TN: Romanee Conti Dinner (part 2)

[MChang]

I think RSV lately has been pretty great.

[Curtis_Chen]

spectacular. I can still vividly recall a 1990 DRC dinner I attended in 1993 at the home of Dennis Overstreet. I almost canceled since it was a rare rainy LA day and my Corvette skidded all over on wet streets. Dinner was in the Hollywood Hills. He had hired a recently unemployed chef to cook an amazing meal. Wines were awesome, and there were just 16 of us attending, but the chef was cool so I stood next to him in the kitchen and just talked. He showed me a few tricks. He had just been let go from Checkers and was planning to open a Napa restaurant. His name was Thomas Keller. Almost outshined the wines.

Jamie Foxx level story telling!

[Alex_Valdes]

I think RSV lately has been pretty great.

Agree. At the last dinner I mentioned, the RSVs were the talk of the evening (much like the Richebourg were this time)

[Peter_Chiu]

I think RSV lately has been pretty great.

Michael… I noticed that DRC is pricing the RStV higher than their Riche - most likely you are right as they always price them according to their precised quality.

In the 1990s in Montreal Quebec there was no problem to check it …by doing comparative wine-matching tasting : Riche vs RStV at an interval of let say : 5, 8,10 and so on. In the good old days the availability were easier here for at least for the first 9 months after the official. I remembered I did not take the offer of 2 mix-case of 12 of DRC from the vintage 1990. I made a mistake for consulting with my wife who objected. Montreal Quebec market was very soft during that period. Here is an example : the official Leroy importer for vintage 1994 to 1996 went bankrupt. In a way I was lucky as I was able to buy some G-crus wines from from Domaine Leroy at reasonable and normal release prices : for example Musigny and Chambertin at CAD $646.75 Riche and RStV at CAD $597.

To cut my story short…could you easily…do that in USA nowadays without going to the secondary market ( or Auction market). I asked because I was away for a quite many years from the market condition about DRC wines.

[MChang]

It’s hard to get DRC at UK (C&B) prices. I scrape a little bit together though

[Peter_Chiu]

Thanks for the message…

Peter

[Mike_Grammer]

Really splendid report, Alex–I love the spectrum of years you reported on as well as the different cuvees. And the menu, mmmmmmm.

Nicos–note my new avatar Hope you are keeping well, my friend!

Skal

Mike

[Alex_Valdes]

Really splendid report, Alex–I love the spectrum of years you reported on as well as the different cuvees. And the menu, mmmmmmm.

Nicos–note my new avatar Hope you are keeping well, my friend!

Skal

Mike

The menu was really something. The sauce framing every dish was finger-licking good!

[Peter_Chiu]

Here is what Hugh Johnson - said about RC and DRC.

****All the conundrums of wine come to a head at this extraordinary property. It has been accepted for at least three centuries that wine of inimitable style and fascination comes from one four-and-a-half acre patch of hill, and different wine, marginally but consistently less fascinating, from the sites around it. Romanèe-Conti sounds like a super-successful public relations exercise. In some way it is even organized as one. But there is no trick.

One such a small scale, and withl millionaires eager for every drop, it is possible to practice total perfectionism. Without the soil and the site the opportunity would not be there; without the laborious pursuit of perfection it would be lost. A great vineyard like this is largely man-made. The practice in the days of the eighteen-century Prince de Conti, who gave it his name, was to bring fresh loam up from the pastures of the Saone valley in wagon-loads to give new life to the soil. Ironically, today the authorities would forbid so much as a bucketful from outside the appellation. Does this condemn the great vineyard to a gradual decline ?

The co-proprietors of the Domain today are Mme Bize-Leroy and M. Aubert de Villaine, whose home is at Bouzeron near Chagny ( where he makes particular good Aligote ). Their policy is to delay picking until the grapes are consummately ripe, running the gauntlet of the autumn storms and the risk of rot, simply rejecting all the grapes that have succumbed. The proportion of stems put in the vat depends on the season. Fermentation is exceptionally long: from three weeks to even a full month. All the wine is mature in new barrels every year. There is a minimum of racking and filtration. It is indeed, as Mme Bize-Leory says, the grapes that do it.

