Boulder Burgundy Festival

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Welcome back, sponsor Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP!

Above, from left: George Berg (Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti managing and founding partner), Kathleen Alt (partner), Patrick Perrin (partner), and Brett Zimmerman (Boulder Wine Merchant).

The Boulder Burgundy Festival is thrilled to welcome back sponsor Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP, one of our most cherished partners and friends.

From the Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti website.

Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP is a full service law firm offering a wide range of legal services to both corporate clients and individuals alike. Since our founding in 2001 with 5 attorneys, we have grown to 40 attorneys specializing in a variety of different practice areas. The attorneys at BHGR offer a depth of experience and expertise in the law related to business, construction, criminal defense, the environment and water, litigation, public entities, real estate, trusts and estates. In addition to our main Boulder office, we also have an office in Denver to better reach and serve our clients along the Front Range and across the country.

Although we may have grown in size, we continue to provide the same personalized attention that we always have in a relaxed atmosphere. We pride ourselves on having legal knowledge and experience that matches our more expensive Denver-based and national competitors, but unlike these larger firms we treat our clients like the neighbors, business professionals, and friends that they are. We also know that one size doesn’t fit all. So, we offer advice tailored to meet to our clients’ individualized legal needs and goals. We place a premium on building long standing client relationships and on achieving our clients’ goals in a timely and cost effective manner.

Image via the Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti Facebook.

Posted on October 11, 2017October 13, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Welcome back, sponsor Jennifer Egbert Real Estate!

The organizers of the Boulder Burgundy Festival are thrilled to welcome back sponsor Jennifer Egbert and Jennifer Egbert Real Estate, one of the Boulder area’s premier realtors.

From the Jennifer Egbert Real Estate website:

Jennifer Egbert is an award-winning, top-producing Boulder Realtor with over eleven years of experience. Her commitment to her clients, enthusiasm and determination, drive her to be at the forefront of the real estate industry. Jennifer is a licensed residential agent that specializes in the Boulder, Colorado market. She is the leading expert in Boulder Luxury neighborhoods, the best builders, and most current market conditions. Her advantage is not only her expertise and unparalleled marketing but also her ability to guide her clients through the transaction with the least amount of stress and anxiety as possible.

Welcome back, Jennifer and team! We are looking forward to tasting with you!

Image via the Jennifer Egbert Real Estate Facebook.

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Taste more than 200 top wines from Burgundy at the Grand Tasting

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.

Posted on October 3, 2017October 11, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Welcome Front & Center Marketing, the festival’s newest sponsor!

Above: Avi Scheinbaum is the founder and CEO of Front & Center Marketing, the festival’s newest sponsor.

Front & Center is a Boulder-based marketing firm that specializes in natural foods.

Its services include: In-store demos, field marketing, consumer outreach, trade shows, new product launches, go-to market strategy, consulting, and events.

Entrepreneur magazine called it one of “top 30 startups to watch” in 2015.

“Front & Center Marketing,” wrote the editors, “offers a flexible work environment for those people that are passionate about starting a career in nutrition, personal training or fitness, among other related industries. Most of the team works part time, with many being single moms. This sort of schedule helps build financial security while allowing the flexibility needed for child care. Because of this environment, Front & Center Marketing has tripled in size from 2012 to 2013.”

The organizers of the Boulder Burgundy Festival are thrilled to have Avi and her team on board for 2017.

Welcome, Avi! We are looking forward to tasting with you!

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Sunday Chablis Brunch at Arcana: The perfect coda to a weekend of great Burgundy

From the first year Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman organized the gathering, the mission of the Boulder Burgundy Festival has been to offer its guests a value-driven Burgundian experience. And there is perhaps no event that better achieves that goal than the Sunday Chablis Brunch, to be held this year at one of Boulder’s favorite food-and-wine destinations, Arcana.

The caliber and breadth of the wines alone is worth the price of admission. And the homey touches that Arcana adds to its world-class food only sweeten the deal.

It’s also the last meal that guests share together before they head to the Sunday Burgundy Seminar (which features New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov and celebrity sommelier Raj Parr this year) and the Grand Tasting.

There couldn’t be a better way to catch up with fellow guests and trade tasting notes: A meal of Sunday-morning comfort food paired with a brilliant selection of mineral-driven, mouth-watering Chardonnay from Chablis.

Click here for registration details for this year’s Chablis Brunch at Arcana.

Image via the Arcana Facebook.

Posted on September 28, 2017October 3, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Old and Rare: One of the festival’s most compelling tastings, led by Master Sommelier (and raconteur) Jay Fletcher

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.

Posted on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017 by Do Bianchi

1999 Clos de Tart is just one of the extraordinary wines to be poured Saturday night…

The festival organizers are thrilled to be working this year with Vineyard Brands, one of the leading importers of top Burgundy wines in the U.S. today. Founded in the 1970s, this family-owned company, with its tightly focused portfolio of fine wines from the Old and New Worlds, has built a reputation as the purveyor of some of Burgundy’s most exclusive domaines. Nearly 30 percent of its wines come from Burgundy, including the legendary Clos de Tart (above), one of only six grand cru monopolies in Burgundy.

Danny Haas, the son of Vineyard Brands’ founder Robert Haas, will join New York Times wine writer and celebrity sommelier Raj Parr for the event at Frasca Food and Wine where the staff will be pouring an extraordinary flight of wines from Vineyard Brands’ “book,” as they say in the trade:

Delamotte NV Champagne Brut Blanc de Blanc
Louis Michel Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir (magnum) 2014
Francois Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Perrières2015
Domaine de Courcel Pommard 1er Cru Grand Clos des Epenots 2007
Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains1999
Grand Cru Clos de Tart Monopole 1999

We are extremely thankful to Vineyard Brands and the Haas family for making this possibile!

Click here to reserve for the Frasca Saturday evening dinner event. What an amazing flight of wines and what an incredible gathering of Burgundy experts!

Click here to read Master of Wine Clive Coats’ profile of the legendary Clos de Tart vineyard, including a tasting note for the 1999.

And here’s a more recently penned post by Andrew Jefford for Decanter with tasting notes from a vertical flight of Clos de Tart stretching back to 1996 (and including the 1999).

What a spectacular wine!

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Paulée Inspired Lunch (Saturday event): The quintessential BBF experience

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!).

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Do Bianchi

Raj Parr to join Eric Asimov for this year’s main event (REGISTRATION NOW OPEN)

This year’s Burgundy seminar (Sunday, October 15) is really shaping up to be an star-studded event: Not only will New York Times wine critic and author Eric Asimov be our keynote speaker but celebrity sommelier and fine wine guru Raj Parr will be joining him for this year’s panel.

Raj (above, center) has taken part in the Boulder Burgundy Festival in years past and we are really excited to welcome him back.

Hands down, Raj is one of the world’s leading experts on the wines of Burgundy and his wine list at RN74 (named after the famed Route Nationale 74 that runs through the heart of Burgundy, the “Route des Grands Crus”) is widely considered to be one of the best Burgundy programs in the world.

Author, winemaker (with his excellent Domaine de la Côte in Santa Barbara county), and sommelier truly extraordinaire, Raj is also one of the most accessible and approachable wine professionals working in the U.S. The best part of having him with us is getting to interact and taste with him. You’ll see him at other events as well: In the past, he’s poured at the Paulée lunch and other tastings as well. Such a treat to have him with us.

REGISTRATION FOR THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL IS NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN.

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Do Bianchi