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NAPA VALLEY

THURS 6/1 CHEF LANDON DINNER

Opening the night with 4 corked/flawed bottles really makes a man appreciate the dinners and trips where you go 100 for 100. The unfortunate victims: 1996 Salon (didn’t think this was possible to be bad), 1988 Lafite, 1988 Cheval Blanc, 1999 Mugnier Bonnes Mares. Thankfully Chef Landon has yet to miss on a single dish in the half dozen+ nights cooking for us and tonight would be no different. Almost enough to make me forgive the corked bottles.

1996 Krug – the “wine aristocrats” - as I took to calling them - at the table (Vinny, Angela, Doug, Lily) all preferred the ’96 Krug to the ’98 which is probably the correct answer since it’s 1) the more heralded Champagne vintage by a mile and 2) all the smart wine people agree; my ever so modest preference for the ’98 was a product of what was drinking better tonight, not what offers the most age-worthiness; mind you I’m still incredibly cranky about the 4 corked bottles so my judgment is likely impaired; coming back to the last glass/last sip, ok hand up, this is clearly the superior of the bottles of Krug; Lily would later explain why, introducing me to the concept of “sapidity” which means – and hopefully I can synthesize correctly – tasting something savory which balances the sweeter tasting fruit (higher in the 96 than 98); sapidity is a product of acidity, phenolic content, salinity, minerality, and certain wine making decisions (reduction, lees contact), but the principal takeaway is the way sapidity can play a role in these warm summers where the grapes possess lower levels of acidity at harvest

1998 Krug – with how much I love ’95 and ’97 Salon, I’ve been trying to make the case that some of these other mid-90s vintages might end up surpassing the 96s which has been at risk of coasting on its reputation; despite my best Lavar Ball impression at speaking this into existence, I cannot walk away from dinner maintaining this position; it’s surely more simple and great with food, but lacks the pronounced acidity of the 96; doubtlessly a delicious bottle of Champagne though

Ulysee Collin Les Enfers – credit to Doug, our somm for the evening, for bringing a backup bottle of bubbles; that’s also how you know I’m paying way too much vig on all these purchases with Thatcher; tart, green apple, pleasant bottle of bubbles; UC always brings me back to Shuko where BQ first introduced me to it (as a side note, no restaurant in NYC has a more feast or famine champagne list than them)

1990 Meo Camuzet Clos de Vougeot – gorgeous bottle, lovely example of Clos de Vougeot from a warm vintage, made by the great man Henri Jayer himself; Jayer, as all you surely know, took a painstaking, perfectionist approach to winemaking – pruning and treating all vines by hand, sorting grapes first at harvest and again on arrival, destemming 100% of grapes (contrary to the trends of today), introducing cold pre-fermentation, fermenting wines with their own natural yeast, not filtering at bottling, patience with the fermentation; this shows up in a ripe fruit and juicy tannins that are noteworthy in a region that sometimes lack both (though not in 1990)

1998 Leroy Romanee St Vivant – I mean one sip and there can be no doubt this is WOTN and probably WOTT, even with a Screamer on the follow; so fresh, especially for a 98 Red Burgundy, slightly higher alcohol if you absolutely had to nitpick, but a truly perfect transition to Bordeaux/Napa cabs; my Aunt Laurie would email me the following week still dumbfounded at how such a unique and perfect wine can exist: “I now finally understand why you said all roads lead to Burgundy” she wrote; unfortunately for my June AMEX bill, all roads within Burgundy lead to DRC and Leroy; Vinny with one of those profound-sounding statements that I am never quite sure if I comprehend: “the Meo smelled like Burgundy while this Leroy smells like Pinot Noir”

1989 Palmer – last minute sub after the badly flawed 88 Lafite, I needed a sure thing for the sake of tranquility; the undefeated bottle, always mind-blowingly fresh and lively; other than Haut-Brion or LMHB, my 89 go to when I want to prove that in some top estates, the 89 exceeds the 90

