Found notes from a dinner at Drouhin in Burgundy in 2004:
After a tasting of the 03 and 02 wines of Drouhin in their 15th century (or was it 14th century) cellar, I was invited by Veronique Drouhin to dinner at her home a couple days in the future. Veronique manages Domaine Drouhin in Oregon but has an active part in the Burgundy side of the domaine—Vero is the name of the red and white Burgundy that will be priced at about $20 to initiate Pinot lovers to the wonders of Burgundy. It’s a blend of AC and premier cru vineyards that promises to be an excellent value and entry into Burgundy; we tasted the 02 and 03 vintages of red and white. Veronique is a redheaded bundle of energy and vivacity; her joy of life, friends, and wine shines through immediately. Moments after meeting her, one feels as if she is a lifelong friend. She flits like a hummingbird from friend to friend, but each moment spent talking to her feels significant and meaningful; she has an amazing capacity to make strangers feel special. Husband Michel was also quite kind and friendly; both were amused at my two years of French lessons, but fortunately didn’t throw me into the street where I probably deserved to be. I was traveling with several passionate Burgundy lovers who visit often and consider the Drouhins very good friends.
Dinner at Veronique and Michel’s home was served for about 25 of us, all seated comfortably at a huge dining room table after an hour eating hors d’oeuvres and sipping wines such as Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet from various vintages and an aged Champagne I just can’t remember, though it deserves to be. Jean-Françoise Coche was there, as were Ann Colgin and her husband Joe, other friends and winemakers, not all of whom I was able to meet. Each had brought a special bottle to share—Coche brought his 89 Meursault Perrieres, I had brought a 92 Coche Corton Charlemagne and someone else provided the 90. Wines from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s were in evidence and Allen Meadows and Ben Addoms worked with surgical precision extracting aged corks and decanting these wines off their considerable sediment. We even drank a 1904 red Burgundy that was vibrant, alive and even had fruit! The multi-course meal was prepared by a chef borrowed from a nearby estate; the dinner was certainly at the level of one or two Michelin stars. I photographed several of the dishes and bottles with my digital camera; though many laughed at that, several surreptitiously later asked me to email them the pictures.
I took no notes of these wines. I’ll never taste them again. I wanted to be part of the spirit and fun of this night, not to study the difference between Musigny of different decades. I’ll leave that to the more capable hands and palate of Allen Meadows, who will assuredly detail many of these wines in a future Burghound issue. It sounds paradoxical to say this was an intimate evening, when there were more than two dozen of us—but it was. I was honored and thrilled to be there and even made a brief toast in French to thank Veronique and Michel for letting me share and live this dream. Then I took a glass from one of many decanters of perfectly aged red Burgundy and smiled contentedly.