As the prices of the Domain’s wines are so spectacularly high, one expects to find them not only exception in character but in perfect condition. They are essentially wines for very long bottle-ageing. What is surprising in that they often show sign of instability. It is almost the hallmark of ¨D.R.C.¨ wines that they are instantly recognizable by their exotic opulence, yet rarely identical from bottle to bottle. Too often bottles are in frankly poor condition.

The same elusive quality applies to the wine in your glass. Of a bottle of La Tache 1962, which has been one of the very best burgundies for years ( at least in my view ), I noted in 1982 : ¨ Overwhelming high-toned smell of violets to start with, changing within 20 minutes to a more deep and fruity bouquet which seems at first like orange, then more like blackcurrants. The flavour was best about half an hour after opening - exotically rich and warm - then seemed to become a bit too alcoholic and lose some of its softness. Very exciting wine - not least for the speed and range of its metamorphose. ****

I still remembered I called 20/20 ( a Wine shop in LA ) and confirmed with an order of 4 bottles of 1962 LT but they were not allowed to ship to Montreal, Canada. I made a mistake of not requesting them to ship the order to my half-brother (- the 3rd son from my father’s third concubine and I am the 7th son from my father’s 4th concubine ) who lives on top of the Russian Hill in SF.

One of my few regrets in my wine-life.

[J_Cohen]

Part 2! Incredible. That 97’ Monty Jero wowzers! Again, a pleasure to read your report. Ripert’s menu not too shabby either! Thank you so much for sharing.

[alan_weinberg]

As the prices of the Domain’s wines are so spectacularly high, one expects to find them not only exception in I still remembered I called 20/20 ( a Wine shop in LA ) and confirmed with an order of 4 bottles of 1962 LT but they were not allowed to ship to Montreal, Canada.

Maybe you were lucky. I traded a case of Maya for a magnum of 1962 La Tâche long ago. From Bobby—the owner of 20-20. Looked pristine. Arranged a dinner around it. Wine was dead. Undrinkable. I’m still hoping to taste 62 LT some day.

[Peter_Chiu]

As the prices of the Domain’s wines are so spectacularly high, one expects to find them not only exception in I still remembered I called 20/20 ( a Wine shop in LA ) and confirmed with an order of 4 bottles of 1962 LT but they were not allowed to ship to Montreal, Canada.

Maybe you were lucky. I traded a case of Maya for a magnum of 1962 La Tâche long ago. From Bobby—the owner of 20-20. Looked pristine. Arranged a dinner around it. Wine was dead. Undrinkable. I’m still hoping to taste 62 LT some day.

Thanks…Alan - I will sleep better to-nite.

[Peter_Chiu]

As the prices of the Domain’s wines are so spectacularly high, one expects to find them not only exception in I still remembered I called 20/20 ( a Wine shop in LA ) and confirmed with an order of 4 bottles of 1962 LT but they were not allowed to ship to Montreal, Canada.

Maybe you were lucky. I traded a case of Maya for a magnum of 1962 La Tâche long ago. From Bobby—the owner of 20-20. Looked pristine. Arranged a dinner around it. Wine was dead. Undrinkable. I’m still hoping to taste 62 LT some day.

I was curious and it took me a while but I finally found the 20/20 Category.

The LT 1962 was listed at US $ 1250 per and the Mgm was …Inquire. Beside the word : Inquire : I wrote 5495. This meant the price for a Mgm 1962 was at a whopping US $5495 - when I ordered the 4 bs of LT 1962 long ago ( sadly I could not recall around when I did it - old age I guessed ).

**I traded a case of Maya for a magnum of 1962 La Tâche long ago. From Bobby—the owner of 20-20. Looked pristine. Arranged a dinner around it. Wine was dead. Undrinkable

So…there is no great wine, only bottle.

Yes …Am I still hoping to taste 62 LT some day ? Hmmm… not as much as before…

[Jeremy_Holmes]

Thanks for the notes Alex.