1988 Haut-Brion – full disclosure, I did flip this with the 89 in the blind flight (Ang and Vinny go 3 for 3) but have a HEALTHY dose of deniability with Doug’s completely FUBAR pouring scheme that he flipped a half dozen times; I’ll never understand why some somms all the sudden turn Arabic with right to left numbering, when it comes to a wine flight; I need Doug to rewatch the Jack Nicholson “in this country…” scene from The Departed; ever since I had the 88 Margaux a random night at NYV with Stoffers, I’ve been on a quest to study this vintage a bit more; I struggle to think of a great young analogue for it, maybe 1999 or 2004? the 88 HB is nice, but in no way memorable; there’s no way I flipped this with 89 Palmer, just no chance

1988 Cheval Blanc – modestly corked, not a fair representation of the wine

2002 Hundred Acre Kayli Morgan – served blind with the 03 Screaming Eagle and 04 Harlan; my gameplan going in was to look for the Screamer as the wine that would protrude while the Hundred Acre and Harlan would be similar in style (please don’t take me off your list, Francois, keep reading); but immediately, the HA KM punched you in the face; we all know the tired critiques of HA – it’s contrived, manipulated, engineered for 100 pt Parker scores, blah blah blah – but the wines from this era are well made and to those who disagree, I only ask you run the test yourself; oh, I almost forget, Vincent Morrow – Master Somm, winner of the 2022 Michelin Guide California somm of the year, noted Woodbridge detractor, etc etc – was sitting at the table with us and called this the 2003 Screaming Eagle blind…

2003 Screaming Eagle – absolutely delicious, but I did call this the 2004 Harlan (blind tasting is much easier on paper, folks); I’ve yet to have a bad bottle of any SE vintage, save for that one time in the back room of the Capital Grille when DAK added his own ‘aromatics’ towards the end of the evening, and this one stands alongside the others; an impressive effort for 2003 which is always an underrated Napa vintage in my eyes

2004 Harlan – incredibly impressive performance: warm vintage, height of ‘Parkerization’ (I hate the term) and yet an unbelievably refined and balanced wine; clear wine of the flight; earlier in the day we did 96 Latour and 96 Harlan at the estate side by side (blind) and it wasn’t even a contest in favor of Latour; this 2004 Harlan had more of everything you look for from this property, concentration times complexity and layers

2005 Bryant Family – ran blind next to the 05 Colgin Estate and it was a tough showing, even for a Bryant apologist like myself; same hill, same vintage, same winemaker and not even a contest in favor of the Colgin

2005 Colgin IX Estate – just when I think I’m out on Colgin (at current market levels), they find a bottle to suck me back in; incredible aromatic intensity, lovely bouquet immediately upon pouring, tiny bit of VA maybe but still great balance and “tone” as the aristocrats are fond of saying vs the more “screechy” Bryant

1968 Mirassou Vineyards– a wine that only Vinny would be able to bring, with a super cool story and history that of course I’m struggling to recall; the peril of being the last bottle of the night served; says Cabernet Sauvignon on the label but in 1968 that doesn’t mean a whole lot; green tea the most prominent note

FRIDAY 6/2 PRESS DINNER

I’ve raved in this space plenty about the experience in the back room of Press with Vinny and the team in service, but it’s unfathomable how every single affair somehow manages to top the previous heights. Time dissolves back there; the ghosts and memories of pleasures past galvanizing the present. Without question, my deathbed meal would be one more night in the private room of Press with Vinny pulling the corks on some old Napa legends, warm pretzels (+ caviar) flowing from the kitchen at a steady clip every 30 minutes, perfectly medium rare steaks and the saltiest, crispiest fries this side of Mickey Ds (an enormous compliment) satisfying every ounce of hunger without distracting from the otherworldly wine being poured.

