Seated Wine Tasting
Friday, April 10
Tasting 7 to 8:30 PM
Followed by Wines by the Glass/Bottle

Burgundy & Bordeaux: Two Visions of French Wine

Few comparisons in wine are more instructive — or more contested — than Burgundy against Bordeaux. Two regions less than 300 miles apart, yet shaped by entirely different forces into entirely different ideas about what wine should be.

Burgundy was mapped by monks and fragmented by revolution. Its classification of individual vineyard plots reflects centuries of careful observation, then Napoleon's inheritance laws dividing those plots among heirs until ownership became almost impossibly complex. The result is a region where place is everything — and where the same vineyard name on two different bottles can mean two very different wines.

Bordeaux was built on trade. Its famous 1855 classification — still largely intact today — ranked châteaux not by soil or tradition but by the prices their wines commanded at market. Commerce shaped its identity, and commerce has driven its evolution ever since.

This tasting puts the two philosophies side by side. Not to declare a winner, but to let the contrast do the talking.

Here is the planned lineup:

Burgundy

• Mâcon La Roche Vineuse 'Vieilles Vignes' 2022 — Château de la Greffière | Chardonnay, Mâconnais
• Saint-Aubin 'Les Combes' Premier Cru 2023 — Philippe Colin | Chardonnay, Côte de Beaune
• Beaune Premier Cru 2022 — Louis Jadot | Pinot Noir, Côte de Beaune

Bordeaux

• St. Émilion 2013 — Château Lassègue | Merlot-dominant blend, Right Bank
• Margaux 'Les Plantes' 2020 — Château Durfort-Vivens | Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant, Left Bank
• Pauillac Grand Cru Classé 2021 — Château Pédesclaux | Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant, Left Bank