Which DRC to try

So I’m turning 40 in March and I want to try my first DRC wine for it. Which one should look into getting.

07s are drinking well atm, rsv might be the sweet spot. I recently got some for ~1500.

Whatever you can afford…they are all great!

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Looking to stay around 2k. What’s the General profile of the wines. I do plan on stalking cellar tracker.

Astor also has 09 rsv for 2k with the 10% off.

Where do you get them. I’m a bit paranoid about Provence of these wines as I know how often they are faked.

Rsv elegant great aromatics, richebourg power, la tache both, I have less experience w ech and ge. Rc obviously out of your price range.

I got that one from benchmark; they have quite a few but no stellar deals atm. They knock off a big amount for label nicks or stains; I got a bottle of 16 rsv for like 1700 from them that said bin stained label but was almost pristine.

Also would recommend RSV for the value. LT is a great value on release but generally has a large premium on the secondary market. I would also recommend getting at least a good vintage for your first. There’s a reason some vintages are considerably cheaper. I just opened an 07 Ech for my birthday and of course it’s DRC but nowhere near the experience as some of the better vintages.

That’s likely because it’s ech and also ech was much weaker in past years. 07 and rsv are drinking fantastic atm. I’d rather have 07s for current drinking than most vintages besides 99-02.

2000 Echezeaux is drinking well now.

No doubt RSV would show better. But for my first bottle I still might go to a better vintage. I had an 03 RSV this year that was wonderful, great spice and weight, lovely fruit, everything you want from DRC.

04 isn’t green and is drinking well, priced well. 07 also, as noted. GE is a value wine in DRC lineup, if the term value can be used.

What vintages would be considered good to great?

2000s should be great value: better performance than the vintage reputation, lovely wines.

John, don’t work yourself up into a frenzy, forget looking at cellartracker. Buy a nice bottle (2000’s are really good) and enjoy. It is just wine. Although it can be earth-shatteringly good wine!

What Alan says is right. The G.E is the value play and DRC’s 04’s are really good.

You´re born in 1981, right - year of conception 1980 - and the DRC 1980 were very successful.
If you find a bottle in good condition (!) of 1980 Richebourg or Grands Echezeaux they could be still fine -
La Tache better still, but more expensive. RSV is a bit light, as is Echezeaux.
They 1980s even might be less expensive than younger vintages.

The 1981s were not really excellent -
but all 1991s are drinking great now, incl. Echezeaux.

03-04 are the worst vintages of the 2000s (although 04 is at least not green for drc). Rsv is also an improving vineyard (bc drc hasn’t owned it that long). If you wanted a more hedonistic experience, the 09 rsv I mentioned from Astor would be better.

Is that why rsv retail prices for new vintages seem to be much higher? Feels like at auction prior vintages (even recent ones in the early 2010s) trade barely over Ech, but retail for recent years has RSV nearing LT as discussed in the other thread.

I think so; if you read Neal martin’s review on the 17s, he noted that rsv was poured after richebourg for the first time this year.