2000 Krug – 20 years of age on this one is perfect, super fresh and reductive, really showing well; room was split on this vs 95 CdM

1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil – ahhh this was the finish I was hoping for with the 96 Salon that we were deprived of last night; can already tell Ethan Gladner, future MS and newest addition to our Napa posse, will be a great note guy: “parmigiano-reggiano”; naturally a debate breaks out me + Ethan vs Lily + DK over whether it’s a bad bottle or not; Lily hurts her argument when she says 6 of her last 7 (humble brag) 95 CdMs have tasted exactly this way

2017 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet – so pure, so clear, unique but also simple and linear; nothing extreme, nothing punching you in the face, the perfect balance that I seek in Montrachet and all of white Burgundy really; Françoise Peschon, winemaker for VHR, Heimark, Cornell, Accendo, etc) complimented my explanation of Montrachet vs Chevalier/Batard to my mom which was also a nice confidence boost

2017 Les Climats du Coeur Chassagne 1er – as always with a Vinny selection, the wine comes with a fascinating backstory, this one a Leflaive and Ramonet collaboration, only 1k bottles made, all mags, for charity; tough side-by-side with the Sauzet, bit hot, uncomfortable, high alcohol, didn’t quite click for me… maybe this is why wine – like all things – should be done in pursuit of profit rather than charity

2019 Dureuil-Janthial Rully 1er – a Douggy blind, I called 2015 PYCM village, Jack and Angela both called Meursault; really impressive bottle, second best of the white burg flight by a mile

2003 Littorai Mays Canyon Chardonnay – just not my style, lots of residual sugar; Jackie Chard aka Jackie Littorai apologizing for it; borderline undrinkable; going back to it, I just do not like this style of wine one iota; extremely sweet Chardonnay; I know everyone loves Littorai in these parts, but there is nothing I can do to like this wine

1985 Petrus – served blind with 85 Cheval and 86 Phelps Eisele; in a crew of people who love to argue about wine, this bottle stood out as the most controversial; once again groupthink to my right as Lily and Doug bomb the flight; DK’s whole speech about how the wine is flabby and lacks structure just completely misses the mark – the guy just doesn’t know wine; it’s an absolute beauty, complex, layered, super clean, super precise, lovely, potential WOTN

1985 Cheval Blanc – both Vinny and Ethan independently say has Pinot characteristics; put nose in and instantly know it’s BDX, but otherwise takes some time to connect with; did really grow to enjoy this wine as the night progressed

1986 Joseph Phelps Eisele – most important of all, Ethan and I go 3 for 3 on the blind flight; dirty, some Bret, old Napa all day, weakest of the flight by far

1986 Mouton – served blind next to 86 Margaux, 86 Dominus, 86 Heitz MV; after a dominant performance by France in the previous flight, here Napa asserted its pedigree; I think this bottle is reasonably flawed, not nearly the same performance we’ve seen from several of these at NYV – when right, it’s epic; I called Dominus blind

1986 Margaux – also fairly flawed, sad showing – I thought was too flabby to be a Margaux, lacked all the classic Margaux giveaways

1986 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard – easiest of the flight to identify, also probably wine of the flight but more because of the bottle variation vicissitudes striking a blow to France here; dried cherry, but too dessert wine-esque, liquored, overripe to be a classic showing of Heitz MV; Ethan, quite simply, has a great palate – align 100% on this bottle

1986 Dominus – super impressive to me, these 80s Domini have been a revelation never since our vertical at GT, hard to think of a class of wines I’ve done a harder 180 on in the last year; probably my second favorite of the flight to the Heitz, but the table trying to pan this one a bit too harshly for my liking

1974 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard – “this is in grave danger of becoming my #1 wine of all time.” – Jackie Chard; on my left, immediately upon first sip, Ethan says he needs a minute, this might be the best wine he’s ever tasted; the richness, the concentration, the fruit is absolutely preposterous for a 1974 Napa; one day I will blind someone smart with this wine and watch them call it a 2007 cab; every time you smell it, even though you know it’s the 74 Heitz and one of the all time greats, you continue to be shocked by how brooding and complex and purely pleasurable the nose is

