London Burgundy Week highlights: How it worked...

guests-sharing-Burgundy-bottles-and-enjoying-the-Paulée.jpg — Guests sharing Burgundy bottles and enjoying the Paulée.

(Image credit: Ian Mill Picture)

Top winemakers and hundreds of wines have helped the UK capital to celebrate its first ‘London Burgundy Week’.

In June, Cabotte restaurant joined with several of UK’s biggest wine merchants to host London Burgundy Week.

Instigator-of-the-London-Burgundy-Week-Jason-Haynes-with-collector-and-Cabotte%E2%80%99s-investor-Ian-Mill-QC.jpg — Instigator of the London Burgundy Week Jason Haynes with collector and Cabotte’s investor Ian Mill QC.

Jason Haynes, mastermind behind London Burgundy Week, spoke about what motivated him to organise the weeklong event.

‘The UK is a really important market for Burgundy and, whilst we have en primeur week in January, we don’t have anything to celebrate or promote Burgundy the other eleven months of the year.’

See Decanter’s coverage on Burgundy en primeur

Aside from promoting Burgundy in general, Haynes praised progress made by a new generation of winemakers over the last 10-25 years.

Fittingly, the week kicked-off with a dinner hosted by Maxime Cheurlin, a young winemaker for Domaine Georges Noëllat.

Cheurlin showcased his long-anticipated 2015 vintage. Cabotte’s head chef, Edward Boarland, put together a special menu of classic Burgundian dishes to complement the wines.

Day two of London Burgundy Week – Burgundy’s New Generation Winemakers’ Dinner.

During the week, Cabotte turned into a lively hub hosting lunches, tastings and dinners all celebrating the diversity of Burgundy.

Katy Andersen from Lay & Wheeler said, ‘The opportunity as a long time Burgundy specialist to celebrate Burgundy wines at a restaurant devoted to Burgundy, sharing the wines with the winemaker himself and our customers, seemed too good to be true.’

There were lots of 2015s, and it was the whites that stood out – which was a nice eye-opener

The week concluded with the Grande Paulée.

Guests brought bottles and magnums of their favourite Grand Cru and Premier Cru to share with other Burgundy lovers. Ten lucky Decanter readers were also offered the opportunity to join in the celebrations.

Gearoid-Devaney-Jason-Haynes-singing-the-typical-song-of-the-Paulee.jpg — Co-founder of Cabotte, Gearoid Devaney MS and Jason Haynes along with guests singing the traditional Paulée song.

‘It was really interesting, there were a lot of 2015s,’ said Haynes, who was also a judge at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards and sat on the Burgundy panel.

‘The typical consensus is that this vintage is great for the reds but less interesting for the whites. However, after tasting 300 wines it was actually the whites that stood out – which was a nice eye-opener.’