Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
About Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (aka DRC) is an iconic producer – and has maintained this position for many decades. DRC has a fascinating and lengthy history spanning the ownership of its namesake vineyard by the Bourbon Prince of Conti, through the French Revolution to the current owner of the de Villaine and Leroy/Roch families. Managing 25 hectares of exclusively Grand Cru vineyards, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is the sole Burgundian estate to bottle nothing other than the pinnacle of the region’s classification system.
Chief amongst all Burgundy producers to claim holdings in most of the magical terroir in Vosne-Romanée, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is famously hailed as the King of Vosne-Romanée. Possessing only the best vineyard in the region, two of their most sought after red wines being Romanée-Conti and La Tâche, both of which are monopole holdings and frequently amongst the best offerings in Burgundy.
Apart from Romanée-Conti and La Tâche, DRC also produces four other Grand Cru wines from Vosne-Romanée at ultra-limited quantity each year: Romanée St-Vivant Grand Cru (approx. 1,500 cases/year), Richebourg Grand Cru (approx. 1,000 cases/year), Échezeaux Grand Cru (approx. 1,340 cases/year) and Grand Échezeaux Grand Cru (approx. 1,150 cases/year).
The style of the DRC wines is rich, intense, silky, transparent and quite light on the aromatic palate with more red than dark nuances. The use of whole clusters gives a very rich aromatic profile, and a very high complexity as the wine ages. All the wines are very reflective of the terroir, and the difference in terroir is very clear even when the wines are very young and powerful. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti normally use 100% new oak on the wines.
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Vinous (97+)
($3120) Good red-ruby. Knockout nose of black raspberry, tobacco and flowers; vibrant for 2003. Then dense, creamy and seamless yet almost shockingly vibrant, with outstanding balance and an impression of firm acids. In fact, this is the highest in acidity of these 2003s, with a pH of 3.5 (the rest are between 3.6 and 3.65, according to Villaine). The mounting finish goes on and on. Great wine, perhaps monumental.Inc. VAT£97,201.22 -
Vinous (94+)
(est. 2,500-$2,900) Good deep red. Less expressive but still utterly sexy nose offers plum, raspberry, flowers, smoke and earth. Hints at its superb volume but this is quite closed and tightly knit today, and much less expressive and sweet than La Tache. But this superconcentrated wine seemed to gain sweetness with aeration, showing an increasingly fat, seamless texture without any loss of energy as it opened in the glass. Really saturates the palate on the aftertaste, where the tannins are thoroughly buffered by the wine's strong extract and superb depth.Inc. VAT£71,286.02 -
Decanter (100)
Medium-full weight. Very lovely, almost Musigny-like fruit here. Complex, concentrated and intense. Marvelous harmony. Very, very long and multi-dimensional. This is very special.Inc. VAT£60,789.62 -
Vinous (97)
Bright, deep red. Reticent, musky nose opens slowly to reveal blackberry, violet, wild herbs and spicy oak; in a rather feminine style and a showstopper. Juicy and penetrating but at the same time silky and sweet, offering an ineffable combination of red and dark berries, spices, flowers and minerals. Conveys an impression of volume and thickness without any obvious weight. Dusty tannins saturate the palate and shimmer on the unflagging finish. The combination of silkiness and vibrancy here is uncanny.Inc. VAT£77,764.82 -
Wine Advocate (99)
Usually, choosing between La Tâche and Romanée-Conti is like choosing between your two favourite children. Not this year. The 2012 Romanée-Conti is one of the most spellbinding that I have tasted since I began 17 years ago. The bouquet is quite astonishing with brilliant delineation and focus, an almost disorientating sense of mineralité that soars from the glass and leaves you speechless. The palate is perfectly proportioned with a sensational line of acidity, brimming over with energy and frisson. This flirts with perfection and you know, one day it might actually achieve it. Just 350 cases produced.Inc. VAT£85,539.62 -
Wine Advocate (100)
The 2020 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru is a wine of real grace and purity. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries and blackberries mingled with sweet spices, violets, peonies and a subtle hint of wintergreen, it's full-bodied, ample and satiny, with terrific concentration and a suave, seamless, layered profile, gliding over the palate. It's as intensely flavorful as the more muscular, broader-shouldered La Tâche, but it's more elegant and sensual. It's also the wine in the cellar that's the least marked by the style of the vintage.Inc. VAT£64,202.42
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Vinous (97+)
($3120) Good red-ruby. Knockout nose of black raspberry, tobacco and flowers; vibrant for 2003. Then dense, creamy and seamless yet almost shockingly vibrant, with outstanding balance and an impression of firm acids. In fact, this is the highest in acidity of these 2003s, with a pH of 3.5 (the rest are between 3.6 and 3.65, according to Villaine). The mounting finish goes on and on. Great wine, perhaps monumental.In Bond£80,993.00 -
Vinous (94+)
(est. 2,500-$2,900) Good deep red. Less expressive but still utterly sexy nose offers plum, raspberry, flowers, smoke and earth. Hints at its superb volume but this is quite closed and tightly knit today, and much less expressive and sweet than La Tache. But this superconcentrated wine seemed to gain sweetness with aeration, showing an increasingly fat, seamless texture without any loss of energy as it opened in the glass. Really saturates the palate on the aftertaste, where the tannins are thoroughly buffered by the wine's strong extract and superb depth.In Bond£59,397.00 -
Decanter (100)
Medium-full weight. Very lovely, almost Musigny-like fruit here. Complex, concentrated and intense. Marvelous harmony. Very, very long and multi-dimensional. This is very special.In Bond£50,650.00 -
Vinous (97)
Bright, deep red. Reticent, musky nose opens slowly to reveal blackberry, violet, wild herbs and spicy oak; in a rather feminine style and a showstopper. Juicy and penetrating but at the same time silky and sweet, offering an ineffable combination of red and dark berries, spices, flowers and minerals. Conveys an impression of volume and thickness without any obvious weight. Dusty tannins saturate the palate and shimmer on the unflagging finish. The combination of silkiness and vibrancy here is uncanny.In Bond£64,796.00 -
Wine Advocate (99)
Usually, choosing between La Tâche and Romanée-Conti is like choosing between your two favourite children. Not this year. The 2012 Romanée-Conti is one of the most spellbinding that I have tasted since I began 17 years ago. The bouquet is quite astonishing with brilliant delineation and focus, an almost disorientating sense of mineralité that soars from the glass and leaves you speechless. The palate is perfectly proportioned with a sensational line of acidity, brimming over with energy and frisson. This flirts with perfection and you know, one day it might actually achieve it. Just 350 cases produced.In Bond£71,275.00 -
Wine Advocate (100)
The 2020 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru is a wine of real grace and purity. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries and blackberries mingled with sweet spices, violets, peonies and a subtle hint of wintergreen, it's full-bodied, ample and satiny, with terrific concentration and a suave, seamless, layered profile, gliding over the palate. It's as intensely flavorful as the more muscular, broader-shouldered La Tâche, but it's more elegant and sensual. It's also the wine in the cellar that's the least marked by the style of the vintage.In Bond£53,494.00