Seriously One Of The Greatest Wine Tasting Day Ever

I have been meaning to post for a couple of days but things keep happening to me, (yes, happening to me…so not my fault) faster than I can write about them! Let me see now…where did I leave off? Oh yea, with the collector and my new attitude….

Once every year or two, I get an email inviting me to a Beaune Imports trade tasting, don’t know why they even bother as they know I’ll show up. I love those wines, they are some of my favorites and the wines I drink more than any others. Owner Michael Sullivan imports wines with purity, complexity, amazing structure and lovely acdidty, I like his style and as I have mentioned in a previous post Michael as a person, has helped me grow in this crazy world of wine. I wouldn’t say he took me under his wing as much as I ran behind him asking millions of questions and he almost never made me feel like a giant pain in the ass. He and Randy Kemner are the reason I am in this business, my loyalty to both of them is fierce, and my gratitude immeasurable.

Every once in a while along with the invitation to the tasting I am also invited to a post tasting group dinner, I’m pretty sure it is Michael’s way of thanking everyone for their support but I just pretend it’s because we are bestest friends….(shaking my head) poor man. I have never turned down an invitation to either the tasting or the after party, (truth be told I planned my wedding around a Beaune tasting….yes, yes I did) so when the invite came this time I accepted without hesitation. “Oh you would like us to join you and Etienne, (of Domaine de Montille, Deux Montille and Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet) for dinner where you are going to feed us fabulously, bring big bottles of older vintage wines and I get to hang out with a famous winemaker and one of my favorite people on the planet?.....I’ll have to think about it”….I may be a ditz but a jackass I am not, always the first to show and the last to leave!

So on Tuesday I got to taste through Burgundy from three of my favorite estates, drink Champagne with French fries and shell fish, sit with a collector and taste wines I could only dream of, had an epiphany about pleasure and wine and we still had dinner to go, man-oh-man what a day!

I ate very little at dinner, I was just so overwhelmed by the whole day and I was sitting next to Etienne who was being charming as all get out, he was cracking me up and talking to me about the wines we were drinking, I would glance over at Amy from time to time and we were both pretty much vibrating with excitement and shooting each other, “Can you even believe this is real” looks. A day I will never forget and to Michael I humbly say, Thank You.

Wines at dinner:
2001 Agrapart Cuvee Venus
1999 Dagueneau Silex (Magnum)
2001 Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre
2005 Corton Charlemagne (forgot the house)
1983 Domaine de Montille Pommard Rugiens (Magnum)
1995 Clos Rougeard Poyeux
2004 Dagueneau Jurancon
Seriously one of the greatest wine days of my life.