A Report From Wine Explorer Diego Samper
Paris, France
Last night, there were more bottles on the table than we needed.
A small place here in Paris, Au Passage. Tight room. A bit loud. Exactly how it should be.
She had organized the night.
Italian. Works at a wine shop here in the city. The kind of person who knows where to go and why. Menus written on the wall. A wine list that doesn’t try too hard.
You don’t order the same way when you’re with someone like that.
You let them take over.
One bottle leads to another. A rhythm builds. At some point, you stop asking what’s next.
You go with it.
You listen. You watch what lands on the table.
And it stays with you.
This morning, I saw the menu for the Masters Champions Dinner.
Same idea. Different table.
Every year, the previous winner hosts a private dinner at Augusta before the tournament begins. Only past champions. No outsiders. No cameras.
And for one night, he chooses everything.
This year, it’s Rory McIlroy.
It took him nearly twenty years to win the Masters. When he finally did, he got to set the table.
Rory has said he’s been collecting wine for the last ten years.
You can tell.
He didn’t treat this like a checklist.
The Lineup
2015 Salon
Champagne. Made only in certain years. It comes in with the opening bites. Fried, salty, rich.
2022 Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet
White Burgundy. Texture. Weight. Something that can sit next to tuna and foie gras without disappearing.
1990 Château Lafite Rothschild
For the main, wagyu or salmon, he goes with red Bordeaux. Fully mature. Also the wine he drank the night he won.
1989 Château d’Yquem
Sweet Sauternes. His birth year. With sticky toffee pudding.
You can read it like a sequence.
Not random. Not for show.
Placed.
With intention.
Each wine doing its job at the right moment.
By the time everyone has a proper glass, he’s putting something like $65,000 worth of wine on the table.
That’s what people will talk about.
But that’s not what makes it interesting.
What makes it interesting is that he cared enough to think it through.
From Rory at Augusta to an Italian caviste in Paris.
Different tables. Same instinct.
Someone decides what gets opened. When. Why.
You go with it.
That’s the part people remember.
Not the tasting notes. Not the price.
The feeling that someone knew what they were doing.
Last night had that.
And it doesn’t take Augusta to build a table like that.
Diego Samper
Wine Explorer
P.S.
We’ve got wines ready for your table too. Take a look at what’s in our cellar. Same idea. Smaller bill. Definitely not $65,000.
