September 10, 2013 at Bar Boulud, New York, New York

We continued our series on the Early Greats of Côte Rôtie & Cornas with a dinner focusing on the iconic Marius Gentaz, with wines dating from 1978 until his last vintage in 1993.

This is the fourth remarkable evenings featuring a different legend of the Northern Rhône. Previous dinners fêted Noël Verset, Joseph Jamet and Robert & Georges Jasmin and future dinners will pay homage to Rostaing, Clape, and Champet. Our 14-vintage line-up represented a nearly unique range of Gentaz's Côte Rôtie "Côte Brune." It encompasses every vintage, but two, between 1978 and his final harvest in 1993. Therefore, we had the chance to observe his wizardry not only in great years like 1978, 1988 and 1990, but also in more average years like 1986 and 1992.  The experience was a thrill ride similar to our Noël Verset dinner, seeing a true master at work, who consistently made wine of beauty and typicity, year after year, nearly irrespective of vintage conditions.