seemed an obvious if clearly not straightforward objective for all: the Domaine, its UK agents Corney & Barrow, the hotel and the restaurant. Planning began in the summer of 2024, with a visit to the Domaine and then consultation with Adam Brett-Smith, Corney & Barrow’s managing director, as to what wine lineup would make sense. The choice was guided by a combination of drinking windows and wines of which The Connaught had at least three bottles in the cellar. The wine and food pairings were then chosen according to the wine/vintage combinations and the dishes that Hélène, herself a considerable wine enthusiast, thought would best complement the wines in question. Adam, too, had some observations by way of introduction: “This is an occasion to enjoy and talk about what the Domaine’s then director, Aubert de Villaine, called a necklace of vineyards with a single grape in common, Pinot Noir. Pinot’s transparency is an excellent medium of translation, of expression of the individual vineyard soils, their terroir, and the different vintages. I hate the obsession with so-called great versus poor vintages, for every year—and there are very different styles of vintages this evening—we will see diverse interpretations of the vineyards, each, as you will see, special in its own way. Finally, I want to stress that it’s worth trying each wine alone, in isolation, prior to having it with food, and to think of it as just a snapshot in time.”
Each wine was indeed poured before its accompanying course arrived, to provide time in isolation for that initial meeting.
Apéritif
2008 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart Brut (12.5% ABV; magnum)
Pale lemon-yellow. A lovely, fresh, early bouquet, with a very subtle, nutty, autolysis character, persistent and refined. Medium-full, concentrated, vigorous, the typical slightly austere balance of the vintage, even with 60% Pinot Noir. Bone-dry, very fine in mousse texture, taut, lemony, appetizing; complex, long in the mouth, and with superb aromatic persistence. A satisfyingly complete, classy apéritif with, as you would expect of 2008, years to go and improve. Now to 2035. | 94
WINES AND FOOD: SIX MOVEMENTS 1. CAVIAR—Daurikus, Thousand Islets Lake; dashi jelly, sea herbs, oyster, sea urchin Adam Brett-Smith: Montrachet’s reputation is as the greatest dry white wine in the world, so a lot to live up to. But this wine is always beautiful, be it at six months from barrel or 25 years in bottle. And 2014 was a very fine vintage for white Burgundy.
2014 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet Grand Cru (13% ABV)
Bright mid-gold; a refined, persistent early bouquet of roasted hazelnut, ripe white peach, minerals, and linden flower perfume—glass-filling, hauntingly complex, which you feel you can drink by smelling alone. A full, concentrated wine, vitally defined by its acidity, absolutely beautifully balanced; bone-dry, long, graceful, enormously tenacious across the palate, teeming with inner energy, with remarkable length of flavor to taste and a mouth-coating, minerally finish. A rich, taut wine, opulence contained by tension. All that one might want, indeed expect, of the summit of white Burgundy in this first- rate vintage. Infinitely rewarding now, decades to go. Now to 2044+. | 97+
As you can see, this first dish was small (as they all were), striking to behold, gold-leaf decorated, delicate. In essence, the large roed yet subtly brine-tasting Daurikus caviar on a bed of seaweed-scented dashi jelly. Marine-emphatic, abundantly redolent of the ocean on the palate, meaty in texture from the oyster, intense without being strong. This was a wonderfully balanced pairing with the
Montrachet, the dish itself having a remarkable length from its natural ingredients, absolutely to match that of the wine, and with all the scent and sensation of the 13% Chardonnay remaining, a combination of clarity, delicacy, and power in both wine and food. A great start.
2. ONION—Cévennes, France; lomo ibérico, Fumaison, sourdough, lemon thyme Adam Brett-Smith: 2019 was an easy, solar year, making for
Opposite: The full lineup of Domaine wines served during the dinner. Below: The exquisite caviar dish and its “wonderfully balanced pairing.”
THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 | 137
All photography by Justin De Souza, courtesy of The Connaught
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