2011 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

It is always a privilege to return to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Bertrand de Villaine in voluble form as he details the growing season and approaches to viticulture. Having visited for many years now, I covet the domaine as one of its few constants, then again, that is not strictly true. Biodynamics were introduced around 20 years ago, as well as nowadays being received by Bertrand instead of Aubert de Villaine. Another significant personnel change is with the chef de cave, Alexandre Bernier, who succeeded Bernard Noblet in 2018.

Amongst the subjects discussed were how some plots in Richebourg have been pulled up because of unproductive old vines, some due to degenerating 161-49 rootstock, fatigued after recent extreme weather conditions. He talked about picking prudent and early. To summarize, it is better to go in early, taste the fruit and then realize it might be premature, rather than leave it to the last moment and realize it is too late. There is also an impact upon vinification, as yeast populations suffer in warmer conditions. The headline for the 2023 vintage, which I will expand upon in my annual in-bottle report, is that the harvest began on September 7 with the Montrachet and Grands-Echézeaux. Picking took place over 12 days. Simply, the 2023 reds are all matured with 100% whole bunches in 100% new oak.

This is always a fascinating exploration of prenatal wines. This year, at least in barrel, I found the gap wider between the Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux, the mark of the vintage more evident on the Romanée-Saint-Vivant compared to the Richebourg, and a tangible stylistic difference between La Tâche and Romanée-Conti. With respect to the latter, quite simply, it is one of the greatest I have tasted from barrel since I first visited. No, I did not use the spittoon. Finally, readers should note that as expected, there will be a Cuvée Duvault-Blochet and a Vosne-Romanée Les Petits-Monts, the latter distributed directly to restaurants, which inevitably results in a Pokémon-like search across France…

As usual, I will not detail the latest vintage gestating in the vaulted cellars of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as I reserve that for the annual in-bottle tasting. This year, Bertrand de Villaine and Perrinne Fenal, daughter of Lalou Bize-Leroy, took a small party of “serious” wine writers, plus myself, for a group tour around the barrels. Bullet points are that the picking took place between September 1 in Romanée-Conti and finished on September 13 in Corton-Charlemagne. Fenal told us that they conducted 15 days of harvest instead of the usual ten days, including, God forbid, a Sunday. “When did the pickers go to church?” I ask her. No doubt, prayers and confessions were conducted out in the vines. One aspect of the growing season to note is a particularly long period of véraison, which I feel had implications for vine stress (see main intro). Also, there are a couple of tweaks in the vineyard to note. First, raising the trellising in some parts of Corton and a handful of rows in La Tâche where soils are stony and dry. Secondly, some rows were not hedged [rognage], though when I asked whether arching the canes together interested de Villaine, his expression was all that was needed to say “no.” I guess they’ve made pretty good wines over the centuries—why change? During the tasting, it was fascinating to taste the La Tâche from a different cooperage. It reinforced the symbiotic relationship between DRC and François Frère de Villaine, comparing it to “an old married couple.” Maybe once in bottle, the wine becomes the La Tâche I am familiar with? These trial barrels seemed to denude the wine of its signature DNA. Anyway, I will let the tasting notes do the talking and return to the wines when they are bottled.

Bertrand de Villaine greets me at the hallowed gates to show me through the Domaine’s 2021s. Such is the insatiable demand for visits from around the world that they have to limit the numbers permitted to taste from cask, not least for the two practical reasons of 1) the time it takes and 2) that it is risky opening and closing bungs on barrels, exposing them to oxygen so frequently. Naturally, status precludes no one from the caprice of Mother Nature, and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s vines were exposed to the three days of frost from 6 to 8 April, plus the blanket of snow on 7 April. Despite distributing candles across their vineyard, that put pay to half the crop in Vosne-Romanée, 80% in Corton and 90% in their whites, Montrachet and now Corton-Charlemagne. There was little relief for the beleaguered vineyard team that, to quote the Domaine, “had difficulty keeping the pace imposed by the unusual weather conditions.” Mildew and particularly oïdium were aggressive from May, botrytis from July. Weather conditions became more clement, and the harvest took place from 23 September to 2 October, necessitating rigorous sorting. Yields are the lowest ever, averaging just 15hl/ha in Vosne-Romanée, higher in Romanée-Conti and Grands Echézeaux at 22-23hl/ha. That’s a bumper crop if you compare them to Corton and Corton-Charlemagne at a measly 4.5hl/ha, plus there are just four barrels of around 1,200 bottles of Montrachet.

As the 2021s will not be released for some months, I will refrain from analysing these barrel samples. But I like to include them to compare with their peers and to trace their development between now and after bottling. One thing that I will mention, that I opined to Bertrand de Villaine, is that I intuitively feel that this is La Tâche’s year rather than Romanée-Conti, for the banal reason that the former’s expansive six hectares of vineyard permit them to winnow out anything that doesn’t quite pass muster. In contrast, Romanée-Conti’s 1.8-hectares deny their team that same flexibility, arguably making it a more accurate translation of a growing season. It will be fascinating to compare them once they are in bottle.

This year’s presentation of the new releases from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti marked the beginning of a new chapter. It was the first time new Co-Managers Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine presented the wines following the retirement of Aubert de Villaine.

As I sat down to taste the wines, I thought it was probably a very good time for a transition because that is what Burgundy is all about right now. Transition. The first thing evident in the 2020 reds is their intense red/purplish color. I guess this is present-day Burgundy. These are not your parents’ wines; that much is clear. We are in another era, figuratively and literally.

Two thousand-twenty is the third in a cycle of historically warm and dry years spanning vintages 2018 through 2020. And yet it is also the most surprising of the three years. As much as the wines are dark, deep and richly flavored, they are also remarkably fresh and vibrant. Are the vines adapting to current conditions, or are vineyard managers and winemakers becoming more skilled at dealing with the New Burgundy, or are other factors at play? I suspect the answer to that question, if there indeed is an answer, is pretty complex.

As usual, I am going to keep this brief because I deep-dive into each new vintage of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti when it is released, which means these 2019s will be reviewed in early 2023. But it is always a useful exercise to assess the wines from barrel and plot their progress. On this occasion, I was unable to taste the full range with Bertrand de Villaine, as the Corton, Richebourg and Romanée-Conti had just been racked (part of their new approach during élevage is to rack off some of the barrels into vat after one year instead of barrel-to-barrel). Suffice it to say that these showed huge potential, especially the electrifying Romanée-Saint-Vivant and a quintessential La Tâche that I accidentally swallowed rather than spat out. How unprofessional.

