Tasted blind in Hong Kong, the Romanée-Saint-Vivant 1996 from Domaine Leroy was actually a last minute substitute donated by a generous guest following a string of corked wines. It is an absolutely stunning wine that transfixed everyone before we knew its identity (and here, I must confess that I suggested it was Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.) It's actually better than that. It has a heavenly bouquet of black cherries, cold limestone and wilted flower petals that you could just sit back and inhale all day. The palate is exquisitely balanced with filigree tannin, extremely pure and refined with astonishing tension and precision from start to finish. It's the vinous equivalent of watching "Swan Lake."