Vintages Bordeaux Meets Burgundy Tasting 2010

I recently attended the Vintages Bordeaux Meets Burgundy tasting at the King Edward Meridian hotel in downtown Toronto. This is the tasting event that I look forward to every year.  Not only is it a great way to taste wines from classic French regions but the food is always fabulous and plentiful! Last year's event only featured wines from Burgundy. I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with this year's Burgundy setup at the show. The show last year had many more diverse wines to try and some of the winemakers were there pouring their wines.  Nevertheless, there were some interesting finds. This year they were also conducting a silent auction of wine gift baskets. Because I'm a sucker for packaging, I made sure to put in my bid on a few of them. I wanted those leather journals and corkscrews that came with the wine. Sadly I didn't win. Someone outbid me at the last second. Oh well, the last thing I needed was more wine in the house!  Whenever I enter the room of a tasting event, I always become a bit overwhelmed because of the high number of wines that are being poured and the limited time I have to try them.  This year I tried a different strategy. Usually everyone starts off with the white wines so those tables are always crowded. I decided to do the unthinkable - gasp! I started with the red! Not just any red - Burgundian Grand Crus. I started straight from the top. :) Well, the strategy didn't end up working for long.  I eventually just mixed it all up - red, white...no dessert wines yet though. I always save those until the end. I ended up treating this tasting more as a social event. The last big tasting I went to was the Bordeaux event at the Four Seasons and it was really hard work. I left that tasting with my teeth feeling like they were beaten up in an back alley somewhere. I decided to just take it easy and have fun at this one. It didn't bother me that I didn't make my way through the entire booklet of wines to taste. I even went and had seconds (okay, also some thirds!) of some wines that I just enjoyed drinking.

Some of my personal highlights of the night:


Chateau Suduiraut 2006 Sauternes
$49 for 375 ml (Bordeaux)

Chateau Margaux 2006
$799 (Bordeaux)

Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 2005
$995 (Bordeaux)

Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc 2006
$109 (Bordeaux)

Domaine de la Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2005
$169 (Burgundy)

Fernand & Laurent Pillot Pommard Les Charmots 1er Cru 2006
$79 (Burgundy)

Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2006
$159 (Burgundy)

I wanted to try the Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2005 but I forgot to go back to get a sample! Imagine that. I like saying the name. It sounds very aristocratic - Com-te-sse de La-lande. Perhaps a character from the movie "Dangerous Liasons".

I can honestly say that I've never tasted so many expensive wines before. These were some pretty high prices! $995...$799... Did they taste that expensive?  They were delicious wines but for that money, they didn't do anything miraculous to me like make me grow to be my desired 5'11 or bring me a truck load of Jimmy Choo handbags.  For those prices, I could have a small collection of some great wines.  I could certainly purchase an airplane ticket and go to Bordeaux myself. Chances of me getting into some of the grand estates for a visit would be slim, unless The Yummy Grape becomes a worldwide sensation! It would be fun to get a group of people to purchase a bottle of one of those wines above and enjoy a thimble of a taste. :) How much is too much to pay for wine? Is there even such a thing? Who are these people that are purchasing these wines for such prices? How does one get invited to their place for dinner?