Picture this: a darkened room in Los Angeles , a mixing board glowing in the low light, and a glass of 2013 Château d’Yquem catching the amber warmth of a nearby lamp. Mixing engineer Manny Marroquin cues up one of the tracks he shaped into a global hit — and the vintage in your…
Picture this: a darkened room in Los Angeles, a mixing board glowing in the low light, and a glass of 2013 Château d’Yquem catching the amber warmth of a nearby lamp. Mixing engineer Manny Marroquin cues up one of the tracks he shaped into a global hit — and the vintage in your glass dates from the same year the song dropped. This was the private listening session at Vin et Hip Hop LA, the event’s first-ever US appearance, and it distilled the entire weekend’s premise into a single, disorienting moment: what happens when you pair the temporal precision of a great Sauternes with the temporal precision of a great record?
The answer, for those who were in the room, was something that neither a wine dinner nor a hip hop show could have delivered alone. Vin et Hip Hop LA unfolded across multiple events — an intimate winemaker dinner at Felix, a main party headlined by Common, Dilated Peoples, and Wiz Khalifa, and that private listening session with Marroquin and Château d’Yquem. Each event operated on a different register, but all three shared the same conviction: that the culture surrounding fine wine and the culture surrounding hip hop have more connective tissue than most people assume.
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Get Exclusive Access →Vin et Hip Hop began in 2022 at the Château du Clos de Vougeot. Scenes from the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions in France — the rooms, crowd, and energy that the Los Angeles weekend translated.
 2023 edition · Photo: Benoît Guénot |  2023 edition · Photo: Benoît Guénot |
 2023 edition · Photo: Benoît Guénot |  2023 edition · Photo: Benoît Guénot |
 2024 edition · Photo: Pietro Gatti |  2024 edition · Photo: Pietro Gatti |
 2025 edition · Photo: Léo Champmartin |  2025 edition · Photo: Léo Champmartin |
The event was founded in 2022 at Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy — one of the most storied addresses in French wine — by Milena Berman and Loïc Lamy of Hautes Côtes, alongside Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac. The premise was direct: bring the winemakers who make the wines collectors obsess over into the same physical space as the artists and culture-makers who share their audience, and let the evening do the rest. Jermaine Stone of the Wine & Hip Hop platform served as MC across the weekend, threading the cultural connective tissue between rooms.
The Los Angeles edition added a layer that only LA could provide. Verse, the venue that hosted the VIP concert, is owned by Manny Marroquin — a 17-time Grammy-winning mixing engineer whose credits span decades of recorded music. His son Matias Marroquin served as sommelier at Verse, which meant the room where hip hop and fine wine formally met for the evening was staffed by someone who grew up inside both worlds. A percentage of revenues from the weekend went to The Roots Fund, the official charity partner.
Marea, where the opening dinner took place on Tuesday March 17. Source: Eater LA." loading="lazy" />The weekend opened on Tuesday March 17 at Marea, where Brian Sieve and Ryan Hannaford of Racines poured alongside Edouard Labet of Château de la Tour and Diana Snowden-Seysses of Snowden Vineyards. Château de la Tour holds the distinction of being the largest single owner inside the Clos de Vougeot — the grand cru vineyard where Vin et Hip Hop itself was conceived — which gave the opening dinner a particular resonance. Labet presented the Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru in three forms: the Cuvée Classique 2020, the Cuvée Vieilles Vignes 2020, and the Hommage à Jean Morin in both 2020 and 2017.
Diana Snowden-Seysses — wife of Jeremy Seysses and winemaker at Snowden Vineyards in Napa — brought a Cabernet flight that ran from the Brother Vineyard 2015 through Los Ricos 2016 to the Reserve 2005, placing California alongside Burgundy in a conversation that felt less like a competition than a dialogue.
Racines opened the evening with their Wenzlau Vineyard Chardonnay 2021 and Domaine de Montille Vineyard Chardonnay 2023. For collectors tracking Snowden's allocation releases, seeing the Reserve 2005 poured in this context — against Labet's Vieilles Vignes — was the kind of comparative tasting that rarely surfaces outside a private cellar.
Kato across from a Cheval Blanc vertical. Source: Keeling Andrew." loading="lazy" />Cheval Blanc answered with a flight that opened with Le Petit Cheval Blanc 2023 and Cheval Blanc des Andes 2022 before landing on the Château Cheval Blanc 2015 and 2006 — two vintages that collectors track closely, the 2015 for its density and the 2006 for the way it has continued to open over two decades.
The pairing of Lachaux's Burgundy precision against Cheval Blanc's Merlot-dominant Saint-Émilion structure made Kato one of the more intellectually demanding tables of the weekend.
Allocations for current Arnoux-Lachaux releases are notoriously tight; sitting across from Charles Lachaux while tasting the Échezeaux 2017 is an access point that no secondary market transaction can replicate.