As usual, I am not going to enter into detail about the 2019s from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti since that is reserved for my annual in-bottle article when the wines are sold. So you might argue that these in-barrel notes are academic. On the other hand, they serve a purpose in that they can be measured against other wines included in this report. In fact, this was a last-minute addition since the domaine understandably was not accepting visitors as Covid numbers were increasing. In the end, they accepted a strictly limited number of Burgundy journalists in groups of three. Bertrand de Villaine took us through the reds from barrel. One or two things to note... Firstly, I want to point out the exceptional showing of Grands-Echézeaux. It seems obvious to rank the cuvées according to reputation or price from Corton/Echézeaux up to Romanée-Conti instead of assessing exactly what is in your glass. Consequently, I often feel that the Grands-Echézeaux is under-evaluated simply because of the company it keeps. But when the wind blows in the right direction, it performs close to the domaine’s very best wines. I was also taken by the opulence of the Romanée-Saint-Vivant vis-à-vis the Richebourg, which I preferred. Also, I found the stem addition more visible compared to the La Tâche where it felt more assimilated. These were exceptional 2019s. What I am intrigued is to find out how they show against each other once in bottle.

As usual, I will not dwell too much on my visit to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as I place more emphasis on the in-bottle tasting that is contemporaneous with the wines being offered for sale. However, it is useful to include my barrel notes to lot their evolution from barrel and to place them within the context of other domaines. The main points gleaned from my tasting with Bertrand de Villaine is that they felt that the vines resisted the heat much better in 2018 compared to 2003 thanks to accumulated water reserves. They began the harvest on 31 August in Corton where their three vineyards in Clos du Roi, Bressandes and Renardes continue to be blended together, although the 2018 does include young vines re-planted after they took over the running of these parcels. Then from 3 September, they picked in Richebourg, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Romanée-Conti, Grands Echézeaux and La Tâche in that order, finishing on 12 September. Yields were 32hl/ha in Grands-Echézeaux, 35hl/ha in Corton but lower in Romanée-Conti at 18hl/ha. Just returning to the order of picking, I was not aware of that information during my tasting from barrel. It was only when back at home and reading the domaine's report summary, that I realised that the two last picked vineyards, Grands Echézeaux and La Tâche, were the two that I found most difficult to read from barrel, especially the former. I am intrigued to revisit this pair once in bottle.

The annual presentation of new releases from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in early March was the last event I attended before lockdown. Aubert and Bertrand de Villaine were in town to present the new vintage, 2017, with a small sit-down tasting hosted by long-time importer Wilson Daniels. Initially I thought I would publish this article as a bookend, when things returned to normal. Back then, I could have never imagined where we would be today. After reading Neal Martin’s article Complex, Not Complicated: 2017 DRC in Bottle chronicling the London edition of this tasting, I decided to shamelessly rip off his format. So, here you have my version…

Ringing the doorbell of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti always provokes a frisson of excitement. After 12 years visiting the domaine, I am accustomed to the fact that aesthetically and functionally, this cellar is like any other. It is when you commence tasting that you remember that this address creates some of the finest wines known to mankind. That does not imply infallibility, or that because of reverence and market value they are implicitly “the best.” Yet their wines always have something to say, adeptly articulating the growing season and their respective vineyards. They are often cerebral wines that deserve as much contemplation as you can afford. Bertrand de Villaine greeted me at the office overlooking the central place in Vosne. Stepping into the shoes of a figurehead Aubert cannot be easy, and I admire that Bertrand has never pretended to become what some might call the “new Aubert.” Bertrand has a very different personality and since we first met, he has just been himself, seemingly unaffected by the responsibility placed upon his broad shoulders.

So let us broach the 2017s. The domaine was not spared frost damage in 2016, so the Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux will only be bottled in 1,500 magnums each, and at present, there are no plans to put them on the market. I mention this because vines react to the stress of the previous season. “We had a nice winter with cold temperatures,” Bertrand de Villaine informed me, “so the vineyard came back strong and powerful in Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux. The yields were a little over 35hl/ha in both Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux. Even if the crop was higher, the equilibrium in the vineyard was maintained. We cropped between 30hl/ha and 35hl/ha for most. However, there was no green harvest, since we had maintained vegetal material through careful pruning and de-leafing.”

As usual, I will not go into the minutiae of the growing season, since I keep that back for my annual in-bottle report every February. Suffice to say that in the domaine’s summary of the growing season, they cite early bud-burst and again, rapid and early flowering as key factors in the growing season. The rains at the end of August were perhaps a third factor since they nudged the ripening cycle towards phenolic maturity. The harvest commenced on September 4 in Corton, where de Villaine commented that re-grafting parcels through their sélection massale program has yielded much more promising fruit than they envisaged when their fermage commenced almost a decade ago. Picking resumed two days later in La Tâche and finished on September 15 with the last plots of Echézeaux. (The 2017 is the final harvest to be overseen by cellarmaster Bernard Noblet; his first was the 1985 vintage, when he took over from his father, André Noblet.) In 2017 they practiced a very gentle pigeage to avoid any overextraction. I also enquired about the use of stems in this vintage. “We used around 75% to 80% whole bunches in 2017, inspecting bunches carefully as they entered the winery and deciding how much to add,” Bertrand explained. “In 2018 we had to play more with the de-stemming because of mildew.” The wines are matured entirely in new oak as usual, though I spotted a few cigar-shaped 228-litre barrels housing their Echézeaux, as they improve lees contact during élevage. Bertrand de Villaine also remarked that they are considering bottling the 2017s a little earlier, though no decision had been made. Aubert did pop down to the cellar briefly and commented on how much he appreciates their “delicate aromas, elegance and transparency,” opining that they should age for 20 years or more.

Maintaining objectivity is paramount, particularly when it comes to such esteemed domaines as this. Having tasted every vintage since the 1995, my observation at this stage is that the 2017s are perhaps the most discreet that I have encountered. These are not wines that blow their own trumpets. They certainly demanded time in the glass to open; the La Tâche in particular was a cryptic crossword in a glass, a mystery novel with the final chapter torn out. It is a spectral beauty and yet unusually, this is the most enigmatic of the seven reds. I find the Romanée-Saint-Vivant the most bewitching, the Romanée-Conti the most assured. I suspect the wines were just beginning to close down as winter beckoned. Aubert de Villaine is perfectly correct with regard to their transparency and I suspect that they will gain density during the remainder of their élevage.

My January tasting of 2016s from barrel and 2015s from bottle at DRC was one of the most spectacular visits of my 30 years of tasting in Burgundy. Director Aubert de Villaine chose to present his 2015s first, possibly for fear that they might be tricky to taste following the theoretically more energetic 2016s. He needn’t have worried: both sets of wines are brilliant.

Both vintages, noted de Villaine, brought fully ripe fruit, and the ‘15s have even greater phenolic ripeness than the ‘16s. “But their tannins are nourishing,” he said, “and the wines are serene despite the bottling last March." He compared 2015 to 1966 in terms of the perfect health of the vineyards, adding that the estate saw no drought effect in ’15. “I don’t remember ever having this balance of fruit and plenitude and structure in my career,” said de Villaine. “The ‘15s will bury all of us.” It’s hard to believe that such rich wines will not shut down in bottle within the next few years, possibly for an extended period, but the ‘15s showed spectacularly in January.

