John Szabo's bottles of a lifetime - Part I

Dear Wine Lover,

With the holiday season fast approaching, we invite you on an exquisite tasting journey through the most iconic grands crus of the world, which may inspire your festive choices to close out 2021 with panache! Called "Reflective Series" by its author John Szabo, our favourite Master Sommelier is sharing with us his bottles of a lifetime, tasted at various charity dinners over the last decade. We will disclose six bottles during the upcoming weeks, keeping you thirsty until the very early days of 2022.

Better known today as the Domaine de La Romanée Conti, or DRC, this legendary domaine is named for the peerless eponymous vineyard, of which the DRC is sole proprietor. As all collectors know, this is the scarcest and most expensive wine in the world, a first among equals. It is a rare privilege to taste a current vintage, but a bottle of this age is surely once-in-a-lifetime.

The Prince de Conti, reputed to be the richest man in France in the 18th, century added his name to the already famous La Romanée vineyard, which he purchased in 1760. The wine from this vineyard, then as now, was nearly impossible to obtain; the prince reserved its entire production solely for his personal use. Yet in the great equalization of the French Revolution, the prince’s land was confiscated and auctioned off.

In 1869, the vineyard was purchased by Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, a négociant in Santenay, great-great-great grandfather of current co-owner, Aubert de Villaine. After successive inheritances, in 1912, Edmond Gaudin de Villaine, husband of one of Duvault-Blochet’s granddaughters, and his brother-in-law, Jacques Chambon, became the estate’s sole owners. Villaine & J. Chambon was born. All wine from the famed vineyard was bottled under this Domaine name until 1942. In this year, the Domaine was converted into the Societe Civile de La Romanée Conti, composed of shares, and Chambon sold his shares to Henri Leroy, a close friend of Edmond Gaudin de Villaine who supported the then uncommon model of a domaine that owned and controlled all its own vineyards. Today, the DRC is run by Aubert de Villaine and Henri Frédéric Roch, nephew of Lalou-Bize Leroy.

1934 began on a Monday. It’s the year in which Alcatraz became a federal prison, and Adolf Hitler was elected Fürher by over 95% of German voters. The first Master golf championship was held in Augusta, Georgia, and the catchy tune “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" was first heard on the Eddie Cantor show. Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats were awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.

In the vineyards of Burgundy, 1934 brought a rare coincidence of quality and quantity, as in 1999 and 1959, vintages the likes of which we are desperate for more of these days. And of the wine, well, there is little that words can convey. It was served with seared magret of duck, with Maury gastrique, figs, and pecans, yet the wonderful plate quickly faded out of view as the larger-than-life wine imposed itself on center stage and proceeded to elicit one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had with any wine. This grand octogenarian was remarkably vital and hale, dazzlingly fresh, needing several minutes to for its full aromatic wave to unfold. It was the sort of wine you could smell all evening, or for a lifetime, without tiring; indeed, I was reluctant to take a sip, wanting the petite portion we were served to last as long as possible to be able to experience its aromatic glory to the fullest, to imprint it forever more in my olfactory memory. At this age one doesn’t expect much muscle, yet this Romanée-Conti was still twitching on a generously fleshy and well-buttressed frame. At once soothing and caressing, but assertive and authoritative. Simply brilliant and flat out spectacular.

I’ll never forget my first and only visit to the hallowed cellars of Dominique Lafon in the chilly spring of 2000. Even back then, and more so now, Dominique was like a rock star among stars in Burgundy; people would whisper as he walked into a bar or café in Beaune. We tasted through his range of extraordinary wines from barrel, including the 1999 Meursault Perrières, and my first taste of Montrachet. It’s a taste I still remember today, enjoyed without fanfare or unnecessary flourish, just a magical confluence of molecules in a cool, somber, space.

The history of this storied estate is traced back to Jules Lafon, who was born in Southwest France. He married Marie Boch, whose family were estate owners and wine merchants in Meursault. Later, while mayor of Meursault, Jules invited three dozen friends to celebrate the 1923 harvest with a banquet. The Paulée de Meursault was born, a raucous and well-watered luncheon that still takes place every November on the last day of “Les Trois Glorieuses”. These are the three days that every Burgundy wine lover dreams of attending, which includes the famous Clos de Vougeot banquet and the Hospices de Beaune auction.

Passing through sons Pierre and Henri Lafon, and grandson René Lafon, Dominique took over full responsibility for the 13.8 hectares of vineyards and winemaking in 1987, at the age of 26. The Meursault Perrieres 1999 comes from a 3/4 ha parcel of vines in the lower part of Perrières known as Perrieres Dessous, widely acknowledged as the finest loin of the cru (if only based on Lafon’s expression of it). The vineyard has been family owned for four generations, and the vines in 1999 were half a century old. Dominique had converted the parcel to biodynamic farming three years earlier in 1996, with qualitative advancements already notable by 1999. “We picked under sunny and very cold weather a normal crop (40 hl/ha) of very concentrated grapes, with pretty high acid” recalls Lafon. “The wine was tight when young and remains highly concentrated and high acid in style.”

The first sip of this perfectly preserved wine, youthful even, took me back to that cold and damp spring in Meursault, only now wiser and more mature. Silk and satin on the tongue, dreams in my mind. Served alongside a classic Lobster Bisque with Oil of Pickled Ginger, it was perfection.

Will you guess John Szabo's next picks?

Have a great time before the end of the year!

Santé,