RVR, where Rhuigi Villaseñor co-hosted a Burgundy dinner with every wine poured from jéroboam. Source: LA Times." loading="lazy" />If the Mélisse dinner was the weekend's most storied table, the dinner at RVR on Wednesday March 18 was its soul. Romaric Chavy of Domaine Chavy-Chouet and Maxime-Henri Lafarge of Domaine Michel Lafarge poured alongside Rhuigi Villaseñor — the founder of RHUDE, one of the most influential fashion labels to emerge from Los Angeles in the past decade. A live DJ set ran through the evening. Every wine was served en jéroboam.
The decision to pour en jéroboam was not a gimmick. In Burgundy, large-format bottles age differently — more slowly, more evenly — and serving them at a dinner table rather than at auction changes the entire register of the experience. It also signals something about the event's intent: these wines were here to be drunk, not displayed.
That combination — Volnay and Meursault in three-litre bottles, a live DJ, a fashion designer at the table — is the clearest expression of what Vin et Hip Hop is actually trying to do.
For anyone who has watched Lafarge's Volnay premier crus trade upward at auction over the past five years, seeing them poured en jéroboam at a dinner co-hosted by a streetwear designer is the kind of image that stays with you.
Mathieu Roland-Billecart · Louis Fourrier
Champagne Billecart-Salmon × Domaine Fourrier at Verse" loading="lazy" />Inside Manny Marroquin’s acoustically engineered supper club in Toluca Lake, two family estates synonymous with elegance shared a table. Mathieu Roland-Billecart represented the seventh generation at Billecart, founded 1818. Louis Fourrier brought the wines of Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Four prestige Champagnes — including the Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon 2009 rosé — held the table against a Fourrier ascent that culminated in the Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru 2019, from one of Burgundy’s smallest Grand Crus at 2.7 hectares.
What was pouredGrégory Castells (Martine’s Wines) · Omri Ram (Château Lafleur)
Dunsmoor" loading="lazy" />Two producers serious collectors prize for the same reason — scarcity — converged at Dunsmoor. Domaine Bernard Bonin is among the most sought-after estates in Meursault. Château Lafleur is a 4.5-hectare Pomerol that consistently rivals its more famous neighbor, Pétrus.
The Bonin flight ran three Meursault lieux-dits with crystalline clarity. The Lafleur side was comprehensive: three satellite wines and three vintages of the grand vin spanning 16 years — 2006, 2016, 2022.
What was pouredChiara Pepe · Will Harlan
Emidio Pepe × Harlan Estate at Felix" loading="lazy" />Possibly the weekend’s most audacious pairing landed at Evan Funke’s Felix in Venice. Emidio Pepe, founded in 1964, works in a register that seems to belong to another century — biodynamic, hand destemming, foot-crushed whites, no filtration, decade-plus cellaring before release. Chiara Pepe represented the fifth generation. Will Harlan brought Harlan Estate.
The Pepe selection moved from a Pecorino 2023 through three Montepulcianos, ending on a 35-year-old Vecchie Vigne 1990. The Harlan flight was equally staggering — 2019, 2011, 2002, and a 1997, one of the most legendary wines ever produced in Napa.
What was pouredAntoine et Prune Amiot-Servelle · Maya Dalla Valle
Domaine Amiot-Servelle × Dalla Valle Vineyards at République" loading="lazy" />Antoine and Prune Amiot-Servelle brought an extraordinary all-2023 lineup from Chambolle-Musigny. Maya Dalla Valle represented the Napa estate her mother Naoko established. République — Walter and Margarita Manzke’s grand brasserie on La Brea — hosted.
The Amiot-Servelle flight was a pristine 2023 ascent: village → 1er Cru Les Charmes → Derrière la Grange → 1er Cru Les Amoureuses. The Dalla Valle side held two vintages each of the estate Cabernet and the iconic Maya.
What was pouredCarlton McCoy · Jeremy Seysses · Rodolphe Péters
 Carlton McCoy, MS |  Jeremy Seysses |  Rodolphe Péters |
The week’s sponsor-buyout dinner brought together the event’s co-creator with two of the wine world’s most compelling figures. Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac was foundational to building Vin et Hip Hop. Carlton McCoy — Master Sommelier and CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates (Heitz Cellar, Stony Hill, Haynes) — anchored the Napa side. Rodolphe Péters of Champagne Pierre Péters specializes in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Blanc de Blancs.
The Dujac flight spanned 45 years — from a Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 1996 back to a Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes 1978.
What was pouredPierre Lafon · Saskia de Rothschild · Thibault Renard
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Domaine des Comtes Lafon × Château Lafite Rothschild × Champagne Krug" loading="lazy" />If any single dinner of the weekend qualified as once-in-a-lifetime, this was it. Three of the most illustrious houses in French wine — the pinnacle of white Burgundy, of First Growth Bordeaux, and of Champagne — shared one table at Mélisse, Josiah Citrin’s Santa Monica fine-dining destination. Pierre Lafon represented Domaine des Comtes Lafon. Saskia de Rothschild represented Château Lafite Rothschild. Thibault Renard poured from Krug. The room sold out within minutes of going on sale.