1974 Mayacamas – my Lord; just confirming what we learned last Napa trip with these two (plus the 74 Phelps Insignia), that 1974 Napa is right there in the conversation with greatest vintage in a single region of all time (61 Bordeaux, 90 red Burgundy, 02 white Burgundy, 79 Champagne others in the mix for my palate); same story as the 74 Heitz, just hard to fathom how fresh and vibrant it is; both of these 74 Napa bottles are more lively than the entire 1986 flight preceding it; I defy all the Burgundy snobs who have sworn off Napa cabernet to spend an evening at Press drinking 1970s Napa and walk away without a true affection for the wines made in this decade

1975 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill – very nice wine, just got caught in a road grader of a lineup next to the two 74 legends; but still impressive on a standalone basis, would never guess 30yrs of age between this and the 97 next to it; bit hollow on the palate over the course of the hour

1997 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill – courtesy of Ethan and Anne, the fun thing was drinking this next to the 1974 Heitz MV – the gap in purity and concentration not at all what you’d expect; a ripe and modern so-called Parker vintage vs an absolute classic; tons of sweet fruit

1981 Stags Leap Wine Cellars – credit to Doug, he knew he was flirting with danger serving this to us given my thoughts on Stags broadly, but this was an impressive wine; lots of Asian spice, big fan; on the other hand…

1983 Chappellet – Doug, give up with this wine, please; it’s now 5 for 5 absolutely terrible showings for 83 Chappy; lots of people made terrible wine in California in 1983, it’s fine, it happens; but stop trying to salvage this guy; it’s an irredeemably garbage wine

1979 Dunn Howell Mountain – Dunn’s first vintage, a unicorn bottle that is absolutely gorgeous; the best thing to ever happen to this wine was being put in the last old Napa flight rather than with the 74s; classic, classic Dunn, showing why we are such fans of Randy and why he is in the discussion for America’s greatest winemaker; acid and red fruit, not surprising from a wet vintage (though it had to help being on the hillside); probably the wine of the flight but I’ll amuse those who vote in favor of the 79 Opus

1979 Opus One – also their first vintage, and WAY better than I anticipated; a super long finish, really distinct from any other bottle of Opus I’ve ever had; like the Dunn, it goes against the vintage, much more fresh and floral than green and vegetal

Krug 170 Grand Cuvee – a far superior palate cleanser when drinking Cabernet than sparkling water

2019 DRC HORIZONTAL

MOWA, Atlanta Georgia - May 25, 2023

Anyone who spends much time ensconced within the wine world will encounter many trite phrases used with regularity: “wine is made in the vineyard” or “there are no great wines, only great bottles." You also will hear bizarrely specific tastings notes used when a simple one would suffice: is “Tasmanian sea salt” really an improvement over “salt”? Have you even ever tasted Tasmanian sea salt or did you just hear it one other time and loved the way it rolled off the tongue?

And then there is a word that some clever person somewhere 100 years ago used to describe a wine that sounded intelligent and has been overused ever since: "ethereal." For the first 4 years of my wine drinking career, at every tasting - like clockwork - I had to suffer through someone describing some trash bottle of Italian wine as “ethereal” and watch as a bunch of non-thinking heads at the table nodded along, impressed by the sophisticated-sounding descriptor. If everything is ethereal then nothing is ethereal.

Much like my vow to never utter the word “eucalyptus” when talking Heitz MV, I swore I’d never use “ethereal” to describe a bottle of wine. Then I tasted Domaine de la Romanee Conti. DRC is the wine for which the word ethereal was invented. It is also a wine that needs no introduction.

The hallmark of DRC is balance between opposites. Equilibrium. Wines that are both masculine and feminine; bold and reserved; consistent and precise. It is the most perfect manifestation of Pinot Noir known to man. The oldest trick in the wine tasting game is to resort to analogies rather than actually having to speak directly about the wine. For many, it’s music. This bottle reminds me of Guns N Roses or Nat King Cole. For a handful of others, it always seems to be sexual positions. (insert your own example). For me, it always comes back to literature or great writers.

