Rory McIlroy’s Masters Dinner — on a budget

I think we have all seen Rory McIlroy’s menu and fantastic wine pairing for the Masters Club Dinner; superb, bucket-list wines from start to finish.

I thought it could be fun to make a ‘budget’ version of the wine list, for those who want to enjoy the Masters this weekend, re-create a Masters Club Dinner, or simply just enjoy some fun connections in the wine world. To make it more interesting, all the ‘budget’ wines on this list have a clear connection to the original wines on his list.

Rory’s list is:

2015 Salon “S”, Brut, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Champagne

2022 Domaine Leflaive, Batard Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy

1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux

1989 Chateau d’Yquem, Sauternes, Bordeaux

My budget version looks like this:

2018 Delamotte, Brut, Champagne (Or NV Delamotte, Brut, Champagne)

Champagne Salon’s neighbouring estate, and sister company is Champagne Delamotte. The Delamotte winery was actually created all the way back in 1760, almost 150 years before Salon was established. Today they are both under the same Groupe Laurent-Perrier ownership.

Both the Salon Cuvée “S” and the Delamotte are Brut de Brut, they are neighbouring estates, they are owned by the same owner, but at two very different price points. If one wants, one could also opt for the NV version of the Delamotte to save further.

2023 Clau de Nell, Chenin Blanc, Loire (Or 2022 Domaine Olivier Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy)

Anne-Claude Leflaive has been a very important person for Domaine Leflaive, running the estate from 1990 with a strong focus on biodynamic viticulture. Taking over from her dad Vincent, Anne-Claude took the Domaine from top-tier Bourgogne to the next level, as we know it today. A lot of people don’t know that Anne-Claude also had an estate in Loire(!), making fantastic Chenin Blancs, a seriously undervalued grape variety. For a fraction of the Domaine Leflaive listed above, you can get a world class Chenin Blanc from Loire, produced by the same fantastic winemaker!

If you want to stay on the Chardonnay route, there is always Domaine Olivier Leflaive, Vincent Leflaive’s nephew, and co-manager of Domaine Leflaive from 1982-1990. Eventually Olivier went his own way, starting a négociant business, with mentorship from Vincent. Today Domaine Olivier Leflaive has around 17 hectares of wine, and produce a great wine in Puligny-Montrachet, a good deal cheaper than Domaine Leflaive, but nothing close to the Clau de Nell.

Château Duhart-Milon, Pauillac, Bordeaux (Or Château Musar, Lebanon)

I excluded vintage on this one, but Château Duhart-Milon is a sister estate of Lafite Rothschild, managed under Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite. It runs for around a tenth of the price of a Lafite Rothschild, but still has that Pauillac strength, and historical significance in the Rothschild family. Fun fact, Lafite Rothschild is the only estate that could change it’s position in the original 1855 Bordeaux classification, where it in 1970 was elevated from second to first growth.

A fun other alternative that is even cheaper (and more interesting imo.) is Château Musar in Lebanon. Serge Hochar, the mastermind behind todays Musar, studied oenology in Bordeaux, under Èmile Peynaud. Peynaud is famously known as “the forfather of modern oenology” and was a key consultant for Lafite Rothschild, rebuilding their wines after the second world war. So there is a connection!

Château Rieussec, Sauternes, Bordeaux

Château d’Yquem’s next door neighbour, producing the same grape variety, for the same wine style at a tenth of the price? Sign me up.

Any others you would put in?