Opportunities to taste top Burgundy wines in San Francisco are rare and getting rarer. The cost of the wines, the sometimes shrinking quantities in which they are produced, and the degree to which they really don’t need any promotion to sell amongst the collectors, restaurants, and stores all clamoring for allocations means they generally just aren’t made available for tasting. When they are opened on occasion in tasting formats, the producer is seldom in attendance.
That’s why the Grand Tasting at La Paulée de San Francisco event ends up being such a pleasure. Great wines are opened and available for tasting, usually poured by the vignerons themselves. Glassware is excellent, oysters are being shucked, and everyone seems to delight at the chance to experience wines that are increasingly out of reach. While it is expensive relative to other public tastings, the price ends up being reasonable considering the prices of the wines on offer (but more about that in a moment).
The 2026 edition of the event was held in the beautiful enclosed courtyard at One Sansome Street in the city’s Financial District, and featured a fantastic selection of top names from both the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits.
Almost all the wines were from the 2023 vintage, which was an unusual one for Burgundy, in that for the first time in a while, the vines were holding a lot of fruit. Yields were up about 30% on average during a year that was overall warmer than average in France but somehow managed to stay relatively chilly in Burgundy. Summer was stormier than normal, followed by a late-season heatwave that rapidly pushed fruit towards ripeness as harvest approached.
The reports I’ve read about the harvest featured a lot of discussion about yield management for quality, with many producers dropping fruit to try to achieve some balance on their vines, and the results of these efforts were mixed, especially in Pinot Noir. Chardonnay seemed better at handling an increased crop load, leading commentators to suggest the vintage was more consistent for white wines than for red.
The scene at La Paulée de San Francisco 2026
I don’t taste Burgundy regularly enough or with enough depth to have perspective on it from vintage to vintage, but I can say I found a lot of wines to like among these 2023s. The best were racy, vibrant, and had very fine textures.
The prices for these wines are generally eye-popping. I never thought I’d be one of those old guys saying, “I remember when you could actually afford these wines,” but here I am saying I can almost remember when Burgundy was affordable. These prices? They’re just insane. No reliable relationship exists between price and quality in any way that would be useful to the uninformed consumer – I’ve got $40, $80, and $225 white wines rated the same, and I’ve got $145, $820, and $1200 red wines rated the same. The average price of a white wine below is $225. The average price of a red wine below is $350. The fact that only 4 of the roughly 65 wines rated below can be purchased for under $80 just makes me sad.
These are amazing wines, but that hardly matters when only a tiny fraction of the top 1% of consumers can ever hope to drink them.
Tasting Notes
These tasting notes and scores were all made at a walk-around tasting, which is not the optimal format for evaluating wines. Take the tasting notes and scores below with whatever grain of salt you need to, given those circumstances.
White Wines With a Score Around 9.5
2023 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, France
Near colorless in the glass, this wine smells of wet stones and lemon peel. In the mouth, stony, saline flavors have a crystalline clarity and a long, resonant, cistern-like finish. Fantastic acidity. Scintillating in quality, and utterly compelling. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $445. click to buy.
2023 Domaine François Carillon “Les…
Source : https://www.vinography.com/2026/10/burgundy-comes-to-sf-notes-from-la-paulee-de-san-francisco