So did the young ‘16s, in spite of the devastating effects of frost in the estate’s Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux holdings, not to mention its vineyards in Batard-Montrachet and, especially, Montrachet. But production of its other red grand crus showed little or no frost losses. Owing to the very warm temperatures that began in mid-July and well-timed rainfall in mid-August and early September, the estate considered its fruit ripe by September 15. But it held off on harvesting until the 22nd for its Corton vines and the following day in Vosne-Romanée, taking advantage of the precipitation between September 16 and 18 and picking during the most favorable window, finishing on the last day of the month.

Ultimately, said de Villaine, the quality of the tannins in 2016 may be even higher than in the previous vintage. The perfectly healthy grapes required very little sorting but the estate generally destemmed about 30% to 50% of their grape clusters; in comparison, the 2015s, with the exception of the Corton, were vinified with essentially 100% whole clusters. The 2016 malos were late and the wines had not yet been racked in January. The vintage, said de Villaine, is proving to be "extremely well balanced and a delightful surprise."

During my visit, I had the chance to wish a healthy and active next phase to long-time cellarmaster Bernard Noblet, who spent 37 years at this estate in a demanding and very physical role before retiring at the end of January at the age of 62.

The first article that I ever published on the subject of wine was not some breathless puff on a 100-point Chilean Merlot discovered two-for-one down at my local Tesco. Embarrassingly, my first vinous words (not Vinous words) regaled a morning in the company of the recently bottled 1999s from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti at Corney & Barrow back in the mists of time otherwise known as March 2002. That article can still be read on wine-pages.com – I beg you to overlook its amateur prose...I was just beginning. I felt privileged to taste such fabled wines, and never imagined that over ensuing years I would imbibe and write about Domaine de la Romanée-Conti many times. Life is funny like that, isn’t it? But in my mind there was never any chance of a rerun through those 1999s. To congregate those bottles again represents one mouth-watering but prohibitively expensive sitting. I mean, have you seen the price of the 1999 Romanée-Conti – a cool £180,000 per dozen. It probably increased another grand in the time it took me to type those zeros. So I make do with the memories and remain grateful that I have tasted every release since the 1995 vintage. The latest, the 2015s, was one of the domaine’s best.

My January tasting of 2016s from barrel and 2015s from bottle at DRC was one of the most spectacular visits of my 30 years of tasting in Burgundy. Director Aubert de Villaine chose to present his 2015s first, possibly for fear that they might be tricky to taste following the theoretically more energetic 2016s. He needn’t have worried: both sets of wines are brilliant.

Both vintages, noted de Villaine, brought fully ripe fruit, and the ‘15s have even greater phenolic ripeness than the ‘16s. “But their tannins are nourishing,” he said, “and the wines are serene despite the bottling last March." He compared 2015 to 1966 in terms of the perfect health of the vineyards, adding that the estate saw no drought effect in ’15. “I don’t remember ever having this balance of fruit and plenitude and structure in my career,” said de Villaine. “The ‘15s will bury all of us.” It’s hard to believe that such rich wines will not shut down in bottle within the next few years, possibly for an extended period, but the ‘15s showed spectacularly in January.

So did the young ‘16s, in spite of the devastating effects of frost in the estate’s Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux holdings, not to mention its vineyards in Batard-Montrachet and, especially, Montrachet. But production of its other red grand crus showed little or no frost losses. Owing to the very warm temperatures that began in mid-July and well-timed rainfall in mid-August and early September, the estate considered its fruit ripe by September 15. But it held off on harvesting until the 22nd for its Corton vines and the following day in Vosne-Romanée, taking advantage of the precipitation between September 16 and 18 and picking during the most favorable window, finishing on the last day of the month.

Ultimately, said de Villaine, the quality of the tannins in 2016 may be even higher than in the previous vintage. The perfectly healthy grapes required very little sorting but the estate generally destemmed about 30% to 50% of their grape clusters; in comparison, the 2015s, with the exception of the Corton, were vinified with essentially 100% whole clusters. The 2016 malos were late and the wines had not yet been racked in January. The vintage, said de Villaine, is proving to be "extremely well balanced and a delightful surprise."

During my visit, I had the chance to wish a healthy and active next phase to long-time cellarmaster Bernard Noblet, who spent 37 years at this estate in a demanding and very physical role before retiring at the end of January at the age of 62.

As Aubert de Villaine was on a business trip to Asia, I tasted at DRC in December with his nephew Bertrand de Villaine, who will be Aubert’s likely successor as director of this great estate. Bertrand showed me the domain’s brilliantly pure 2014s from bottle first, after which we walked down the street to the barrel cellar to sample the ‘15s, an amazingly rich set of wines made from grapes harvested at 13% potential alcohol or higher (part of the Echézeaux came in at 14%, according to Bertrand) and vinified entirely with whole clusters. In his detailed report on the 2015 growing season and harvest, Aubert de Villaine described the ripeness in 2015 as both homogeneous and extreme, but without any evidence of surmaturité. Fermentations lasted longer than usual owing to the strong phenolic maturity and high sugars. As is often the case 14 months after the harvest, some of the wines had been racked due to reduction but others had not.

DRC harvested their vines on the hill of Corton on September 5, then picked in Vosne-Romanée from September 7 through 14, with only a portion of the Echézeaux coming in after the rain on the 12th. Yields were in the very low range of 22 to 30 hectoliters per hectare. According to Bertrand de Villaine, the estate opted not to pick "the grapes roasted by sun and the short clusters."

Bertrand de Villaine described the 2014s as "brilliant vins de plaisir that don't yet show huge complexity.” I thought they were stunning, with the 2014 Montrachet clearly a monument in the making. The team destemmed 25% to 30% of the fruit in 2014, vs. none in 2015 except for the Corton

Bertrand de Villaine described the 2014s as "brilliant vins de plaisir that don't yet show huge complexity” I thought they were stunning, with the 2014 Montrachet clearly a monument in the making The team destemmed 25% to 30% of the fruit in 2014, vs none in 2015 except for the Corton

Aubert de Villaine noted that DRC avoided problems with the Drosophila suzukii thanks to the thickness of the grape skins. Rainfall on September 19 interrupted the harvest (DRC had picked only their Corton, La Tâche and Romanée-Conti by that afternoon) but, again, the thick skins prevented any outbreak of rot and the harvest finished under good conditions. The team did one pumpover in the morning and another in the afternoon at the outset of the fermentation, then switched to twice-daily punchdowns as the alcoholic transformation heated up. Yields were in the 30 to 32 hectoliters-per-hectare range in 2014, with the Romanée-Conti a bit lower at 28.

I was intrigued on my November visit by cellarmaster Bernard Noblet's comment that "we consider the stems to be part of the fruit." Many growers who are philosophically opposed to vinifying with whole clusters take the exact opposite view.

