The granddaddy of them all! Come on out for our joyous annual celebration in wine country. We’ll be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11-5 with a great line-up of Scott Paul Pinot and Burgs to taste, including your chance to taste and buy 2008 Audrey Futures.

Your $10 admission fee is refundable with a purchase of 3 bottles or more, and includes a selection of yummy cheeses, patés and charcuterie.

Here’s a quick peek inside the 2009 La Paulée de Meursault – 700 people packed into the cellars of the Chateau de Meursault for the world’s most famous wine party. It’s an afternoon of great wine, food, song and perhaps the most festive atmosphere anywhere on the planet!

Great to be back in Oregon, though it will surely take another day or two until I feel semi-human again. Jet-lag and travel-weariness seems to take a bigger toll on me as the years pass by…

Lots of tastings to catch up on. A few hundred ’08s and maybe a 75 or so ’09s during my stay (not to mention the couple hundred or so old burgs from the two Paulées. My palate is fried. It was nice to focus on some great British beers while in Manchester on the way back!)

Benjamin Leroux in his cellars below Beaune

The ’08s at Benjamin Leroux were ridiculously good across the board. Standouts for me that day were the Puligny-Montrachet, the Volnay Clos de la Cave des Ducs, and his two new Grand Crus – the Clos St. Denis and the Mazoyères Chambertin. A star is born. Period.

Ditto for the Huber-Verdereau ’08s. His village Volnay and 1er Cru Fremiets were outstanding, and his Pommard Bertins is perhaps his best effort yet. Thiébault Hubert continues to lead the way for young Biodynamic winegrowers in Burgundy.

Some old soldiers at Buisson-Charles

Patrick Essa at Buisson-Charles in Meursault was in fine form. Despite losing about 40% of their crop due to hail in ’08, the wines are stunning. Only 18 barrels of Meursault Vieilles Vignes instead of the usual 50 barrels, but the juice rocks. The 1er Crus are elegant, long, and very pure – a toss-up between the Goutte d’Or and the Bouches-Chères for the best of the day. A quick look at the ’09s here was very promising, though way too early to tell as malo was just starting…

I had the great privilege to once again taste through the cellars at Domaine de Vogüé with the legendary François Millet. The ’08s were all through malo, and had retained their freshness and minerality while adding some richness and apparent fruit sweetness. From the Chambolle village to the Musigny Vieilles Vignes, each wine was truly a magnificent example. Perhaps most surprising was the Bonnes Mares, which I found very silky and fresh, especially for an appellation that I normally find brooding and backward…

Next up was a study in elegance and finesse, otherwise known as tasting at Jean-Marc Millot’s cellar on the outskirts of Nuits-St. Georges. Sadly there is precious little of the ’08s (2 barrels of the Grands Echezeaux, a whopping 5 of the Vosne-Romanée les Suchots), but the purity and prettiness of the wines is mind-blowing throughout the range.

It’s always great to take the 1-hour drive down to Fuissé to taste at Domaine Thibert. As of 2007 they have started bottling 7 different cuvées of Pouilly-Fuissé, including five single-vineyard offerings (along with their rockin’ good St. Véran and Macon-Prissé bottlings that continue to be among the most popular wines in our portfolio.) The Pouilly-Fuissé les Vignes Blanches continues to be my favorite of the bunch, but I also loved the Cras, La Côte, les Champs, and Menetrières big time.

Reglisse - the winery kitty at Domaine Thibert

My final tasting this trip was at Thierry & Estelle Violot-Guillemard’s in Pommard – where Thierry continues to be the absolute master of finesse in the appellation. Living proof that Pommard does not have to be harshly tannic and tightly-wound, his 08′s are silky and powerful, despite having lost some 40% of the crop in certain parcels to hail. Ony 4 barrels of the Epenots this year, but what a gorgeous wine. As usual, only one barrel of the Clos Derrière St. Jean, but it is unusually elegant, powerful, pretty and deep all at once. Great stuff!

Then I was off to Manchester for my first in-person Premier League soccer match – details on all that in my next post…

Champagne and Chambolle.  They are magic words, and it was such a hit last year, we’ve decided to do it again! Savvy wine tasters like to kick-start the holiday season by attending festivities at wineries across the Willamette Valley the weekend before Thanksgiving, and they will be rewarded at Scott Paul with bubbles and the best of Burgundy!

25% off all Sigaut wines for the weekend!

