Each year our guests tell us that one of the most memorable events at the festival is the Grand Tasting, where more than 200 wines are poured by the distributors who represent these elite properties in the U.S.

Not only do you get to taste the 200+ labels at the same event (which, in itself, makes the ticket cost an excellent value) but you get to experience these wines with some of the most knowledgable wine professionals working in the U.S. today.

Like all of the festival volunteers, these women and men are among the top wine pros in the country and they literally live and breathe Burgundy. Most of them have traveled to the properties they represent and most are veterans of the Burgundy wine trade. And because they work so closely with the producers, they are intimately familiar with the wineries, the winemakers, and the vineyards where the wines are grown and raised.

There’s nowhere else in the world that such a simpatico group of Burgundy lovers convenes and there couldn’t be a better way to “wrap your mind” around Burgundy and its wines than the Boulder Burgundy Festival Grand Tasting.

Click here for registration details.

He’s been called “a legendary sommelier emeritus.”

“The Mr. Miyagi of Sommeliers.”

“The Obi-Wan Kenobi of sommeliers or the Coach K of wine-tasting coaches.”

“A guiding light for many of the Masters.”

His name is Jay Fletcher, a Master Sommeliers, one of the country’s most renowned wine professionals, and one of the wine trade’s most engaging and entertaining raconteurs.

And each year, he leads what is arguably the most compelling seminar at the festival: The Old and Rare event.

There’s plenty of jaw-dropping Burgundy poured at the festival. But the flight Jay presents each year is unique: He selects the wines from the Guild of Sommelier’s cellar, a collection of older Burgundy wines that were donated to the association by an extremely generous collector.

It’s one of those rare occasions when guests get the opportunity to taste a truly impressive flight of older wines — not something you get to do every day.

But the icing on the cake is Jay’s storytelling and his immense abilities as a taster and raconteur of wine. If you are a Burgundy lover, this is one you really don’t wan’t to miss!

Click here for registration info. Just a few spots open.

Don’t get us wrong: There’s not one event at the Boulder Burgundy Festival that you should miss.

From the Old and Rare tasting that kicks off the festival to the Sunday seminar (this year with Eric Asimov and Raj Parr) and Grand Tasting that close the gathering, the Boulder Burgundy Festival represents an entirely unique way to taste, trade notes, and make new friends with Burgundy lovers and connoisseurs.

But if there’s one event that you really want to make sure you get in on, it’s got to be the Paulée Inspired Lunch that takes place each year on the Saturday of the festival at Boulder’s celebrated Flagstaff House, one of the country’s best restaurants, with sweeping views of Boulder and the Rockies.

If you’ve had any experience with Burgundy, you already know that La Paulée de Meursault is a convivial lunch served each year in the countryside to celebrate harvest’s end. The word paulée literally means a pan full [of food] and the idea is that everyone pitches in — with wines and foods — to make a sort of Burgundian potluck.

At the BBF, the Saturday Flagstaff House event marks a special occasion each year when collectors generously share rare and older wines from their cellars. It really captures the convivial, community spirit of what the festival is all about. And all of the volunteer sommeliers lend a hand in pouring the wines (like the flight above) for the guests. It’s just one of the great events each year at the festival. But it’s one of the ones you don’t want to miss. Even if you don’t have wine to share, you are always welcome at the Paulée Inspired Lunch. And that’s what the festival is all about.

Click here for registration details (just a few spots open at this point!).

One of the events that festival guest remember fondly each year is the Chablis Brunch held on the last day of the gathering. At host restaurant and Boulder Burgundy Festival partner PMG this year, wines and home-style comfort foods were served up generously for guests.

The weather was simply gorgeous last Sunday: One of those beautiful, crisp fall mornings in Boulder on the Pearl Street Mall where the restaurant is located. Savory brunch casseroles and kale salad, among other dishes, were ideal pairings for the flight of mineral-driven Chablis wines that were poured by festival sommeliers.

Many Burgundy-focused events tend to present the wines in a sterile setting without the support of food pairings. The concept of this gathering is to break that mold and show how our appreciation of these extraordinary wines is only enhanced by getting to taste them in gastronomic context.

The Sunday morning meal is also a great way to wind down on the last day of the festival. Thanks to everyone who took part last Sunday. We’ll look forward to seeing you next year!

What an incredible seminar and tasting yesterday, led by Master of Wine and author Jancis Robinson (center), legacy Burgundy producer Étienne de Montille (left), and Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman (right), founder of the Boulder Burgundy Festival!

The three presenters spoke to a sold-out crowd of more than 150 persons, the largest gathering for a seminar and guided tasting in the festival’s six-year history.

Guests included some of the country’s leading Burgundy collectors and wine professionals, including a number of Master Sommeliers.

Following Jancis’ superb overview of whole-cluster fermentation, including its history and current usage among winemakers today, she asked winemaker Étienne to comment on the practical applications and challenges of whole-cluster fermentation in his own wines and in winemaking in general.

Earlier in the day, Jancis’ husband Nicholas Lander (a venerated food writer in his own right) had joked wryly: “Whole-cluster fermentation? A topic that’s surely on everyone’s minds!”

But there couldn’t have been a more rapt crowd at yesterday’s marquee event.

We’ll be reporting more on this and other events soon. Please stay tuned! And congratulations again to Brett and his team for a fantastic festival and heartfelt thanks to Jancis and Étienne for their participation and invaluable contribution!

An unforgettable dinner last night at Frasca where Étienne de Montille presented an extraordinary flight of his family’s wines paired with Chef Lachlan Patterson’s menu. Here are a couple of quick highlights… stay tuned for more.

An unforgettable dinner last night at Arcana, where Richard Betts MS, Jay Fletcher MS, Lynn Fletcher, and Carla Rzeszewski poured an incredible flight of wines (check back for the complete flight).

One of the most remarkable things was that guest of honor, winemaker Étienne de Montille, decided to pour wine all night instead of being seated for the meal. It was wonderful to watch guests ooo and aaa as Étienne approached their tables.

And of course, there was a already a team of celebrity sommeliers hard at work. That’s Richard Betts and Carla Rzeszewski in the photo above.

In conversation, Étienne spoke about something he had said earlier in the day at the Old and Rare seminar.

Recounting something his father, the inimitable Hubert de Montille used to say, Étienne told the group that “we,” the winemakers and grape growers of Burgundy, “are here to serve the land [of Burgundy], one of the most extraordinary places to farm in the world.”

“The word serve in French comes from servir, which comes from serf, my father used to say. The serfs were people who ‘belonged’ to the land. The owners of the land would change. But the serfs always remained. We are the serfs of Burgundy today,” he said.

One of the greatest things about the Boulder Burgundy Festival is how guests get to interact with people like Étienne.

We’ll be posting more in-depth stories from this year’s festival as soon as we have a moment to catch our breath!