According to Bertrand de Villaine, the 2013s were seductive in barrel but are now very tight and closed. "It's not at all an immediate vintage," he told me in November. "The wines did not like being bottled and they have shut down quickly. But they are concentrated and dense, because we had only half of a normal crop." De Villaine compared them to the estate's 1949s, which he said took 20 years to mature. Potential alcohol levels were in the 12.5% to 13% range and no chaptalization was necessary. The team vinified with an average of about 60% whole clusters.

This year I tasted with both Aubert de Villaine and his nephew, Bertrand, who continues to take on a more visible role at the domaine. When discussing the 2013s, Aubert de Villaine draws parallels with 1978 and 1979, two years that were also quite late. Conditions in 2013 were challenging, as they were everywhere. In 2012, Spring was quite damp, but 2013 was even moreso, with total rainfall of 350mm versus 250mm the year before. Cold and rain drew out the flowering, a good two weeks behind in 2012 and five weeks in 2011, and also created quite a bit of shatter. Summer was much more favorable, reaching high temperatures in July and August, which allowed the ripening to catch up a bit. A bout of rain in late September caused a bit of last minute angst, along with an onset on botrytis, so the Chardonnay was picked on October 2, a little earlier than would have been the case otherwise. Pinot in Corton came in on October 3, but rain on October 5 and 6 caused the crews to take a break until the next day. The rest of the Pinot was picked in pretty rapid succession, culminating with the Échézeaux, which came in on October 12. Between shatter in the spring and severe sorting at harvest, production is down nearly 50%. As is typically the case, the 2013s were fermented with a high percentage of whole clusters. Bertrand de Villaine added that new oak has come down for the Corton and is now 50%, while all the other wines continue to see 100% new barrels.

Cellarmaster Bernard Noblet presented the bottled 2012s prior to the 2013s from barrel, partly because the newer vintage was evolving slowly after very late malolactic fermentations that finished between July and September. While the 2013s are not as fruit-driven as the 2012s, they boasts superb concentration and structure in the context of their vintage. The team here picked very late (Montrachet on October 2 and the pinots between October 3 and 13) "to get more tannic material," noted Noblet, and the plan as of November was to bottle the '13s later than the '12s.

I was thrilled to be a part of the 11th Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival, held this past fall in Toronto. The weekend long program of seminars, tastings and dinners hosted by an incredible collection of luminaries from the worlds of wine and food helped raise $5.5m for the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, one of the world’s leading research centers focused on stem cell research. These two smaller events within Grand Cru showcased the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and brought in donations of $1m.

Aubert de Villaine compared the domaine's 2012s to the 1991s, when I tasted the finished wines with him at the estate in November 2014. To be sure, though, the 2012s have come a long way since they were bottled. A year ago, the wines showed a palpable sense of raw power from tiny yields and late malos. Today, the wines are much more polished. At this stage, the 2012s can be divided into two groups; wines that are intensely tannic (Corton, Grands-Échézeaux, Romanée St.-Vivant and Romanée-Conti), and others where the concentration of fruit stands out above all else (Échézeaux, Richebourg and, to a lesser extent, La Tâche).

I tasted with Cellarmaster Bernard Noblet in November, so I was not able to ask Aubert de Villaine if he still prefers the estate's 2012s to its 2010s. In November of 2013, de Villaine ventured the opinion that the '12s have "more energy and riper tannins" than the earlier year. Part of that energy no doubt owes to his decision to vinify with 60% to 80% whole clusters in 2012, which helps to counter the vintage's impression of slightly elevated pHs, which Noblet told me are in the 3.6 to 3.65 range. These stunning wines impress more for their class and refinement than for sheer weight on the palate.

Mother Nature was merciless in 2012, sparing growers only botrytis (rot). Pretty much everything else that could happen did happen, DRC's Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine relayed. Warm, dry conditions in March led to a very early budbreak. Rain and unseasonably cool temperatures returned in April, causing all sorts of problems. Mildew and oidium were omnipresent threats, but high amounts of rain made it difficult to get into the vineyards for treatments. A long and protracted flowering lowered potential yields further. Conditions improved markedly over the summer and into the early fall, but not before heat spikes scorched some of the most exposed bunches. The harvest started on September 21. The 2012s have turned out very well, although as a group the wines are raw and much less polished than other recent vintages have been at the same period in time, most likely because of the late malolactic fermentations. I expect the wines will come together, but overall don't see a lot of early appeal in this vintage. The 2012s appear to be built for cellaring. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the Corton, which had just been racked. I did taste the 2012 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cuvée Duvalt-Blochet. Aubert de Villaine told me he had not decided if the wine would be bottled, and that if it was it would be sold only to restaurants in France. I found the wine quite pretty and expressive, but a bit light in structure.

Aubert de Villaine is always reticent about his new vintages before they are bottled, and his in-depth report on the growing season and harvest of 2012 goes into great detail on the challenges of the year. In the end, though, the crop was extremely small and concentrated (with an average yield in pinot noir of about 20 hectoliters per hectare) and the fruit was fully ripe and healthy. The main task at harvest was to leave behind the berries that were burned during a few scorching days at the end of June. Like many of his colleagues on the Cote de Nuits, de Villaine pointed out that without the natural crop thinning brought by mildew attacks and heat waves, the fruit would never have reached such a level of maturity and quality.The fermentations took a good six or seven days to start and it was even necessary to heat the grapes at the end of the harvest. DRC vinified with 60% to 70% whole clusters, with de Villaine pointing out that it's necessary to be careful with the use of stems in years with a lot of millerandage, "which means every vintage here since 2010." Today de Villaine compares the estate's 2011s to its 2009s in their finesse, charm and hedonistic appeal. The 2012s are more serious wines; as of November, he believed that they have more energy and riper tannins than the 2010s, and he ranks 2012 above 2010. As you will see from my tasting notes, 2012 is indeed an extraordinary vintage for this great estate. (Aubert de Villaine was not ready to present the Corton, as it had just been racked.)

Aubert de Villaine told me he prefers both 2011 and 2009 to 2010, and that the latter vintage is a bit reduced today following the bottling late last winter and early spring."The two thousand nines are seductive, while the 2010s are the opposite," he told me.(I thought the 2010s were stunning, by the way.)In 2011, DRC began harvesting on September 5 with potential alcohol in the "high 12s."De Villaine noted that the fruit is blacker in 2011, and a couple of the wines hinted at an almost chocolatey ripeness in November.The wines have more phenolic maturity than the 2010s, and more anthocyanins, he added.De Villaine compared the young 2011s to those of 1985 and 1979 and noted that they would only be racked for the assemblage prior to bottling, and that they would be fined but not filtered.

I tasted the 2010s twice from barrel, once in the summer just as the wines were about to be racked and then again during my early December visit. On both occasions the wines were stellar. Like virtually all of his colleagues, co-manager Aubert de Villaine was surprised by the level of the 2010s given all of the challenges of the growing season. I could repeat everything de Villaine told me, but there is no better source than the man himself, so readers who want to learn more about the 2010 harvest may want to take a look at my interview with de Villaine on this site. Overall, I am very impressed with the 2010s with the exception of the Corton, which appears to be a notch or two below the 2009. The 2010 that most greatly exceeds its appellation and historical level of quality is the Echézeaux. I also tasted the 2010 Vosne-Romanée Cuvée Duvault-Blochet but the domaine had not yet decided if the wine would be released. I will report on the 2009s in my April article.