We’ll feature the following wines:

Champagne Marc Chauvet Brut Selection

Domaine Anne and Hérve Sigaut 2006 Chambolle-Musingy

Domaine Anne and Hérve Sigaut 2006 Chambolle-Musingy, Fuées 1er

Scott Paul 2007 La Paulée Pinot Noir

Scott Paul 2008 Audrey Pinot Noir

Noon – 5p.m. $10 tasting fee waived with 3 bottle purchase.

If pressed to pick a favorite village, many Burgundy lovers would choose Chambolle-Musigny in the Côte de Nuits – it is in fact Scott’s personal favorite. The wines from Chambolle-Musigny are generally more refined and elegant, and more distinctly “feminine” in character than wines from most other villages in the Côte d’Or.  Anne and Hervé Sigaut are stand-out producers.  Their family has been passionately making wine for generations.

In 2007, we began importing Champagne directly from a small, distinguished producer, Marc Chauvet, in the Champagne region of France, north of Burgundy. The family has been making Champagne from their small estate since 1529.

Please join us!  Cheers!

The quote of the day came from a repeat customer. I had thanked him for his generous order (which included our 06 and 07 La Paulée and 08 Audrey futures). He replied:

“You’re very welcome! My only regret is all the 6-bottle lots we bought before — I wish it had been more. Life got simpler once we decided not to drink any more bad wine. Now it’s just a question of not running out.” Ken R., Portland

Ken R., I am so glad you are saved! Spread the good word.

My head is still reeling from the staggering array of truly amazing old burgundies making the rounds on Tuesday. Many of these were certainly once-in-a-lifetime bottles, as the chances of ever finding another bottle of many of these is virtually nil.

I keep going over my notes, and don’t know where to begin. The Burghound himself, Allen Meadows, was at a dinner I went to last night, and we chatted briefly about some of the wines from La Paulée. He was most blown away by the ’47 Volnay Clos de Chevrey from d’Angerville. I’ve never heard of nor seen another example of Clos de Chevrey – but this wine was absolutely mind-blowing in every way. Purity, texture, complexity of aromas and flavors, vibrancy and life – perhaps the best way to describe it is multi-orgasmic. I can’t wait to see Allen’s notes when he puts them into his on-line data base at some point in the future…

Doug Barzelay, Michael Rockefeller, Allan Meadows, & Michel Boss

The ’23 Bonnes Mares from de Vogüé was also right up there on the mind-blowing scale. It wasn’t Burgundy’s greatest of times in that period between the two world wars (in fact the 30s were pretty much a wash-out), but this wine was captivating. This bottle was apparently from a stash that was hidden from the Germans during WWII (legend has it that many in France constructed false walls in their cellars to keep the good stuff from the marauding nazis) – here’s a shot of the back label that was affixed to the bottle explaining the story (this back label is obviously a more recent addition – the front label is original, as confirmed by the domaine…)

de Vogüé's Jean-Luc Pepin with the '23 Bonnes Mares

The back-label

The ’45 Musigny from de Vogüé was also at the very top of the list. The domaine did not estate-bottle all of their production at that time – they sold some finished wine to others for bottling. This was a version that was bottled by Drouhin. Two years ago at this event we had two magnums of this wine, one bottled at the estate and the other at Drouhin – And as I recall I liked the estate-bottled version slightly better. This was a 750 that was pure silk, with underlying power and absolutely endless length. This remains one of the two or three greatest wines I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

On the white side, the star for me was the ’69 Montrachet from Drouhin. Only Montrachet can do this. At age 40 it was still ridiculously powerful, vibrant, dense, conentrated, amazingly long, and a complexity that escapes words.

I am also a huge fan of old Champagne. It’s always a bit of a crap-shoot – but when you hit that great bottle you have indeed hit the motherlode. The Magnum of ’64 Salon that was going around was in fine form – stunningly fresh, crisp and bright at 45 years of age…

Our hostess - Véronique Drouhin

As you can see in my previous post, the list of wines tasted that day goes on and on and on. Nearly every wine on that list deserves an entry of its own. On any other day, under any other circumstances, anyone would be more than thrilled to have just one or two of these wines to enjoy over the course of a very special meal with freinds and loved ones. Here, it was a literal orgy of great wines, one after another, with barely the time to fully comprehend each wine before someone was putting another old Richebourg or Musigny in your glass. Is it too much? Probably so, but I’m happy to go off the deep end once a year if that’s what it takes to experience these marvelous treasures…

Oh, and we ate pretty well too! Sea Bass Sashimi and smoked Salmon with a spicy Mango Gelée, then Sea Scallops poached in butter over a bed of country sausage (unbelievably great), Truffled Pheasant Boudin, Venison a la Royale, Cheeses, and then Pineapple confit with Vanilla Bourbon ice cream, ans then coffee and truffles. Is it wrong to sometimes just want a good cheesburger? I’m just sayin’…

