Tasted the most sublime wine yesterday. Tasted at Grivot and went through all the perfunctory ’03 barrel tastings (getting so blasé about this) then he had us taste some bottles from ’02. Then an Echezeaux (Grand Cru) from ’01 in bottle. It was everything I love about red Burgundy…so elegant, sublime, sensual, just flows beatifully straight down your throat, like a waltz.. it was one of the best wines I ever tasted. And by tasted I mean drank, no spitting. And then he says, “Perhaps you would like to taste something with a bit more age?” And he brought out a ’96 Echezeaux. Wow. The whole time I drank it I had my eyes closed and was floating in a dreamworld of pleasure and elegance. It was the greatest red wine I have ever tatsted. It solidified for me what I love about red Burgundy: the elegance, the feeling, the emotion. I cannot describe these wines like, “rich fruit on the nose, generous, balanced, finish is blah blah blah!” Fuck that. Just pleasure. Just simply sublime in the true sense of the word. It was the most heavenly wine, tasting with the winemaker in his cellar. This is Burgundy, this is what makes it great: the passion. Grivot was another philosopher winemaker. It was a true pleasure and a thrill to have the honor of his company, experience, wisdom, passing and, naturally, his wine.