This year’s The La Paulée Burgundy Festival in San Francisco begins February 16th and runs through March 3rd and the list of sommeliers at this year’s event is impressive. These sommeliers will travel from New York City, Chicago, Napa, Stockholm just to name a few places. But our favorite on the list is from Bluffton, South Carolina. We are thrilled our very own Jesse Rodriguez of Montage Palmetto Bluff will be a guest sommelier at this year’s festival. This festival celebrates extraordinary wines from near and far with a week full of wonderful events. Throughout this year’s festival, Jesse will take part in quite a few events. To start, Jesse will be the guest sommelier at the Verticals Tasting on Friday, March 2nd. He will also be a guest sommelier at the Grand Tasting as well as the Gala Dinner on Saturday, March 3rd.
The La Paulée Burgundy Festival was founded by Daniel Johnnes. Johnnes fell in love with French culture during a trip to France in college. After graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in French, Johnnes worked in restaurants around France before returning to New York City. While working with the team at Montrachet in Tribeca, Johnnes began wine dinners that hosted the most talented winemakers. These dinners grew into La Paulée de New York, which offered “wines and winemakers of Burgundy through a series of specialized seminars, tastings and dinners”. And thus began the celebration of La Paulée across the United States in cities like New York, San Francisco and even Aspen.
For more information on this year’s events, be sure to check out their website at www.lapaulee.com.