Aubert de Villaine insisted on showing DRC's 2009s before the 2010s, a strategy that more growers should have adopted since in many cellars the 2009s came across as a bit warm and diffuse following the more perfumed and vibrant 2010s. At DRC, ironically, the 2009s are splendid wines and would have shown well at any time of the day or night. De Villaine describes the estate's 2010s as "a surprise," noting that the wines have gotten better and better through their elevage. "The 2009s will make you smile, like the '59s did, while the 2010s are more somber wines," he added.

This unforgettable evening was an auction lot built around an all-access pass to wines from my personal cellar paired with dinner donated by Saison that was sold at the most recent Festa del Barolo to support children’s pediatrics at the Mount Sinai Hospital. I would like to extend a huge ‘thank you!’ to our patrons for their extraordinary generosity. This dinner raised $55,000, 100% of which went to charity.

Aubert de Villaine is an honest judge of vintages, so I was not surprised to hear him describe 2009 as a vintage of charm. "It's a vintage with a smiling face, for both the vigneron and the consumer," he told me. "But so far it doesn't have the dimension or complexity of 2005 or 1999." The team here typically vinified with about 90% whole clusters. The malos finished on the early side-in the spring-but de Villaine was in no rush to bottle the '09s. Potential alcohol levels were generally 12.8% to 13% in 2009, and there were plenty of millerande grapes to release their sugars at the end of the fermentations, which typically gives a wine more glycerol. "The 2009s are more sensual, the 2008s more spiritual," he summarized. "The 2009s are like spending time with a courtesan, the 2008s like spending time with an intellectual." They're both pretty sexy.

I tasted the 2008s in bottle in late June 2011 after having gone through the 2010s from barrel. Aubert de Villaine describes 2008 as a difficult vintage with a lot of rain. Botrytis was an issue and the vineyards required constant attention. On September 14th the weather changed dramatically. A steady north wine dried out the grapes and concentrated sugars quickly, which also reduced the size of the berries. A further selection of fruit lowered yields to an even greater extent, resulting in overall production that is as much 50% lower than normal for the Domaine. As for the wines, they are magnificent in my view, but will require considerable patience.

I was intrigued by the comments of cellarmaster Bernard Noblet on the relative merits of DRC's 2008s and 2007s. Noblet described the 2008 growing season as difficult and requiring a severe sorting of the fruit for both rotten and underripe grapes. "We literally did two harvests because the flowering had been so drawn out," he told me. Cool weather during the harvest generally resulted in a good ten days of cold soak before the fermentations began. Extraction was then difficult, according to Noblet. The wines were vinified with 60% to 80% whole clusters, and the team has kept a bit of the lees to fatten the wines, which Noblet told me needed more structure. Interestingly, he described the 2007s here as more classic and more typical, and more strict than the 2008s. (A year earlier, Aubert de Villaine had described the 2007s as ethereal wines, and a bit less classic and soil-inflected than the 2006s.) While I'm sure that these wines will enjoy a long life in bottle, a number of them were awfully sexy when I tasted them in November. Except where indicated, the 2008s, had been racked about ten days prior to my visit. Incidentally, DRC plans to make two wines in 2009 from their purchase of the grand cru vineyards of Domaine Prince Florent de Merode in late 2008. As crop levels were tiny in '09, there will be an old-vines cuvee and another bottling from the rest.

I was intrigued by the comments of cellarmaster Bernard Noblet on the relative merits of DRC's 2008s and 2007s. Noblet described the 2008 growing season as difficult and requiring a severe sorting of the fruit for both rotten and underripe grapes. "We literally did two harvests because the flowering had been so drawn out," he told me. Cool weather during the harvest generally resulted in a good ten days of cold soak before the fermentations began. Extraction was then difficult, according to Noblet. The wines were vinified with 60% to 80% whole clusters, and the team has kept a bit of the lees to fatten the wines, which Noblet told me needed more structure. Interestingly, he described the 2007s here as more classic and more typical, and more strict than the 2008s. (A year earlier, Aubert de Villaine had described the 2007s as ethereal wines, and a bit less classic and soil-inflected than the 2006s.) While I'm sure that these wines will enjoy a long life in bottle, a number of them were awfully sexy when I tasted them in November. Except where indicated, the 2008s, had been racked about ten days prior to my visit. Incidentally, DRC plans to make two wines in 2009 from their purchase of the grand cru vineyards of Domaine Prince Florent de Merode in late 2008. As crop levels were tiny in '09, there will be an old-vines cuvee and another bottling from the rest.

Aubert de Villaine describes 2007 as an ethereal vintage, and thus probably not for people who look for fleshiness in their Burgundies. He is confident that what he describes as "the early vegetal aspect" shown by the 2007s will evolve into fascinating perfume with 15 years of bottle aging. Potential alcohols here were in the 12.5% range when the domain harvested during the first week of September, and the wines were chaptalized less than a half degree simply to prolong the fermentations. Vinification was done with about 50% to 60% of the stems, or a bit less than usual. Villaine considers the DRC 2006s to be more classic wines. "They're ethereal and they have strong soil tones, and there's plenty of flesh too," he said.

I was thrilled to be a part of the 11th Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival, held this past fall in Toronto. The weekend long program of seminars, tastings and dinners hosted by an incredible collection of luminaries from the worlds of wine and food helped raise $5.5m for the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, one of the world’s leading research centers focused on stem cell research. These two smaller events within Grand Cru showcased the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and brought in donations of $1m.

This truly once in a lifetime tasting of wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was one of many highlights of last year’s Villa d’Este Wine Symposium, which was held from November 6-9 on the picturesque, idyllic shores of Lake Como in Italy.

Aubert de Villaine describes 2007 as an ethereal vintage, and thus probably not for people who look for fleshiness in their Burgundies. He is confident that what he describes as "the early vegetal aspect" shown by the 2007s will evolve into fascinating perfume with 15 years of bottle aging. Potential alcohols here were in the 12.5% range when the domain harvested during the first week of September, and the wines were chaptalized less than a half degree simply to prolong the fermentations. Vinification was done with about 50% to 60% of the stems, or a bit less than usual. Villaine considers the DRC 2006s to be more classic wines. "They're ethereal and they have strong soil tones, and there's plenty of flesh too," he said.

The private dining room of David Chang’s Momofuku Ko was the site of this recent birthday dinner. The food and wine were both terrific, but as always, it’s the people who make an event special. Over the years, this group has tasted some pretty special wines together. That was once again the case on this night. Sommeliers John Slover and Chase Sinzers did a fabulous job keeping up with the pace and ensuring each wine was served at the optimal temperature.

