How a Magnum of Burgundy Changed Drew Nieporent’s Life
It may sound like hyperbole, but it’s true: a bottle of wine changed the trajectory of Drew Nieporent’s life.
Back in 1984, Nieporent, not yet 30 years old, was working as a waiter captain at the famed New York City restaurant La Grenouille and dreaming of opening a place of his own: a New American restaurant in downtown Manhattan to be called Silverado Trail, a nod to the California wines and Napa-inspired cuisine he planned to serve.
In his new memoir, I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult (out now), Nieporent tells the story of how, while pouring a bottle of Louis Latour Montrachet for a table of VIPs at La Grenouille, he had an epiphany about his future establishment.
“As I was pouring the wine, I felt something warm in my hand,“ he writes. “I looked down and it was like the bottle was glowing, literally. I was either having a LSD flashback, or this was a sign from God. I looked at this wine and thought, Why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? Just open a French restaurant.”
With that pour and sign from above (or wherever), Nieportent abandoned the Silverado Road/California concept, hired a chef (David Bouley), and in 1985, opened Montrachet in Tribeca. The restaurant, which received a perfect three-star rating from the New York Times within six weeks of opening, shot him to culinary superstardom.
About two decades later, at his Manhattan wine store, Crush Wine & Spirits, Nieporent spied a magnum of Louis Latour 2010 Montrachet Grand Cru and had to have it. It reminded him of the epiphany he had at La Grenouille and the start of his career as a restaurateur. To this day, that bottle of Burgundy remains his most prized bottle, and he credits it with changing the course of his life.
Over the next four decades, Nieporent went on to open more restaurants in downtown NYC that were Burgundian-inspired: Montrachet, Corton, and Bâtard, along with many others.
Owner: Drew Nieporent, restaurateur and wine store owner
Bottle: Louis Latour Montrachet Grand Cru 2010
How’d I Get It? “At 29, I was about to open a restaurant called Silverado Trail, because I was inspired by California wines and the beauty of Napa. By then, I’d worked at a bunch of French restaurants. While I was still working at La Grenouille, someone had ordered a bottle of 1979 Louis Latour Montrachet and while I was pouring it, I got a godless sign, as this green-gold colored liquid glowed at me. It was very random; to me, it was a sign to open another French restaurant. That was the origin of Montrachet.
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[That bottle] totally changed the way my life would’ve been lived. The wine is prized for me because anytime I’ve drank a Burgundy that old, it’s usually not that good. Montrachet is the premier wine, and it’s made by several producers and it’s a very expensive Burgundy. But because it was Louis Latour, that’s the wine I now treasure. I had to have the magnum.
We carry different vintages of Burgundy at our NYC wine store, Crush, but the magnum struck me and I eventually purchased it, for about $1,500, in 2015. We opened Crush in 2005 and the vintage [of the magnum] is 2010… I’m still waiting to drink it!”
Purchase Price: Around $1,500
Estimated Value: Over $2,000, according to Wine-Searcher
When Do You Plan to Drink It: “For me, it’s very hard for me to open expensive wine. I must drink it with wine people, serious nerds: wine directors, sommeliers, my partners at Crush … people who will appreciate the wine. I’ll probably bring it to one of my affiliated restaurants, maybe Nobu, and pay the corkage fee and drink it there.
There aren’t too many people I’d want to drink this with. Bobby Schagrin, my partner at Crush wine, he would be there. I’d ask Robert Parker, the wine critic; Alan Richman, who wrote about wines for GQ; Daniel Johnnes who worked at Montrachet; and Charles Masson, the son of the owner of La Grenouille.
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I bemoan the fact that wines in restaurants have gotten ridiculously priced—and it’s good that they’ve relaxed a little bit with the corkage fee. If I’m going to a really good restaurant, I’ll sometimes bring my own wine, especially if I know the owners. But if I’m going to a world-class restaurant, like Noma, I’ll drink whatever the sommelier suggests, or something basic. Before going to Copenhagen, I actually called Noma and asked if they’d send me their wine list!”
More Burgundy Coverage
- Get to know the “other” grapes of Burgundy beyond Chardonnay and Pinot.
- We break down how to visit Burgundy on a budget.
- Climate change is altering the French region’s wine identity.
- The once-forgotten white grape Aligoté is making a big comeback.
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