What made Shakespeare’s plays the most compelling in history were the vivacity and accuracy of his characters. In one story, he could somehow capture with perfect precision the essence of totally opposite characters: the hero and the coward; the villain and the victim; the mother and the son. It’s only fitting that the greatest English writer of history should invoke the greatest wine in the world. Domaine de la Romanee Conti is Shakespeare in a bottle.

2006 Krug Clos du Mesnil (mag) – not a shabby warmup bottle courtesy of Steve; had the same bottle out of 750 earlier in the week at 4 Charles (humble brag); took forever to open up out of 750 on Monday, but here it was fresh and racing from the get-go; still needs 10 years to reach the apex probably, but it’s certainly on the right track

2018 Montrachet – Steve poisons the jury pool before the wine is poured by mentioning that Aubert de Villaine, over one of their many meals together (another humble brag), rates the 2018 Montrachet as one of his favorites ever, next to the 1979 (Steve's favorite ever) and 1992; who am I to question the great man, but - premox debate aside - this lacks some of the character of the '19 in its infancy to me; linear and focused and soaring, but not the same weight as the '19

2019 Montrachet –there was a decent amount of conversation about whether it was pre-moxed or not (partially because it was much darker than the 2018 next to it) – I know half the room is going home convinced it was slightly oxidized, but not me (though the only way to be sure is to open another one); most prominent note to me is the seafood salinity; fresh, lively, salted ‘land o lakes butter’ to borrow a note from Ashim; some tension between citrus fruit vs orchard fruit, definitely not the peach or pineapple you find in other white burgundies

2019 Corton Charlemagne – second time having DRC’s inaugural Corton Charley (blend of 4 plots, leased from Bonneau du Martray), first since last December at the infamous Hard 8s Daniel dinner; here you get the ripe apple, lime, pineapple, some wood; impressively powerful yet fresh, but ultimately… it still tastes like a Corton Charlemagne; just not when I envision when I close my eyes and dream about the heights of white Burgundy

2019 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru – second time having this wine, honestly wasn’t too familiar with the story; I guess it’s a second press from only certain years when there is enough left over fruit that is still high quality; drinks like a prototypical young Vosne-Romanee, but lacking the layers in youth of the more heralded DRC vineyards

2019 Echezeaux – lots of green, herbs, olives, very abrupt finish; just not delivering much heft on the palate at all compared to the neighbors; some floral notes on the nose, but fighting tough company here; consensus worst wine of the night

2019 Grands Echezeaux – a bit more sweetness, especially on the finish, than the Echezeaux; if I had to pick one wine from the flight as the one that perhaps was overcooked by the 2019 growing conditions it would be this one – both the tannins and alcohol are more pronounced than you’d like in your red Burgs

2019 Corton – with all of the hype from Garrett as the wines were being poured about the Corton, I engaged with a new sense of excitement since it’s not a wine I’ve had many times (last one was while suffering through a vegan meal at EMP winter 2021); it had much more red fruit than the surrounding wines, cherry and raspberry, plus some wood/oak with a bit of char; it did offer more green notes than the others which is almost always going to cause a downgrade in my book

2019 Romanee St. Vivant – the most controversial wine of the night; I find a beautiful, vivid, vital, floral nose with some raspberry and cherry framing; Garrett kicks off the debate: “what are you getting from this wine? I get nothing.” Structured wonderfully, but lacking the length and masculinity of the Richebourg sitting next to it; what distinguishes this wine isn't a certain perfume or note on the palate so much as pretty, silky texture and mouthfeel

2019 Richebourg – this wine I absolutely would have bombed in a blind flight simply because of the color – astounding how much lighter and transparent it is than the others, yet so sumptuous - a veritable force on both the nose and palate; Steve’s WOTN for very good reason, incredibly distinctive in all the right ways; before even sniffing the La Tache and RC to the right, this wine alone plus the Monties was worth the flight to Atlanta