This truly once in a lifetime tasting of wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was one of many highlights of last year’s Villa d’Este Wine Symposium, which was held from November 6-9 on the picturesque, idyllic shores of Lake Como in Italy.

Two terroirs, across four vintages in four different decades. Those were the parameters for this fascinating tasting held at the World Wine Symposium a few weeks ago. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine supplied all of the bottles from the estate’s cellars, which accounts for the brilliant performance of some of the wines in this tasting, the 1985s and 1979s in particular. Although the purpose of the tasting was to analyze the role of terroir, I actually found the wines to be just as marked by the personalities of their respective vintages.

Aubert de Villaine described 2005 as "a drought year in which the vines adapted well-and much better than they did in 2003." He told me he was worried about getting the dry tannins of 1976, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the wines showed a lot of fruit from the very beginning. Yields for most of the property's crus were in the range of 28 to 30 hectoliters per hectare. Incidentally, Villaine told me that although the domain typically bottles six barrels at a time, the 2002 La Tache and Romanee-Conti were bottled barrel by barrel, as were most of the wines in 1995. DRC prefers to bottle barrel by barrel when they don't want to lose any more CO2. The finished 2004s here are wonderfully complex wines, among the stars of their vintage, but the 2005s, which should evolve in bottle for 20 to 30 years, are extra special. "Two thousand four will always be a vintage for the nose," noted Villaine. "It will always be extremely aromatic."

Aubert de Villaine described 2005 as "a drought year in which the vines adapted well-and much better than they did in 2003." He told me he was worried about getting the dry tannins of 1976, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the wines showed a lot of fruit from the very beginning. Yields for most of the property's crus were in the range of 28 to 30 hectoliters per hectare. Incidentally, Villaine told me that although the domain typically bottles six barrels at a time, the 2002 La Tache and Romanee-Conti were bottled barrel by barrel, as were most of the wines in 1995. DRC prefers to bottle barrel by barrel when they don't want to lose any more CO2. The finished 2004s here are wonderfully complex wines, among the stars of their vintage, but the 2005s, which should evolve in bottle for 20 to 30 years, are extra special. "Two thousand four will always be a vintage for the nose," noted Villaine. "It will always be extremely aromatic."

Yields and selection were the critical factors in 2004, reported Aubert de Villaine, who told me that the growing season was difficult through the end of August, plagued by oidium, botrytis and the August 23 hail storm. The vintage was saved by the dry September and its north wind, and the estate was able to eliminate the dried grapes on the vines. Because the vines had never been stressed during the summer, Villaine added, the sugars went up quickly once the sun arrived, and the potential alcohol in the grapes was mostly in the high 13% range. Only about 20% of the fruit was destemmed in 2004. The estate-wide average yield here was just 28 hectoliters per hectare. The 2003s have turned out splendidly, with the Romanee-Conti my early candidate for wine of the vintage.

Yields and selection were the critical factors in 2004, reported Aubert de Villaine, who told me that the growing season was difficult through the end of August, plagued by oidium, botrytis and the August 23 hail storm. The vintage was saved by the dry September and its north wind, and the estate was able to eliminate the dried grapes on the vines. Because the vines had never been stressed during the summer, Villaine added, the sugars went up quickly once the sun arrived, and the potential alcohol in the grapes was mostly in the high 13% range. Only about 20% of the fruit was destemmed in 2004. The estate-wide average yield here was just 28 hectoliters per hectare. The 2003s have turned out splendidly, with the Romanee-Conti my early candidate for wine of the vintage.

A year ago, Aubert de Villaine was guardedly optimistic about 2002 and was clearly more enthusiastic about this estate's 2001s.He was a lot more positive about the newer vintage in November."Two thousand two is about purity of fruit more than about tenderness," he noted."It's less seductive than '99.Still, the 2002s have taken an interesting course.Now they show a good combination of purity of fruit and balance.They are very classic wines that have the fruit to be enjoyed in their first couple of years, or cellared for 10 to 15 years."Villaine told me that the young 2002s remind him of the '62s-and I have fond memories of that vintage!Yields here in 2003 were an infinitesimal 13 to 21 hectoliters per hectare (compared to an average of 28 in 2002), with potential alcohol levels in the 13% range. The harvest began on August 23, and Villaine told me the team here was careful to control the fermentation temperatures in 2003. These wines were racked in the spring.Villaine chose not to use micro-aeration with the '03s, because the wines needed oxygenation and he wanted to eliminate the carbonic gas.

A year ago, Aubert de Villaine was guardedly optimistic about 2002 and was clearly more enthusiastic about this estate's 2001s.He was a lot more positive about the newer vintage in November."Two thousand two is about purity of fruit more than about tenderness," he noted."It's less seductive than '99.Still, the 2002s have taken an interesting course.Now they show a good combination of purity of fruit and balance.They are very classic wines that have the fruit to be enjoyed in their first couple of years, or cellared for 10 to 15 years."Villaine told me that the young 2002s remind him of the '62s-and I have fond memories of that vintage!Yields here in 2003 were an infinitesimal 13 to 21 hectoliters per hectare (compared to an average of 28 in 2002), with potential alcohol levels in the 13% range. The harvest began on August 23, and Villaine told me the team here was careful to control the fermentation temperatures in 2003. These wines were racked in the spring.Villaine chose not to use micro-aeration with the '03s, because the wines needed oxygenation and he wanted to eliminate the carbonic gas.

Aubert de Villaine was one of a few chateau proprietors who wondered aloud what all the fuss was regarding the 2002 vintage. Yes, there was more sugar in 2002 than in 2001, as well as more acidity," he told me, "but the maturity came quickly after the early September rains, thanks to the sun and water available to the vines.It's a very good vintage that produced extremely nice wines, but it's not 1999. And it's not a particularly powerful vintage."De Villaine is high on his 2001s, however. It's a great, dense vintage, classic and seductive.The 2001s have been an extraordinary surprise."In my November tasting, they were even more impressive than the 2002s, even if the top two wines were a bit inscrutable at this early stage. DRC is experimenting with using microbullage(introducing small amounts of air in this case, not oxygen) to avoid one racking, and is also leaving some of the 2002 barrels on their original lees clear up to the assemblage (Wilson-Daniels, Ltd., St. Helena CA

Aubert de Villaine was one of a few chateau proprietors who wondered aloud what all the fuss was regarding the 2002 vintage. Yes, there was more sugar in 2002 than in 2001, as well as more acidity," he told me, "but the maturity came quickly after the early September rains, thanks to the sun and water available to the vines.It's a very good vintage that produced extremely nice wines, but it's not 1999. And it's not a particularly powerful vintage."De Villaine is high on his 2001s, however. It's a great, dense vintage, classic and seductive.The 2001s have been an extraordinary surprise."In my November tasting, they were even more impressive than the 2002s, even if the top two wines were a bit inscrutable at this early stage. DRC is experimenting with using microbullage(introducing small amounts of air in this case, not oxygen) to avoid one racking, and is also leaving some of the 2002 barrels on their original lees clear up to the assemblage (Wilson-Daniels, Ltd., St. Helena CA

