I'm always telling everyone how much I love my job, And, it really is true. A rare opportunity was presented to me last week and I would have been a fool to say no. Some of my best customers are now oozing with jealousy. The opportunity was so prestigious that the hosts only allowed us one seat for our two stores.
I attended the 2009 Domaine Romanee-Conti tasting in New York City at the New York Palace Hotel. This Burgundy producer is commonly referred to as DRC. For those of you not familiar with these wines, they are some of the rarest, most collected, most sought after wines in the world. They are also probably some of the most expensive. Why? Small vineyards, not many bottles produced and exceptional wines. These wines are really hard to obtain and highly allocated.
When I was in France last summer, we passed the DRC winery a few times and even stopped to take a picture in front of one of their vineyard sites. Remember this picture? That trip made me appreciate this tasting so much more.
At the tasting I met the current DRC Co-Director, Aubert de Villaine. Aubert led a group of 90 people in the industry including retailers, Sommeliers and press like Ray Isle from Food & Wine Magazine. This was a seated tasting with 8 red and 1 white pre-poured. After Aubert said some words, he left the group to taste on our own. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Seriously, if each glass was one bottle, I probably had about $30,000 worth of wine in front of me. Me excited? You betcha!
From left to right, the line-up was the Vosne-Romanee, Corton, Echezeaux, Grand Echezeaux, Romanee-St.-Vivant, Richebourg, La Tache, Romanee-Conti and Montrachet. In layman's terms, these names are villages classified as Grand Cru or Premier Grand Cru, the highest government classsification for the best of the best. DRC has 25 hectares around the village of Vosne-Romanee and La Tache and Romanee-Conti are monopoles (not owned by anyone else). Each single vineyard is very distinctive and this is the first year that Corton has been produced, Corton is a cuvee of three vineyards in the Cote de Beaune, not near the other villages which reside in the Cote de Nuits. When the vines are more mature, DRC intended to bottle the three vineyards separately,
Aubert compared the 2009 vintage to the 1959 vintage because it was plentiful, enjoyable and have the same characteristics. These wines are exactly 50 years apart and Aubert said they are both tender, feminine, and full of charm and seduction.
I started by smelling each wine to see how one was different from the other. Then I went back and re-smelled and tasted. At these tastings, spitting out the wine is common practice, even expected from people in the business. But, I have a secret. No one did! After taking all my notes, I went back and tasted more for the enjoyment and to appreciate them They were all delicious, but my favorite was the Richebourg which constantly changed aromas in my glass and the one white, Montrachet which was heaven in a glass. It was probably the best wine I think I have ever had in my entire life. But at almost $4000/bottle, it had better have been!
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