2018 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Vosne-Romanée Les Petits Monts 1er Cru
BY NEAL MARTIN |
Whenever I visit Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, I often spy a half-a-dozen barrels stencilled “Les Petits Monts”. I have never asked about their fate or which producer they might be sold to, though I have a hunch. I presumed that Domaine de la Romanée-Conti would never bottle it themselves, if only to maintain their 100% Grand Cru portfolio. Perhaps their stance softened with the intermittent and successful release of their Cuvée Duvault-Blochet, either commercially released via agents or sometimes secreted out to restaurants. That is a policy that I applaud – supporting customers whilst avoiding rampant speculation on the secondary market.
Then, the 2018 vintage saw the inaugural release of the Vosne-Romanée Les Petits Monts. It comes from a 0.41-hectare parcel, not the only Premier Cru in the domaine’s possession as they own 0.11-hectares in Au-Dessus des Malconsorts and 0.08-hectares in Les Gaudichots. The Les Petits-Monts equates to six-barrels, or more precisely according to the label, 1,747 bottles in this vintage at least. One assumes that it undergoes exactly the same vineyard husbandry and élevage as their Grand Crus. Like many, I first spotted it on social media. It becomes a bit like hunting for Willy Wonka’s golden ticket. Bertrand de Villaine told me where I might find a bottle, though a wine writing colleague had the same idea and guzzled it himself, a treacherous act that shall never be forgiven. Later, dining in Saint-Émilion with Antonio, I spotted another on a list, but we were both in abstemious moods since we had a zillion primeur samples to taste at the crack of dawn.