2019 La Tache – ohhhh now this is my kind of wine; dark and brooding, black fruit, tons of earth; quite possibly the best young red wine I’ve ever had; totally flawless in my eyes, it’s like all the charms of old Bordeaux combined with young Vosne-Romanee, just an incredibly complex web knitted together perfectly; “elegantly muscular” Steve calls it; I always rolled my eyes at the fact they make you taste in silence at that famous Corney & Barrow annual DRC tasting in London just after bottling, but this wine perfectly captures the spirit of the Publius Syrus quote: “I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.” – 50 BC

2019 Romanee-Conti – the critique of the RC is that it can be austere or reserved in its youth, but not this bottle; all the glory of its aristocratic heritage leaping out of the glass, headlined by aromatic and complex black fruits; it possesses a density and robustness that makes you understand why some critics are projecting it to be the greatest DRC RC ever made; I hope to see this bottle again some day

2019 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots – I suspect Stevie wanted to serve this blind at the end, but after all the talk of “playing the player” during blind tastings, the entire room called out the wine as Coche before he even pulled from his bag; the 02 Coche Les Rougeots he brought to Press last month is in the pantheon of great white wines I’ve ever had; this 2019 has all the makings of following in the 02’s footsteps; orange peel note from Scott that I like; just an incredibly distinct, unique wine – nobody else makes Meursault like Coche; feels so gettable as a blind when you’re not tasting blind

After some deliberation, we decided to not serve the wines blind. This was a move I endorsed, but as the newcomer in a room full of heavy-hitters, I didn’t push too hard. Undoubtedly there are times where blind tasting is fun and necessary, but for this tasting I was opposed. My reasoning was manifold:

1) too often it’s merely the boldest or most powerful that asserts itself in a lineup of comparably-styled wines; with DRC, we are looking for finesse, elegance, nuance, complexity – these traits can easily be overlooked as we power down the assembly line in speed-dating fashion

2) no matter how hard we try to ignore the competitive aspect of blind tasting, it’s just not realistic for a table of 8 grown men; thus, we all would invariably resort to various party tricks to try and identify the wines blind rather than evaluating them systematically and wholistically

3) what Scott said was the argument I should lead with: wine, like other art forms, is most enjoyed when presented with context. I cannot imagine how much value would be lost if I read a Hemingway novel without knowing who the author was or when it was published, only to find out after I finished that it was Hemingway

4) blind tasting is a wonderful way to train your palate and enforce objectivity when tasting. I drink at least one bottle blind on a weekly basis and when at NY Vintners, we average probably 5 per session. Reps in the batting cage are crucial for growth, improvement, learning. A lineup consisting of 11 bottles of DRC including the RC and two Monties is not the batting cage.

All that said - in retrospect, perhaps we should have run a blind flight or two as many of our individual favorites could have been guessed by someone listening to the pre-game chatter. Jim and I boast a Bordeaux-palate so it’s not surprising we chose La Tache as our favorite with the RC and Richebourg rounding out the top 3. Garrett came in insisting that the Corton and Corton-Charlemagne were going to be the winners while the RC would disappoint; he walked out with the same opinion. The Ech and Grands Ech were universally panned.

The most striking piece to me when reflecting on the tasting was how different all the wines were. Same producer, same vintage, incredibly close proximity, and yet wines that in some cases bear no resemblance to each other. This, I conclude, is a testament to great winemaking. The vineyards of Domaine de la Romanee Conti are given room to express themselves. That said, every man is entitled to have a favorite. My top 5 of the evening:

1) La Tache 2019

2) Romanee-Conti 2019

3) Montrachet 2019

4) Richebourg 2019

5) Montrachet 2018

We are all familiar with the critical acclaim afforded the ’19 Burgundy vintage and thus far, I’ve seen nothing to argue differently – certainly nothing from this flight. With greater than average sunlight and a late harvest by modern standards, it’s baffling that such a warm/dry vintage could produce such energetic and balanced wines in their youth; a truly unique combination of ripeness, purity, and acidity. Lord knows that in Burgundy – the land of scarcity – we could use a few more years like 2019.