With our warmer climate of recent years, we have to be careful not to get surmaturite said Aubert de Villaine. With organic farming, the season of vegetation is shorter and we get earlier ripeness. In two out of three years, we face a battle between ripeness and rot," he added. In 2001, rot was not a factor but we had less phenolic ripeness than in 2000. It was necessary to harvest carefully. We kept the fruit from the first passage through the vines, but the second pass actually brought less-ripe fruit that we ultimately declassified." Because the domain practices more careful selection than ever before, the lees are cleaner today. We previously experimented with retaining some lees, but since '99 we keep the fine lees with all of our wines throughout their elevage said Villaine. The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti continues to bottle in six-barrel batches, which means that some bottle variation is inevitable. I had a few problematic bottles among the 2000s I tasted, although it was not obvious whether the issue was slightly bad corks or simply shock from the bottling last spring ("a rebellion against imprisonment" is how Villaine put it). Villaine describes the 2000s as pure, solid wines that can be enjoyed now ("why not?") or laid down for seven or eight years.

I was thrilled to be a part of the 11th Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival, held this past fall in Toronto. The weekend long program of seminars, tastings and dinners hosted by an incredible collection of luminaries from the worlds of wine and food helped raise $5.5m for the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, one of the world’s leading research centers focused on stem cell research. These two smaller events within Grand Cru showcased the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and brought in donations of $1m.

With our warmer climate of recent years, we have to be careful not to get surmaturite said Aubert de Villaine. With organic farming, the season of vegetation is shorter and we get earlier ripeness. In two out of three years, we face a battle between ripeness and rot," he added. In 2001, rot was not a factor but we had less phenolic ripeness than in 2000. It was necessary to harvest carefully. We kept the fruit from the first passage through the vines, but the second pass actually brought less-ripe fruit that we ultimately declassified." Because the domain practices more careful selection than ever before, the lees are cleaner today. We previously experimented with retaining some lees, but since '99 we keep the fine lees with all of our wines throughout their elevage said Villaine. The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti continues to bottle in six-barrel batches, which means that some bottle variation is inevitable. I had a few problematic bottles among the 2000s I tasted, although it was not obvious whether the issue was slightly bad corks or simply shock from the bottling last spring ("a rebellion against imprisonment" is how Villaine put it). Villaine describes the 2000s as pure, solid wines that can be enjoyed now ("why not?") or laid down for seven or eight years.

Aubert de Villaine, always a tough critic of the DRC wines, told me that 1999 marked "the first time we couldn't have done anything better." In fact, this crop of wines has been sensational since day one, with superb concentration for the vintage and wonderfully silky textures. Sugar levels here were higher in 1999 than in 2000. In the latter year, DRC started the harvest on the first allowable day. "We're getting ripeness here very early," said de Villaine. "We don't have to lose acidity by waiting for more sugar." Potential alcohol levels were around 12.5% in 2000, and a little chaptalization was done to prolong the fermentations. Strict sorting of the fruit was done at the harvest: fully 25% of the crop was thrown out, declassified or sold off in bulk.

The first article that I ever published on the subject of wine was not some breathless puff on a 100-point Chilean Merlot discovered two-for-one down at my local Tesco. Embarrassingly, my first vinous words (not Vinous words) regaled a morning in the company of the recently bottled 1999s from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti at Corney & Barrow back in the mists of time otherwise known as March 2002. That article can still be read on wine-pages.com – I beg you to overlook its amateur prose...I was just beginning. I felt privileged to taste such fabled wines, and never imagined that over ensuing years I would imbibe and write about Domaine de la Romanée-Conti many times. Life is funny like that, isn’t it? But in my mind there was never any chance of a rerun through those 1999s. To congregate those bottles again represents one mouth-watering but prohibitively expensive sitting. I mean, have you seen the price of the 1999 Romanée-Conti – a cool £180,000 per dozen. It probably increased another grand in the time it took me to type those zeros. So I make do with the memories and remain grateful that I have tasted every release since the 1995 vintage. The latest, the 2015s, was one of the domaine’s best.

Two terroirs, across four vintages in four different decades. Those were the parameters for this fascinating tasting held at the World Wine Symposium a few weeks ago. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine supplied all of the bottles from the estate’s cellars, which accounts for the brilliant performance of some of the wines in this tasting, the 1985s and 1979s in particular. Although the purpose of the tasting was to analyze the role of terroir, I actually found the wines to be just as marked by the personalities of their respective vintages.

What at thrill it is to taste these two 1999s, wines from one of my all-time favorite Burgundy vintages. The rainy spring turned out to be a blessing given the intense heat and drought that last from mid-August pretty much until the harvest. This is also the first vintage of the Vosne 1er Cru bottling, which seems to correspond with an increase in quality of several wines at the Domaine, most notably the Échézeaux, Grands- Échézeaux and Romanée St. Vivant. The Échézeaux was brought in on September 21 and 22, while the Romanée St. Vivant was picked on September 24 and 25.

Aubert de Villaine, always a tough critic of the DRC wines, told me that 1999 marked "the first time we couldn't have done anything better." In fact, this crop of wines has been sensational since day one, with superb concentration for the vintage and wonderfully silky textures. Sugar levels here were higher in 1999 than in 2000. In the latter year, DRC started the harvest on the first allowable day. "We're getting ripeness here very early," said de Villaine. "We don't have to lose acidity by waiting for more sugar." Potential alcohol levels were around 12.5% in 2000, and a little chaptalization was done to prolong the fermentations. Strict sorting of the fruit was done at the harvest: fully 25% of the crop was thrown out, declassified or sold off in bulk.

The DRC '99s were among the clear standouts of my November tastings: concentrated, highly aromatic and built to age. DRC essentially harvested in two stages: they began by picking thoroughly ripe grapes from their old vines on September 20, the first legal harvesting day for the grand crus, then went back through the vines again a few days later. According to Aubert de Villaine, the skins were healthy, tannins were completely mature, pHs were higher than those of the previous year, and the wines are likely to be bottled two or three months earlier than the '98s. It is a crop of wines, he says, that will always be seductive. The powerful, more perceptibly tannic '98s, in contrast, have evolved more slowly, says de Villaine. They have a very interesting future but need time, "like children whose very good intellectual potential can take a long time to reveal itself." It was the '99s that glittered on my recent visit.

The DRC '99s were among the clear standouts of my November tastings: concentrated, highly aromatic and built to age. DRC essentially harvested in two stages: they began by picking thoroughly ripe grapes from their old vines on September 20, the first legal harvesting day for the grand crus, then went back through the vines again a few days later. According to Aubert de Villaine, the skins were healthy, tannins were completely mature, pHs were higher than those of the previous year, and the wines are likely to be bottled two or three months earlier than the '98s. It is a crop of wines, he says, that will always be seductive. The powerful, more perceptibly tannic '98s, in contrast, have evolved more slowly, says de Villaine. They have a very interesting future but need time, "like children whose very good intellectual potential can take a long time to reveal itself." It was the '99s that glittered on my recent visit.

