I know tickets have already gone on sale, I was surprised not to see a thread already.
All in all, about what I expected. When I visited burgundy in November a number of producers told me they weren’t going to be able to make it this year for various reasons. Many of my favorites Dujac, Lafarge, Clerget, Leflaive, Roulot, Roumier, Rousseau, Duroche, Faiveley, Clos des Lambrays, Genot-Boulanger, Trapet aren’t coming this year. It is good to see some new producers Lamy, Leroux, Bruno Clair, Moreau-Naudet, Vocoret make it but all in all I think this is about the skinniest lineup in the past 20yrs.
I will probably attend the verticals on Friday and the main tasting Saturday afternoon, but that’s about it. I did the gala in 2020 which was a ton of fun, but it is still just a bit too much chaos for me. I’d love to know how many people they seat for the $9,500 Liger-Belair dinner…but a man has got to know his limitations.
Perhaps the verticals, maybe the gala, assuming things are calm enough to do large group events again. Just as happy to do smaller dinners outside though. The LA Lafon dinner looks group, I wish the D’Angerville dinner had some back vintages!
Evan and I were discussing earlier. I am not signing up for any events as of now. I am a maybe on the gala dinner but I don’t know if it will be good or not. Have to see who is attending.
I am planning to put together some smaller dinners. If others are interested / are aware of dinners let me know.
I’m doing some of the events. Gala will depend on whether or not enough of my friends go to put together a fun table. There will be some big fun dinners put together privately as well I’m sure.
I’m struggling with whether to attend. Normally I love the Grand Tasting as a way to really get a handle on a vintage and discover a few new things. While I agree the list is thin on old stand-bys, the chance to taste a bunch of new and/or up and coming producers is attractive. But … very disappointing that this is mostly 2018s. Weird. I attended in 2020 and that was all 2017s. Is next year ‘19s? Or 20s? It’s bad enough when La Paulee is a year behind release so that much is already gone from the market. But two years?
If it weren’t so 2018 dominant, I’d much more likely attend. The d’Angerville seminar would be interesting, and the Off the Grid tasting has been excellent (if crowded) in the past. This year’s Verticals line up actually looks better than it has been the last few years.
But then there’s Covid. Spitting with several hundred people who just flew in from around the world … not sure I can get comfortable with that yet.
I have found the Grand Tasting to be more crowded than the Verticals, but given the choices this year, it seems like more people are leaning towards the Verticals. The picture is from the Grand Tasting in 2018 and as you can see it is pretty crowded, similar to a La Fête Grand Tasting. The gentlemen in the foreground need no introduction. The Gala makes the Grand Tasting seem tame.
I attended several times when it was held in San Francisco, and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately cannot make the trip to SoCal for this one. Curious why they moved it?
Gala is more about the BYO than the wineries. And the chances are you will taste wines there that you will never have the chance to taste again.