the following:

“Burgundy is, well, Burgundy. A minefield of potential disappointments beloved by elitists and pseudo-intellectuals who like to discuss ad nauseam growers and terroirs — not quality.”

Parker made a similar sweeping assertion in 2008 when he wrote in Bloomberg Business that “red Burgundy is the ultimate minefield of the wine world—notoriously unreliable, often disappointing, and rarely living up to its illustrious reputation.”

In direct response to Parker, New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov wrote, “in fact, the quality of Burgundy — red Burgundy in particular — has risen strikingly over the last two decades. From the smallest growers to the biggest houses, the standards of grape-growing and winemaking have surpassed anybody’s expectations. These days, Burgundy has very few bad vintages, and among good producers, surprisingly few bad wines.”

Today, seven years since the last back-and-forth between these princes of wine writing, the “minefield” myth has become so pervasive that you often see it quoted erroneously and out of context by mainstream wine writers, bloggers, and wine merchants as well as consumers.

In a 2013 interview with Food and Wine executive wine editor Ray Isle, the über critic backpedalled only slightly.

“Thanks to a more meticulous younger generation,” he told Ray, “red Burgundies have made improvements, but they, too, are still a minefield, and top vineyard sites are still significantly overpriced.”

The Best Value Burgundy Wines Lunch on the second day of the Boulder Burgundy Festival 2015 (Friday 10/23) was conceived to show that there are actually many great value-driven wines to discover (and to prove that, with all due respect, Mr. Parker is wrong!).

Please note that as of this posting, there are only a few spots left for this event.

Click here to read more about the event and to reserve.