The producer of the iconic dessert wine recently gifted NBA coach Gregg Popovich a bottle of 1949 d’Yquem, following decades of custom.
Players and staff at NBA team San Antonio Spurs, based in Texas, have long noted Popovich’s love for Château d’Yquem, with one former player recalling seeing an Imperial (which contains 6.0L or the equivalent of eight bottles of wine) of the sweet wine in Popovich’s wine cellar.
Former Spurs assistant P. J. Carlesimo has previously said: “He’s got so many vintages of [d’Yquem], it’s incredible.”
Popovich is well-known among US sommeliers for rounding off a meal with d’Yquem, with one former somm at Spruce restaurant in San Francisco saying “nine times out of 10, he would end with d’Yquem.”
The same sommelier, George Lobjanidze, recounted Popovich polishing off a half-bottle of the 1990 vintage of d’Yquem alongside a burger.
According to ESPN, Popovich recently met with senior figures from Château d’Yquem when they travelled from Sauternes to Los Angeles to showcase the latest 2019 vintage.
During the visit, estate manager Lorenzo Pasquini, and Mathieu Jullien, marketing and sales director at LVMH, which bought d’Yquem in 1999, gifted Popovich with a bottle of the 1949 vintage from the same year as Popovich’s birth.
“For us, truly, managers like him are very much an inspiration,” Pasquini told ESPN.
There is a synchronicity in approach between the château and the basketball coach.
According to master sommelier Bobby Shuckey, both Popovich and the winemaking team at d’Yquem share the same “maniacal attention to detail”.
He even went as far as to call the two the “perfect human-wine pairing”.
Another former Spurs assistant, and current Utah Jazz assistant Chad Forcier agrees, saying of Popovich: “He has the same value system, and commitment to detail and to excellence.”
Popovich, who owns his own wine label, a Pinot Noir from Oregon, was initiated into the Basketball Hall of Fame on 11 August 2023. He has racked up the most coaching wins in NBA history.
This article was originally published by the drinks business and has been shared with permission.
