BBF features Beaujolais for the first time with seminar by 3 Masters of Wine

The Boulder Burgundy Festival will be featuring Beaujolais for the first time this year. And sweetening the deal, the seminar and tasting of Beaujolais single-vineyard wines will be presented by three — yes, count ’em — three Masters of Wine!

About the event:

Friday, November 2

Dear Burgundy, Lighten Up. Love, Beaujolais. A Cru Beaujolais Wine Seminar.

An in-depth conversation highlighting the 10 crus of Beaujolais with Special Guests Doug Frost, MW, Ashley Hausman, MW, and Mary Margaret McCamic, MW.

The panel will be discussing the region and its terroir. Topics will include geography, climate, soil types, wine making techniques and philosophy used in Beaujolais. We will taste 10 top quality examples from each of the cru vineyards. This will be an amazing opportunity to learn about this exciting Burgundy region. Beaujolais is currently experiencing an amazing renaissance and this seminar will offer a comprehensive dive into this fast moving region.

Click here for event details, wines, and registration info.

Image via Beaujolais.com.

Featured cause: SommFoundation

Above: SommFoundation recently led a group of young wine professionals on a trip to Vinho Verde in Portugal.

The mission of the Guild of Sommeliers Education Foundation (“SommFoundation”) is to assist the wine and spirits professional to achieve the highest level of proficiency and accreditation in the food and beverage industry. It provides enrichment opportunities and scholarships to sommeliers, restaurant professionals, wine journalists, and winemakers to further their knowledge about the world of wine and spirits and elevate the level of competency in the understanding of the beverage profession. In 2017, it sent 102 Wine Professionals on 13 Enrichment Trips (Israel, Napa, Rias Baixas, Willamette, St. Emilion, & Tuscany to name a few). It also awarded over $120,000 in scholarships to 147 individuals from the US, Canada, Mexico and Asia.

Kelli White, one of this year’s featured speakers, writes regularly for the Guild of Sommeliers.

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Boulder Burgundy Festival is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization whose mission is to support education for aspiring wine professionals, medical aid for the needy, and meals for children facing hunger.

Our events celebrate the fine wines of Burgundy through educational seminars, tastings, and meals that raise money for those in need.

Image via the SommFoundation Facebook.

Featured cause: Chefs Cycle

Chefs Cycle is part of Share Our Strength, whose mission is to end hunger and poverty in the U.S. and abroad.

Share Our Strength’s founders believe that “everyone has a strength to share to help ensure every individual can live a healthy and productive life.”

Chef Cycle organizes fundraising endurance events featuring award-winning chefs and members of the culinary community.

The money it raises benefits programs, like No Kid Hungry, which seeks to end childhood hunger in the United States.

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Our events celebrate the fine wines of Burgundy through educational seminars, tastings, and meals that raise money for those in need.

Image via the No Kid Hungry (Shared Strength) Facebook.

Featured Cause: There With Care

Above: A There With Care volunteer collected donations to provide supplemental groceries to families facing a critical illness (from the There With Care Facebook).

There With Care is of the Boulder Burgundy Festival’s 2018 causes.

Our events celebrate the fine wines of Burgundy through educational seminars, tastings, and meals that raise money for those in need.

From the There With Care Website:

There With Care’s mission is to provide a wide range of thoughtful and fundamental services to children and families during the critical phase of a medical crisis. It serves families referred by medical agencies, by building a network of services and people who ease the burden of life’s day-to-day obligations with compassion and care.

When a family receives a medical diagnosis of critical illness for their child, the wholeness of the family is threatened. There With Care works with the hospitals and social workers to identify and ease the stresses for the families, giving them more time with their children. The meaningful support There With Care provides is unique to each family.

Acclaimed wine writer and sommelier Kelli White to speak at Sunday seminar

We couldn’t be more thrilled to announced that Kelli White, one of the top wine writers and sommeliers working in the U.S. today, will be joining us as a panelist for the Sunday morning seminar this year!

About Kelli:

Kelli A. White is the Senior Staff Writer for GuildSomm. Prior to that, her work as a sommelier, first at New York City’s Veritas and then at PRESS in St. Helena, has been covered by many of the wine industry’s top publications, including Food & Wine, Vinous, The Wine Advocate, The Wine Spectator, the San Francisco Chronicle, World of Fine Wine, and Forbes; in 2013 she was named one of Food & Wine’s top ten sommeliers in the country. Her writing has appeared in World of Fine Wine, Robb Report, Sommelier Journal, Le Pan, and Vinous. At Vinous, Kelli was a key member of the maps team, and worked with famed Italian cartographer Alessando Masnaghetti to map many of the appellations of Napa Valley. In 2016, she was nominated for the highly prestigious Roederer Award for Best Emerging Wine Writer. Her book, Napa Valley, Then & Now, was released in November of 2015 and has received enormous critical acclaim, winning both the IACP award for Best New Wine, Beer, or Spirits Book as well as a Graphis design award. In 2011, she co-founded a small wine brand called Houndstooth and she also made a brief appearance in 2015’s documentary Somm II: Into the Bottle. In October of 2016, Kelli led a wine tasting seminar at Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women’s Summit in Laguna Niguel, CA. Most recently, she was nominated for Sommelier/Wine Director of the Year (2017) by Wine Enthusiast magazine.

