Meeting with a legend

The day before

He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never refuse anything.

Except it wasn’t a wedding proposal but a tasting invitation; and it wasn’t from Darcy but from DRC. Both are offers one simply cannot refuse.

Specifically, this was a tasting of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2009 vintage. It’s an enormous compliment to be invited to taste such hallowed wine. Like being invited to apply for an American Express Centurion card, or being ‘made’ in the mafia, such invitations play to our greatest vanities: exclusivity, rarity and sheer visceral lust.

I remember first...