Galatoire’s Wine Dinner May Be the Most Exclusive Reservation of the Year

French Quarter stalwart Galatoire’s is hosting what may be one of the most exclusive dinner reservations of the 2018 year. Tickets to the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Wine Dinner on January 12 are $1500 a person and there are only 16 seats available.

Widely considered to be the world's greatest wine producers, bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) are among the world's most expensive ranging from $1000 to $10,000 a bottle. Prices are much higher for vintage bottles.

The idea for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) wine dinner started as a bit of a joke. According to René Sudduth, the sommelier at Galatoire’s, the team wanted to have a wine dinner in its upstairs wine room. They made a joke that they should have a Romanée-Conti wine dinner, and laughed. After all, they only get two to three bottles of the highly-allocated, very scarce, high quality wine a year.

But then they said, “Why not?” Though they don’t know of anyone who has ever done a wine dinner like this, they decided that there was no reason they could not.

In fact, Roco Lombardo, President of Wilson Daniels, the American importer for Domaine Romanée-Conti, called Galatoire’s personally to make sure the dinner was real. He hadn’t seen anything like it in his 25 years in his position.

Considering that price tag on DRC bottles, $1500 a ticket to the wine dinner isn’t really bad for wine enthusiasts.

The menu for the dinner, to be held at 7 p.m. on January 12, is full of simple, classic dishes with the idea that the wine is the star and the food is just “lagniappe,” Sudduth told Eater. Dishes include escargot and gnocchi, whole roasted quail, and roasted lamb ribeye roulade. Four of the courses are paired with Domaine de la Romanée wines.

All in all, it’s been a high dollar few months for wine in New Orleans. In November, a bidder paid $350,000 for a bottle of wine at Emeril’s fundraiser.

Take a peak at the menu:

Galatoire’s

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A Bidder Paid $350,000 for a Bottle of Wine at Emeril’s Fundraiser [E]