(VinePair) -It’s 7 p.m. on a cold Monday night in December and I’m deeply skeptical. I’m in a swanky Upper East Side apartment with one of those elevators that opens right into a private residence. The scent of expensive perfume lingers in the air. A room full of impeccably clad wine professionals stand gathered around a grand piano. A pianist sits with his fingers raised above the keys, poised to start playing.

The people gathered around him include an array of well-known journalists and big-time buyers from retail shops all over the city. But the most important guests are three members of the Coulon family. They have been producing wine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, one of the world’s most sought-after appellations, for eight generations.