1979 Echézeaux Grand Cru

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