The Krug flight alone could have anchored an entire event — Clos du Mesnil 2006, Krug 2006, Grande Cuvée 162ème Édition, and a stunning Krug 2000 prestige cuvée. The Comtes Lafon course featured four Meursault Premier Crus, peaking on the Perrières 2013. The finale was a Lafite vertical that descended to a 1964 from magnum — a bottle that pre-dates the modern era of Bordeaux winemaking entirely.
What was pouredThursday, March 19 · Verse, Toluca Lake
The nine dinners were the spine of the weekend, but Thursday night at Verse was the moment Vin et Hip Hop’s premise stopped being a thesis and became an event. Common, Dilated Peoples, and Wiz Khalifa performed inside Manny Marroquin’s acoustically engineered supper club — the same room where the 17-time Grammy-winning mixer has spent his career making records sound the way they sound. Domaine Dujac flowed alongside the sets. Jermaine Stone, the Bronx-born sommelier and creator of the Wine & Hip Hop platform, MC’d the evening.
 Common |  Dilated Peoples |  Wiz Khalifa |
The room itself was the secret weapon. Verse sits adjacent to Larrabee Studios, where Marroquin has mixed records for Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys. The dining space hides 52 speakers behind the architecture, tied into a Meyer Sound Constellation system that re-tunes the room’s acoustic signature in real time. The result, on a normal Thursday, is a restaurant where every table hears the music as if it were mixed for them. On this Thursday, the system was carrying live performers — and the audience could hear the mix the way Marroquin hears it.
The pairing logic was unusually literal. Earlier in the weekend, a small group had been pulled aside for a private listening session: Marroquin queued tracks he had mixed and poured glasses of Château d’Yquem from the matching vintage year. A song from 2013 in one hand, a 2013 d’Yquem in the other. The session distilled the entire premise of Vin et Hip Hop into a single gesture — that the temporal precision of a great Sauternes and the temporal precision of a great record could speak to each other across the same table. By Thursday night at Verse, that gesture had scaled into a room.
What set the night apart from a music venue with a wine list — and from a wine event with a band — was the seriousness of both halves. Matias Marroquin, Manny’s son, ran the wine program at Verse with the same care his father brings to a record. The Dujac flight on the floor was not background; it was a peer to the music. Common rapping verses he wrote two decades ago, Wiz pulling from the catalog he built from scratch, Dilated Peoples reminding everyone that LA hip hop has its own canon — and underneath all of it, a Burgundy estate whose reputation was built one bottle at a time over three generations.
The crowd was the other surprise. Burgundy importers were standing next to producers from Larrabee’s engineering bench. Restaurant industry from across LA mixed in with collectors who had flown in from New York and the Bay Area. Rhuigi Villaseñor, who had co-hosted RVR on Wednesday, was there. So were sommeliers who had spent the previous three nights on the floor at the dinners. Everyone who had been part of the week-long buildup ended up in the same room for the close.
The arc the organizers had been promising for three years finally landed in one place — wine as craft, hip hop as craft, both poured at the same volume, both held to the same standard.
Vin et Hip Hop could have chosen New York for its American debut. The wine infrastructure is there, the collector base is dense, and the media attention would have been immediate. Instead, Milena Berman, Loïc Lamy, and Jeremy Seysses chose Los Angeles — a city whose relationship with fine wine has historically been underestimated by the East Coast establishment and overestimated by its own boosters. The choice turned out to be precise.
Los Angeles in 2026 has a restaurant culture — Mélisse, Kato, Marea, RVR — that can hold its own against any city in the country for the kind of long, wine-driven dinner that Vin et Hip Hop requires. It has a fashion industry, in the form of Rhuigi Villaseñor and RHUDE, that engages with luxury goods not as status markers but as cultural objects. And it has a music industry, represented here by Manny Marroquin and Verse, that understands production values. The event needed all three, and LA had them.
The sold-out dinners at Mélisse and Kato — both of which would have filled regardless of the format, given the wines on offer — suggest that the audience was already there. What Vin et Hip Hop provided was a frame that made attending feel like participation in something, not just consumption of something. That distinction matters to the kind of collector who already has access to these wines through allocation and auction. They came for the room, not just the bottle.
Vin et Hip Hop began at Château du Clos de Vougeot in 2022 with a clear thesis: that the culture around fine wine was narrower than the wine itself deserved, and that hip hop — with its own tradition of connoisseurship, its own vocabulary of scarcity and provenance — was a natural counterpart. Four years later, the Los Angeles edition proved that thesis in a city that has no patience for events that do not earn their place in the calendar.
The nine dinners, the sold-out rooms, the 1964 Lafite magnum at Mélisse, the jéroboams at RVR, the Grammy-winning engineer's son pouring at Verse — none of it felt accidental. It felt like a format that has found its footing and is now ready to travel. Where the next edition lands, and which winemakers sign on when they hear how the Los Angeles weekend went, will define whether this becomes an annual fixture on the collector calendar or something rarer still. En Primeur Club will be watching — and if this is the kind of access you look for, you know where to find us.
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