Several of the local ATL guys went to Woodfire Grill last night where we had a spectacular dinner that highlighted a collection of 8 DRC wines.
The wines were all in perfect shape. All very different based on the vintage and terroir. They were all extremely good!
Preferences are always very personal.
The lineup included:
1978/1983/1985 DRC RSV
1983/1986/1991 DRC Richebourg
1983/1988 DRC La Tache.
To me the best wines of the evening were the most feminine. The RSV flight was absolutely stunning! All were different with the 1978 showing incredible detail and feminine aromatics. The 1985 was the most expressive and showing incredible length. The 1983 was denser but showed all the beautiful floral feminine character with a panoply of aromatics that I associate with RSV. A rare treat.
The others that I loved were the absolutely stunning 1983 Richebourg and the 1988 La Tache.
It does me no good to try to generate individual notes on these. They are all singularly wonderful. A real experience that few wines other than DRC can deliver.
Even the 1986 was a real winner. The aromatics of that Richebourg are incredible. The wine showed some astringency on the palate at first but after an hour or so integrated some and was really nice.
I want to thank Nick Quinones and Matt Weinstein for such a fabulous meal and wine service.
First rate guys! Hopefully a few others that attended with give their thoughts. A few pics to follow.
Don thanks for the impressions. I had a mole at the table and he was equally impressed. Years ago I went to the place that shall not be named and the Somm came up to me and mentioned they just “found” a case of 83 DRC in the cellar. Like a fool I passed.
No doubt! How long are you guys here for Dan? I have a place in Rosemary Beach so I do get there on occasion. I won’t be back for a couple of months though. We should plan something for your trip over next year.
I was fortunate to be at this dinner. My 1st ever DRC’s! The wines at times were surreal.
My favorites
!978 DRC RSV The complete package with fantastic nose, deep fruit, and a finish forever (The 83 and 85 were great as well To me the best showing flight)
Nose of the night the 1983 DRC Richebourg with a palate to follow Lots of earth
The 1983/1988 DRC La Tache had so much power. hard for me to get a good read on these
The 1986 DRC Richebourg was the “odd man out” Much more stringent. On its own would have been fantastic but with this company seemed a step behind the others
Now back to mere mortal wines.
Don and Tod tx for putting this together and including me!
88 DRCs were given away and, because of that, this was the vintage that got Leroy thrown off her DRC board position. The Romanee Conti was sold in Asia at a high price and the remaining wines dumped in the US for incredibly low prices–$50 for Ech, LT in the low $200s, as I recall. This caused a furor and even Lerou’s sister voted her off as codirector. Her name is on the 88 bottles with de Villaine, but not on later vintages (not sure of 89). You can see “Roch” on the 91 w de Villaine. At the low prices they sold fast, but were so backward for 2+ decades.
