La Fete Du Champagne 2021
Love Champagne? While many people reserve Champagne for special occasions, others enjoy Champagne on a weekly basis.
The 2021 La Fete du Champagne is an excellent time for Champagne-lovers to taste a variety of producers to understand their individual style.
This (typically) week-long celebration includes dinners with producers, educational sessions. One of the more popular events is The Grand Tasting, an excellent opportunity to taste different vintages of a producer’s Champagne.
La Fete du Champagne: The Grand Tasting
Held on November 14th of this year, the tasting provided an opportunity to discover Champagne in all its diversity. Producers (or their representatives) stood at tables to pour and answer questions.
Restauranteur Daniel Boulud was also present, as his Bar Boulud restaurant served tasty appetizers to the hungry crowd.
La Fete du Champagne: Origins in Burgundy
The French La Paulée was launched by Meursault-based wine producer Jules Lafon in 1923. Called La Paulée de Meursault, the objective was to celebrate the end of harvest.
Held in his cold cellar, Lafon’s fellow vigneron friends brought their best bottles, and together enjoyed a harvest feast.
Today, the Burgundian La Paulée de Meursault is under the direction of Philippe Ballot, President of La Paulée de Meursault, and an owner of Domaine Ballot Millot.
Held in the historic Chateau de Meursault, it is a decidedly glamorous event frequented by Burgundy’s elite wine trade. The protocol is for each guest to bring the best wine to share with others at the accompanying gourmet feast.
Daniel Johnnes and the American "La Paulee"
Daniel Johnnes and Peter Liem: Creating the La Fete Du Champagne
Daniel Johnnes and Peter Liem: Creating the La Fete Du Champagne
Seeing the interest of Americans in fine wines, Daniel Johnnes and Peter Liem, a highly respected author of Champagne, the Essential Guide banded together to make this a reality.
For many years, the American-born Daniel Johnnes, Wine Director for Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group, attended the La Paulée in Meursault.
The experience gave him the inspiration to launch a wine festival in the USA modeled after the Meursault-based La Paulée.
The high point of the American La Paulée celebrations is the Gala Dinner. Guests bring one bottle or more of treasured wines from their collections to share with others.
Just a few of these fine, rare vintage-dated bottles can be priced at several thousand dollars, and even more. That is, if they were even available for sale.
La Paulée USA alternates each year between San Francisco and New York. The theme of the various events can change from year to year.
One year in San Francisco, a more affordable walk-around tasting called “Off Grid” was held so that guests could try Pinot Noir from newer or lesser known producers.
Higher priced walk-around events often consist of well-known producers pouring different vintages of their wines.
The lunches, usually involving a famous producer pouring different vintages or select vineyard plots of wine along with the meal, are always popular, as are the dinners.
You can read the original story in Forbes here.
Virtual Tasting
Virtual tastings and seminars are a new feature of La Fete du Champagne. Initially created to keep the event going during the pandemic, these virtual tastings are now excellent ways for people all over the world to take part.
This link will take you to an example of a virtual tasting I attended last year for Krug Champagne.
I was actually in the Daniel Johnnes office, but the video went live to Champagne lovers who purchased the Champagne package and could taste along with Olivier Krug.
