With 6 months, work on making connections in the meantime that might be able to help you. Cold emails really don’t yield much these days. Everything in Burgundy works based on who you know. You need the help of a distributor or importer or frequent visitor.
But there’s really no substitute for going to Paulee or another event and meeting the winemakers directly and making those connections yourself. Lots of doors open that way. Networking 101.
How hard is it to attend Le Paulee for a rando like me?
FWIW, we started cold emailing producers about 3 months before our trip to France. Didn’t know any of the producers, hadn’t been in Burgundy before. Our success rate was about 30-40%, but we managed to fill our three days there with visits relatively easily.
If direct visits don’t work out, bigger shops such as Caves Carriere (now in Nuits St Georges) or Grands Bourgognes in Brochon regularly run open tastings with a number of producers present. And then you have various Fetes viticoles …
Curious, which ones in Burgundy were cold emailed? It sounded like like you knew Jeremy from before and WK set you up with Benoit?
Yup, these weren’t cold emailed - although I didn’t know Jeremy beforehand, I just cold PM’d him.
All the other visits were arranged just by checking out the producer websites and cold emailing them.
As a matter of fact, we had some late replies from producers we contacted earlier that we’d be welcome to visit them, but at that point our schedule was already full!
@moderators can this move to the Wine Tourism thread now that its more general and not a time sensitive specific question?
As hard as placing an order for tickets online.
Well I hear it’s fine, if you’ve got the time. And the ten to get yourself in.
You buy a ticket.
This might help you in contacting wineries. Growers and merchants - Bourgogne wines Start with wineries that speak English (quite a number do) where you know the wines very well.
I just assumed it might be difficult to get a ticket
It’s not. They go on sale in December and it’s only hard to get tickets if you wait until a week or two before the event. You’ll be able to buy tickets for the tastings and gala easily for the first month or so. The ticketed winemaker dinners will sell out before it even gets to Amex platinum customers but they are typically not a good value.
Good point. I was at La Paulee this year and talked with a few producers in length but didn’t really exchange contacts as I didn’t have a plan for a visit at the time. I guess I’ll have a better chance next time after La Paulee next year.
Many have websites or AI can find you an email address. So if there are any that you spoke with, you can reach out that way and remind them of your conversation and ask them about a potential visit.
The first time I ever went to a Paulee Grand Tasting (2007 tasting 2004s) I met Philippe Prost from Bouchard and Marie-Christine Mugneret and told them I was coming to Burgundy in a few months - went that May. Got wonderful tastings at both places. That was a long time ago, but my guess is that you might make contact from some wineries that you could visit.