Annual Burgundy Immersion Trip with Sommelier Scholarship Fund
January 30, 2025
by Raj Vaidya
Many of you know about the non-profit organization that Daniel founded back in 2013, known today as Sommelier Scholarship Fund, an initiative that is very near and dear to me. I was excited to be a part of it this past month as we hosted two groups of sommeliers from the US on their first trips to Burgundy and Champagne respectively.
The opportunity to visit the storied domaines and houses as well as the young upstarts and new generations amongst the wineries we are lucky to work closely with is something we almost take for granted. For most people, consumer or professional alike, those doors are often firmly shut. Daniel was inspired to make sure that he shared his access as well as his relationships and immense knowledge with scores of young sommeliers over the years of La Paulée and La Fête du Champagne, and this passion has continued via the programming we plan for the scholars on these trips. So I thought I’d share some highlights from our week in Burgundy...
We kicked off shortly after the new year with four sommeliers from around the country, (New Orleans, Cincinnati and New York were all represented) by heading to Beaune and visiting the new Cité du Vin museum exhibit, a magnificent way to introduce the concept of Burgundy’s terroir and vignoble. I highly recommend checking this exhibit out!
Cité du Vin
Over the subsequent days we showed the group the great vineyards of Burgundy: Le Montrachet, Romanée-Conti, Musigny, Chambertin etc, while visiting some of the top producers and tasting (mostly) their 2023 vintage from barrel.
A few highlights;
We started by visiting the historic cellars of Drouhin with Veronique Drouhin herself, seeing the 500 year old manual press they have restored. An amazing lesson in history.
We visited the Clos des Ducs in Volnay with Guillaume d’Angerville, who shared a stellar bottle of 1990 from that vineyard with us, giving the scholars a sense of the generosity and kindness of the region.
Scholars with Guillaume D’Angerville
Scholars with Veronique Drouhin Boss
A visit to the venerable Domaine Armand Rousseau gave the scholars a deeper understanding of the terroirs of Gevrey-Chambertin, and the lovely and warm Cyrielle Rousseau delighted the group by sharing her personifications of the diSerent wines we tasted from barrel (especially fun was her characterization of Ruchottes Chambertin as ‘Casper the friendly ghost’, an example of something fun and whimsical but fleeting and not obvious.)
We finished the week in Chablis, with the inimitable Vincent Dauvissat, who shared with us the nuances of his various plots of Premier and Grand Crus and an older bottle of Daniel’s and my favorite wine, Les Preuses!
With Vincent Dauvissat
We have received amazing feedback from the scholars regarding the experience and their learnings. Most importantly, especially with a ‘fancy’ region like Burgundy, the fact that we are able to show these young professionals the fun, human, historic and culturally rich side of the region is the most rewarding by far. They break through the window pane of expense, rarity and pretense and see the vignerons for what they are; farmers and artisans.
We rely on generous donations from our patrons in order to fund these initiatives, and to help raise some funds this year, Edouard and Nikita will be leading a group of sommeliers on a fundraising bike ride in Bordeaux this spring. If you would like to support our efforts and cheer on the team as they traverse 200KM in 2 days, you can find a link to donate at our website, www.sommelierscholarship.org.
Romanée Conti in Vosne Romanée