Here then the list of wines, in order, that made it into my glass at the Paulée in Beaune yesterday. Thoughts, details, and more to follow in a future post. But first the wines…

• ’99 Pol Roger Brut
• ’90 Batard Montrachet – Pernot
• ’00 Clos des Mouches Blanc – Drouhin
• ’93 Chassagne Caillerets – J-M Morey
• ’92 Puligny Referts – Sauzet
• ’86 Clos de Mouches Blanc – Drouhin
• ’95 Chevalier Montrachet – Leflaive
• ’93 Bienvenue Batard – Ramonet
• ’89 Corton – Chandon de Briailles
• ’93 Corton Charlemagne – Latour
• ’99 Puligny Pucelles – Leflaive
• ’92 Musigny Blanc – de Vogüé
• ’93 Batard Montrachet – Sauzet
• ’64 Chevalier Montrachet – Latour
• ’96 Puligny 1er – Chavy-Chouet
• ’82 Montrachet – Prosper-Mafoux
• ’57 Ruchottes – Ramonet
• ’57 Batard Montrachet – Ramonet
• ’90 Meursault Perrières – Ampeau
• ’93 Puligny Folatières – Sauzet
• ’95 Chevalier Montrachet – Geo. Delagrange
• ’71 Montrachet – Drouhin

• ’82 Corton Charlemagne – Bonneau du Martray
• ’96 Maltroie – B. Morey
• ’92 Montrachet – Thenard
• ’69 Montrachet – Drouhin
• ’89 Montrachet – Drouhin

And then we switched to a few reds:

• ’88 Clos de la Roche – Lignier
• ’88 Musigny – Drouhin
• ’78 Clos de Bèze – Clair Dau
• ’90 Volnay Taillepieds – de Montille
• ’92 Vosne-Romanée aux Reginots – Liger-Belair
• ’06 Vosne-Romanée les Brulées – Liger-Belair
• ’99 Charmes Chambertin – Taupenot-Merme
• ’92 Chambolle Charmes – Chezeaux
• ’83 Chambertin – Ponsot
• ’93 Echezeaux – René Engel
• ’90 Corton – Chandon de Briailles
• ’59 Echezeaux – Remoissenet
• ’78 Clos des Mouches – Drouhin
• ’85 Gevrey-Chambertin Combe aux Moines – Fourrier
• ’69 Griotte Chambertin – Drouhin
• ’69 Echezeaux – LeRoy
• ’80 Clos de la Roche – Ponsot

• ’85 Charmes Chambertin – Taupenot-Merme
• ’88 Corton Clos du Roi – Chandon de Briailles
• ’04 La Romanée – Liger-Belair
• ’85 Chambolle-Musigny Fueselottes – Mugneret-Gibourg
• ’80 Musigny – de Vogüé
• ’45 Musigny – de Vogüé
• ’91 Chambolle-Musigny Fuées – Mugnier
• ’91 Echezeaux – Mongeard-Mugneret
• ’85 Corton Bressandes – Chandon de Briailles
• ’66 Romanée-St. Vivant – Cathiard
• ’99 Bonnes Mares – Roumier
• ’47 Volnay Clos de Chevrey – d’Angerville
• ’83 Clos St. Denis – Fourrier
• ’57 Vosne-Romanée Colombiers – Mugneret-Gibourg
• ’62 Clos Vougeot – Mugneret
• ’59 Corton – Meo-Camuzet
• ’49 Musigny – Nicolas
• ’82 La Tâche – DRC
• ’66 Echezeaux – Gouroux
• ’23 Beaune – Alleret
• ’96 La Tâche – DRC
• ’79 Corton Charlemagne – Bonneau de Martray (a palate-cleanser!)

And then a strong finish:

• ’23 Bonnes Mares – de Vogüé
• ’66 Richebourg – DRC
• ’45 Musigny – de Vogüé
• ’21 Richebourg – Faiveley
• ’64 Salon
• ’17 Clos des Lambrays

Not bad for a Tuesday lunch in Beaune. My poor liver! More thoughts and pics to come…

Something the French do exceedingly well – cook an amazing meal for 700 people at the same time. We have all suffered through luke-warm rubber chicken and tasteless filet mignon at what passes for banquet food in America. I don’t know how they do it here, but the food quality is amazing at these large-scale events in Burgundy.

