9th Edition of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot

June 2016: We felt very privileged to be invited to join a couple of events at the 9th edition of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, a music and wine festival that brings together amateurs of Bourgogne wine and music to raise funds to support young artists. David Chan, Concert Master at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, has been artistic director of this festival since 2008. Through the participation of David and his friends, a Franco-American inter-cultural exchange has been fostered in the spirit of music and wine. The 2016 festival also saw the brilliant performance by violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellist Gautier Capuçon, baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, and soprano Hyesang Park, who along with violinist Vladimir Percevic, are the two 2016 winners. Conductor Charles Dutoit delighted the audience with his brilliant and animated leadership of the orchestra and singers at the final concert at Clos Vougeot, which consisted of arias from the Barber of Seville and Don Giovanni, as well as a beautiful Concerto No. 1, by Camille Saint-Saëns and a symphony by Georges Bizet. The entire concert was able to take place open air, under a canopy which rather nervously supported the strong winds.

Two days prior to the final concert, we also attended the concert at Château de Meursault and were regaled by such magnificent pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto Brandebourgeois No. 1, No. 4 and the most captivating No. 3, with the flawless performance by a number of musicians, including violinists David Chan, Abraham Appleman, Catherine Ro and Katherine Fong, and flautists Magali Mosnier and Jose-Daniel Castellon, amongst others. The concert had actually decamped to the church nearby in anticipation of the storm that threatened to arrive early evening. This was followed by La Paulée Musicale at Château de Meursault, whereby everyone took a bottle (or more!) to share with other guests. The atmosphere at La Paulée is always very convivial, with plenty of vinous generosity, banter and animation of Le Bon Bourguignon. We tried so many wines that we failed to record them all. However I recalled tasting an excellent 1995 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires, an elegant 2008 Château Lafleur and a brilliant 2001 Raveneau Chablis Les Clos, a 1989 Clos Vougeot Gros Frère et Soeur, a 1990 DRC Grands Echézeaux, 1988 Clos de Tart (magnum) and the 2006 DRC Romanée-Saint-Vivant which we rather tasted hastily, I felt. We took a magnum of 1988 Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin and that was rather delicious too!

Anthony Hanson and Clement working hard at auctioning the lots

The finale evening at Château du Clos Vougeot finished with a charity auction, with the generous support of various domaines. A well-fed and suitably ‘wined’ audience eagerly awaited every lot being declared by auctioneer Anthony Hanson who rattled through the 31 lots (2 impromptu lots were added during the course of the evening) with electrifying speed and was most persuasive with his succinct and effective descriptions of each lot in both French and English. The result was an enormous success, raising EUR 250,000 compared to EUR 178,000 last year. Some really special lots featured such as 2 magnums of Clos de Vougeot Cuvée des Moines de Cîteaux 1997 (being 2 of 150 magnums produced from a single barrel to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the Abbaye de Cîteaux, using grapes from every climat of the Grand Cru), a jeroboam of Clos de Vougeot Hommage à Jean Morin, Château de La Tour, 2013 (an ultra-rare cuvée launched in 2010 and only declared in exceptional vintages, made with only the first cluster from the first shoot of the very old vines dated from 1910, ) and a bas relief sculptured wood representation of Saint Vincent, with original polychrome paint (this was won by our friends at Fine Wine Experience!). The final lot of a magnum of DRC Romanée-Conti 2005 went for an extraordinary sum of EUR 100,000, making it the most expensive lot. The second most expensive lot went for EUR 12,000 and it included a magnum of Corton Clos Rognet, Méo-Camuzet 2006, a magnum of Clos Vougeot, Domaine du Clos Frantin 2012 and a bottle of DRC La Tâche 2009.

Hyesang Park delighting the audience with her Korean rendition

Over the years, the festival has received much support from both France and overseas, including a number of overseas sponsors. No doubt the enthusiasm for the auction at the Clos Vougeot dinner was prompted by the quality of the wines that were served at dinner! Ildar Abdrazako and Hyesang Park respectively captivated the diners with renditions in their own languages, Russian and Korean.

Here were the wines served at dinner: 

Champagne Blanc de Blancs, Delamotte

Meursault Charmes-Dessus 2013, Château de Meursault

Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 2004, Domaine Leflaive

Chambolle-Musigny Les Beaux Bruns 2012, Joseph Faiveley

Clos des Lambrays 2011, Domaine des Lambrays

Echézeaux 2009, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Château d’Yquem 2005

Liqueurs Gabriel Boudier


The weather behaved extremely well during the week-long festival. Apart from the extreme heat and torrential storm on 24 June, we had clear sky and mild temperatures that made it a most pleasant week. We look forward to joining the festival again next year!