NWR Weekly 040724

THE MASTERS CHAMPIONS DINNER NEEDS SOME WINE PAIRINGS. WE’VE GOT ‘EM.

Each year before the start of golf’s most famous tournament, all the former winners don their green jackets and gather for the Masters Champions Dinner (officially the “Masters Club Dinner”). The honor of selecting the menu goes to the most recent winner, Jon Rahm.

Rahm, with an assist from star chef José Andrés, paid tribute to his grandmother and his Basque heritage with a fabulous-looking selection of Spanish dishes.

But what should everyone drink? We asked three top sommeliers—one whose list leans natural, one whose list leans steakhouse, and one who works closely (but not exclusively!) with Burgundy and Champagne—what they’d pair with Rahm’s feast. We are trying really hard not to make a golf pun here, so let’s just say that their choices are awesome and we want to drink all of them.

Note to Jon Rahm: Jon, there’s still time to take their advice.

WHITE BURGUNDY’S STRONG ‘22 AND WILD PRICES

Christy Canterbury MW spoke with numerous experts—including a fellow Master of Wine and a Master Sommelier—who had lots of strong opinions about buying and understanding what’s happening with one of the world’s great wines. A small sampling of what they said:

• Vanessa Conlin MW, Head of Wine Retail as Sotheby’s: “Everyone is so excited about the [2022] vintage . . . Everything I have heard from winemakers and importers is good. The early previews I tasted when I was there for the Hospices de Beaune auction in November showed wines that are expressive but not fat, concentrated but elegant. A warmer vintage, but it still has lots of freshness.”

• Collector Ed Zimmerman: “I am definitely buying Burgundy. And it is definitely more painful than it used to be. I also feel more confused than ever because buying it is easier than drinking it. You buy a $100 bottle. The bottle becomes worth $200. I can have the conscience to drink that. Now, it is worth $400 and is irreplaceable . . . Am I going to flip it? What do you do when that bottle is $1,500?”

• John Sellar, EVP, Independence Wine and Spirits: “Most people are mid-term aging their white Burgundy now. It’s not like it used to be. Some people don’t even know that premox exists! It’s just not on people’s minds anymore. Burgundians have pulled back from working the wines like they did during those years. They have regulated the sulfur now. It is probably the gatekeepers that are selling whites that way. I think that shying away from old white Burgundy is in the past, but it depends on the sophistication of the collector.”

• Morgan Harris MS, Head Sommelier at Angler: “Burgundy prices have gone through the roof . . . We’re seeing village Puligny from C+ producers at $100 a bottle [wholesale]. I don’t know what to do with that wine. We’ve moved to Saint-Romain and Saint-Aubin. But even Saint-Aubin Premier Crus are now $250+ on the list.”

NEW AND AMAZING THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN PRIORAT

Jason Wilson has a bunch of terrific new-wave Priorats that he recommends, but he also goes much, much deeper on a region that’s staged a remarkable comeback. He writes:

“It’s hard to believe now, but in the 1980s, the mountainous Priorat was nearly extinct as a wine region. It had depopulated steadily during the early 20th century, after phylloxera devastated its vineyards. ‘Everyone left the higher altitude villages and went to the villages down in the valley,’ says Sara Pérez of Mas Martinet. ‘Then came the war. Then came the industrial wine era.’ Many residents moved to the Catalonia coast as mass tourism took off in the 1960s.”

Credit for region’s revival is due in part to a group of winemakers who banded together to create what became Priorat’s famously tannic, bold reds. But global tastes have swung toward a subtler, more elegant kind of wine, and a new crop of winemakers is seizing the opportunity—often with spectacular results.

WHERE ARE ALL THE CELEBRITY BOURBONS?

“Even if you don’t drink tequila, you know that Casamigos’ celebrity backer is George Clooney,” writes Whiskey Editor Susannah Skiver Barton. That tequila, of course, took the spirits world by storm—note: we are not saying it’s a particularly good tequila, mind you—and eventually sold for $1 billion. But despite all the celebrity bourbons out there from Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door to Peyton Manning’s Sweetens Cove, none have made anything close to such a splash. Why? Her answers reveal both her deep whiskey expertise and a bunch of fascinating dynamics still  playing out in the spirits and whiskey worlds.

WINE DEAL OF THE WEEK*

We have been gobsmacked by Benjamin Leroux's recent run of vintages for his white Burgundies. Perhaps that’s why we’ve overlooked his reds. But his 2020 Gevrey Chambertin was a highlight of a recent wine dinner we attended, even in the context of a super stacked lineup of worthy bottles. It’s here for $74—the best price in the U.S, by a significant margin. Snap ‘em up before we do.

*NWR is not compensated for the links in this section.  

AROUND THE WINE (AND WHISKEY) WORLD

👩🏿‍🍳  The 2024 James Beard Award Nominees are here.

🌭  Chicago’s best wine lists, according to the NY Times (paywall)

💻  Will AI make wine writers obsolete?

🍇 “Bourgogne has not seen a situation like this for over 20 years.”

As always, thanks for reading! See you next week for much more.

Santé!

The NWR Editors

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