Following strict selection, DRC produced just 25 hectoliters per hectare in 1998. As with so many '98s from Vosne-Romanee, the wines from this domain are powerfully structured and developing at a glacial pace. "But our wines always need 15 years," noted co-owner/director Aubert de Villaine. "Even the '97s are not for drinking young." Except for the Richebourg, which had not yet been racked, all the '98 barrels that I sampled had been racked prior to the '99 harvest. The more fragile '97s were bottled barrel by barrel to avoid any additional aeration (normal practice at this estate in recent years has been to bottle in six-barrel lots, assembling the wine in small tanks).

Following strict selection, DRC produced just 25 hectoliters per hectare in 1998. As with so many '98s from Vosne-Romanee, the wines from this domain are powerfully structured and developing at a glacial pace. "But our wines always need 15 years," noted co-owner/director Aubert de Villaine. "Even the '97s are not for drinking young." Except for the Richebourg, which had not yet been racked, all the '98 barrels that I sampled had been racked prior to the '99 harvest. The more fragile '97s were bottled barrel by barrel to avoid any additional aeration (normal practice at this estate in recent years has been to bottle in six-barrel lots, assembling the wine in small tanks).

Aubert de Villaine believes the '96s are very much like the '66s made by this domain. In '66, he explains, yields were even higher, but the fruit showed strong acidity and good sugar levels and displayed explosive fruit in the barrel. The '66s "didn't like" the bottling, and for the next ten years they were "as closed as stones"; similarly, says de Villaine, the '96s are in the process of shutting down in bottle. "There are two things I've learned through the years," notes de Villaine: "First, it is a mistake to try to extract through enological means. And, second, when they are ripe enough it good to keep the stems. If you put something a little green into the bottle, it enables the wine to age more gracefully; the wine matures like a flower." De Villaine describes the acid levels of '97 as lower than those of '96 but adequate. Still, the wines will be bottled quite early (the Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux were already in bottle at the end of January), barrel by barrel to avoid having to do a second aeration.

Aubert de Villaine believes the '96s are very much like the '66s made by this domain. In '66, he explains, yields were even higher, but the fruit showed strong acidity and good sugar levels and displayed explosive fruit in the barrel. The '66s "didn't like" the bottling, and for the next ten years they were "as closed as stones"; similarly, says de Villaine, the '96s are in the process of shutting down in bottle. "There are two things I've learned through the years," notes de Villaine: "First, it is a mistake to try to extract through enological means. And, second, when they are ripe enough it good to keep the stems. If you put something a little green into the bottle, it enables the wine to age more gracefully; the wine matures like a flower." De Villaine describes the acid levels of '97 as lower than those of '96 but adequate. Still, the wines will be bottled quite early (the Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux were already in bottle at the end of January), barrel by barrel to avoid having to do a second aeration.

Aubert de Villaine comparison of '96 and '95 is markedly different from that of many of his neighbors. 1996 was a "euphoric" vintage, he says, because the wines were easy to harvest and vinify. The tannins, though fat and seductive, are quite obvious, so he describes '96 as a masculine vintage. 1995, in comparison, is less tannic, more feminine, despite yields that averaged about 20% lower than in '96. Incidentally, the '95 Echezeaux and Grands-Echezeaux were picked after the showers that fell in early October. But, contrary to what one might expect, they have relatively low pHs for the vintage, because it was the ripest grapes that were attacked by rot and immediately eliminated at harvest time.

Aubert de Villaine comparison of '96 and '95 is markedly different from that of many of his neighbors. 1996 was a "euphoric" vintage, he says, because the wines were easy to harvest and vinify. The tannins, though fat and seductive, are quite obvious, so he describes '96 as a masculine vintage. 1995, in comparison, is less tannic, more feminine, despite yields that averaged about 20% lower than in '96. Incidentally, the '95 Echezeaux and Grands-Echezeaux were picked after the showers that fell in early October. But, contrary to what one might expect, they have relatively low pHs for the vintage, because it was the ripest grapes that were attacked by rot and immediately eliminated at harvest time.

This wine was tasted during collector Bruce Fingeret's birthday party, July 2010

Two terroirs, across four vintages in four different decades. Those were the parameters for this fascinating tasting held at the World Wine Symposium a few weeks ago. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine supplied all of the bottles from the estate’s cellars, which accounts for the brilliant performance of some of the wines in this tasting, the 1985s and 1979s in particular. Although the purpose of the tasting was to analyze the role of terroir, I actually found the wines to be just as marked by the personalities of their respective vintages.

A harsh winter and a delayed flowering are two of the characteristics of the 1985 growing season. Harvest started on October 2nd and wrapped up on the 8th, very late by today’s standards, but typical of the era, which shows just how much things have changed over the last few decades. These two 1985s are quite pretty, but they are also at or near maturity. I expect the wines will hold for at least another handful of years although there is little, if any, upside to be gained from extended cellaring.

This wine was tasted over dinner at a friend's house.

Two terroirs, across four vintages in four different decades. Those were the parameters for this fascinating tasting held at the World Wine Symposium a few weeks ago. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine supplied all of the bottles from the estate’s cellars, which accounts for the brilliant performance of some of the wines in this tasting, the 1985s and 1979s in particular. Although the purpose of the tasting was to analyze the role of terroir, I actually found the wines to be just as marked by the personalities of their respective vintages.

All things considered, these two 1979s are still in great shape. Both wines are pungent and intensely savory, with sweet, fully tertiary fruit. In my view, older wines must maintain a degree of freshness in color, aromatics and fruit to be truly enjoyable, something that is probably too much to ask for in a vintage as challenging as 1979. Personally, I find the 1979s in this tasting a bit faded for my own taste. Co-manager Aubert de Villaine describes 1979 as a very difficult vintage. Hail arrived on June 3rd, just before flowering. The vines recovered and produced a second crop that was brought in from October 11-20. Yields were a measly 6-7 hectoliters per hectare

This wine was tasted at the La Paulee Gala Dinner in San Francisco, 2008.

This wine was tasted over dinner at a friend's house.

This wine was tasted backstage at La Paulée.

The first [Italian Wine Weekend[ (http://vinous.com/articles/italian-wine-weekend-at-del-posto-nov-2009) was held in New York City on November 12-14, 2009. The event, loosely based on Daniel Johnnes’s La Paulée, was held to benefit the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. As might be expected for any event in its first year, there were some rough spots, but both dinners I attended at Del Posto were packed. The charity auction raised almost $400,000 for the University, a great achievement by any measure. I am particularly grateful to the generous bidders who purchased the two dinner lots I was involved with. I hope the organizers, participating restaurants and wineries will make Italian Wine Weekend an annual tradition.

This wine was tasted over dinner at a friend's house.

This wine was tasted at the La Paulee Gala Dinner in San Francisco, 2008.