More recently, she was nominated for another Roederer Award this year (Online Communicator) and was included in this year’s “40 Under 40” tastemakers list by the editors of Wine Enthusiast.

Registration for BBF 2018 now OPEN!

Click here a complete list of events and ticket links!

Registration for the Boulder Burgundy Festival 2018 is now OFFICIALLY OPEN!

This year’s gathering includes our best line-up to date, including a spectacular selection of library wines from North Berkeley Imports.

Here’s the flight of wines planned for the Saturday night marquee dinner at Frasca with Burgundy expert and wine writer Pierre Rovani:

Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru, Champagne
2007 Remoissenet Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres 1er (Magnum)
2007 Remoissenet Beaune Marconnets 1er (Magnum)
2007 Remoissenet Beaune Greves 1er (Magnum)
2011 Remoissenet Chapelle Chambertin Grand Cru
2012 Remoissenet Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
1967 Remoissenet Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
2016 Remoissenet Meursault Blagny 1er

Click here to register for the event (which sells out quickly each year).

Click here a complete list of events and ticket links.

We regret that wine writer and novelist Jay McInerney is not going to be able to join us this year. He just informed us that an unforeseen family conflict makes it impossible for him to be with us at the 2018 festival.

But we are currently working to invite another Burgundy expert to join Pierre for the Sunday morning seminar. And we should be announcing the guest shortly. Stay tuned!

We look forward to seeing you at this year’s festival: Please register at your earliest convenience to ensure availability.

Boulder Burgundy Festival is now a non-profit.

Earlier this month, we received a letter from the IRS:

“We’re pleased to tell you,” it read, “we determined you’re exempt from federal income tax under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3). Donors can deduct contributions they make to you under IRC section 170. You’re also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106, or 2522.”

The Boulder Burgundy Festival is now officially a non-profit. Not only are we now tax-exempt, but your support of the festival is also now valid as a charitable tax deduction.

Now in its eight year, the gathering has always been focused on raising awareness of and money for local charities. Over the years, we’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars for our partners.

We couldn’t be more thrilled to have finally achieved our 501(c)(3).

Please click here to read about this year’s causes.

And thank you for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s festival.

Acclaimed wine writer and Burgundy expert Pierre Rovani is our featured speaker

We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that acclaimed taster, writer, and Burgundy expert Pierre Rovani (above) will be joining us for both the Saturday night dinner and Sunday morning seminar.

Some may remember Pierre’s years at the Wine Advocate where he was handpicked by Robert Parker to cover Burgundy for the publication.

Since 2005, he has served as the president of Remoissenet Père et Fils, one of Beaune’s oldest and most revered estates. He will be presenting a flight of Remoissenet wines at both gatherings.

Chambolle-Musigny seminar with Eric Asimov and Raj Parr was a knock-out!

One of the most exciting gathering at this year’s festival was the Chambolle-Musigny tasting and seminar with New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov (above, right) and leading sommelier and author Raj Parr (left) — two of the leading Burgundy experts in the U.S. today.

Brett Zimmerman MS, founder of the Boulder Burgundy Festival (center), presented them at this year’s marquee event, which was held in the ballroom of the St. Julien Hotel.

As we’ve seen in years past, it’s always exciting to have such brilliant presenters for the seminar (last year, we were joined by Master of Wine Jancis Robinson and legacy Volnay producer Étienne de Montille).

But this year, the standing-room crowd of 150 + persons (including another leading wine writer, Jeb Dunnuck, and Master of Wine Ashley Hausman Vaughters) just seemed rapt by both the speakers and the wines themselves — an extraordinary flight of wines and styles from Chambolle-Musigny.

Where Raj delivered a superb talk on the appellation itself, including a virtual climb up the côte and his description of how the soils change from the bottom to the top of the hill, Eric offered invaluable insights into how perceptions of these wines has changed over a generation of Burgundy lovers. There couldn’t have been a more perfect balance between the technical and geeky, the sensorial and the intellectual.

What a great seminar!

We still haven’t lined up the speakers for the 2018 festival but this one is going to be tough to beat…

Old and Rare Burgundy at Frasca with Danny Haas (Vineyard Brands), Eric Asimov (New York Times) and too many Master Sommeliers to count!

There’s a running joke each year at the Boulder Burgundy Festival. Ever since Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman began inviting leading wine writers to speak at the gathering — Ray Isle (Food & Wine), Master of Wine Jancis Robinson (Financial Times), and this year’s keynote speaker Eric Asimov (New York Times), they all say the same thing.

“It’s my first time to Boulder and my first time dining at Frasca,” they all have said, “and I’ve come on the one night of the year that Frasca is a French restaurant.”

They are referring to the fact that Frasca, one of the most acclaimed fine dining destinations in the U.S., is actually an Italian restaurant with a focus on the foods and wines of Friuli.

Of course, it’s no secret that chef and co-owner of the restaurant Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson studied and cooked in France before his interest shifted to Italy and Friuli more specifically. He also cooked at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in California where he met Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey (above, right) who would become his business partner when they opened Frasca together in 2004.

So it’s safe to say that guests at the festival’s Saturday night dinner were in good hands!

It was quite an evening: Between an unbelievable selection of old and rare Burgundy selected by legendary importer Danny Haas (Vineyard Brands), keynote speaker Eric Asimov, and too many Master Sommeliers to count, the event was one of the festival’s best ever.

Photo by M. Thurk Photography.