Writer Jordan Mackay and RN74 proprietor Raj Paar

Yesterday at La Paulée de Meursault here is what they came up with for lunch:

• Crawfish salad with a shellfish mousse/custard over frisée, with cubes of foie gras
• Napoleon of Scallops and Langoustines with a vanilla-leek sauce
• Chicken breast with morels, pasta tubes stuffed with ricotta and fresh spinach
• 7-hour slow-cooked medallions of lamb, with a confit of potatoes in goose fat
• Individual cheese service for each attendee
• Charlotte of pears and spice-bread, with hot fudge sauce and pistachio ice cream

This would be an ambitious menu for a small restaurant – but they absolutely nailed it for a banquet of 700! Each dish came to the table perfectly cooked, at the proper temperature (how do they get 700 perfectly hot dishes out at the same time?), and spot-on delicious. I was truly blown-away. Kudos to caterer Fabrice Buguad from Chalon-Sur-Saône, who is a genius-magician in my book.

Cheek-to-Jowl in the Chateau de Meursault

Something the French do not do very well – give a damn about the comfort of anyone at one of these dinners for 700. The 700 attendees are packed into a space that would be comfortable for maybe 250. The chairs are so close together that one can not literally move one’s arms or elbows. The tables are barely wide enough to accommodate two plates, much less the three wine glasses and 673 bottles of wine on each table. There is no circulation of air of any kind, and it is so hot and stuffy that I’m amazed that people aren’t passing out. (Actually, I’ve seen people passing out at the Chateau de Vougeot dinners – the other diners simply lift them up and pass them over their heads and out the door, while everyone gets on with their meals!)

Oh yes, there were some wines. About 80 different wines made it into my glass over the course of the afternoon. I will detail the line-up in a future post. For now I’ll just say that the ’78 Montrachet from Gagnard-Delegrange and the ’29 Volnay from Lafon were the clear stars of the day – in fact both were unforgettable wines that I will continue to taste in memory for as long as I live. (I think that means they were pretty good.)

I’m off to Véronique Drouhin’s private Paulée in Beaune for more bacchanalia – a full report to follow…

15 November, 2009

Foie gras en croute, roast filet of monkfish, roast tenderloin and Pommes Anna, Epoisses, Comté, Citeaux, and a perfect pear tart with almond ice cream. And then we had dinner! Just kidding – that of course WAS dinner at the Bailliage de Pommard last night. Lots of singing and dozens of Ban Bourguignons later, I happily walked home and slept like a baby. The walking home part was made possible be the fact that the annual celebration of Pommard wines was held this year in Volnay! This would have been unthinkable a generation or two ago, when the Volnaysiens and Pommardois were in a constant feud and were truly not friendly toward one another. Normally held in the cellars of the village of Pommard, those facilities are under renovation this year, so they had to move it to the neighboring Salle des Fêtes in Volnay. A fun event, no matter where it’s held…

During lunch yesterday with Thiébault and Marielle Hubert, we decided to make it a goal for all of us to run in the annual Hospices de Beaune semi-marathon next year. What was I thinking? I’ve never run more than four miles. The semi-marathon is a little over 13 miles. Yikes! I was encouraged, however, when I picked up the paper this morning to read that there is also a 10K version (just over 6 miles) – now that might be more realistic…

Friends at La Paulée de Meursault 2003

It seems like the entire world is here for Les Trois Glorieuses, as always. Every major wine writer, sommelier, chef, and Burgundy geek on the planet is here. The legendary chef Jeremiah Tower joined us at the Pommard festivities last night. He and some friends are in the middle of an “eating our way through France” tour. Rough duty, indeed. My friend Jordan Mackay from San Francisco is running around here somewhere, as is Raj Paar from RN74 – we will hook up later at the Paulée (although from following Raj on Twitter it seems that basically his life is one endless Paulée!)

I’ll kick off tomorrow tasting with Benjamin Leroux in his new cellars in Beaune – really looking forward to his range of ‘08s – every wine he touches is just so beautifully made. Then it’s off to La Paulée de Meursault! I will do my best to keep good notes, but as I discovered last time, over the course of 100 or so Grand Crus the quality of the notes (and the legibility) tends to suffer just a bit!

Salud is the Oregon Pinot Noir auction – 42 of the valley’s top producers make a single barrel of their best wine specifically for Salud – and the wines are sold at auction in case lots over the course of two back-to-back events every November. All proceeds go directly to funding health care for Oregon’s vineyard workers – the program is currently serving over 8,000 workers, in fact. We are proud and honored to part of Salud again this year, and urge you to join us for these great events (and to bid high for our wine in the auction!) Tickets and details at http://www.saludauction.org