Wine Advisor
Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Romanee Conti Grand Cru Monopole 2016
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Description
Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti Grand Cru comes from an exceptional plot. The last in Burgundy to resist the phylloxera outbreak. However, in the Second World War it couldn’t tolerate the lack of carbon sulfur and for five years it didn’t produce vintages. It’s currently in top form through organic farming with biodynamic treatments. Maturation is exemplary with extremely low yields, leaving nothing to chance and carrying out several selection stages in the vineyard. After manual harvesting, the Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti Grand Cru grapes are gently crushed and then macerated with their skins at a controlled temperature. Fermentation takes place in wooden barrels and finally the wine matures for 12 months in new French oak barrels acquired 3 years before and dried by the house cooper. Fruit of a unique Grand Cru, the magnificence of Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti Grand Cru is known across the world. An impeccable work both in the vineyard and in harvesting which makes it the dream of every good wine lover. Without a doubt, the most sublime Pinot Noir.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru was picked on September 25 at 24hL/ha. As usual, I allowed it five or six minutes to open in the glass. It is a very subtle Romanée-Conti, more discreet than the 2016 La Tâche, but then you become entranced by its spellbinding purity and grace. It gradually builds aromatically, augmenting the black fruit with red, and developing scents of wild hedgerow and freshly tilled soil - almost a pastoral element. The palate is medium-bodied with extremely precise and fine tannin and notes of wild strawberry, cranberry and crushed limestone. This feels very harmonious, the texture silkier than the La Tâche, displaying just a touch of bay leaf and black pepper toward the sustained finish, which gains depth and grip with aeration. Exquisite, though I suspect the La Tâche will challenge it for supremacy. 440 cases produced. Tasted at Corney & Barrow’s annual in-bottle tasting in London.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright red-ruby. A touch of reduction to the spectacularly complex aromas of black raspberry, mocha, game bird, earth and violet. Thick and sweet but utterly primary and barely hinting at the complexity to come. And yet this amazingly suave, silky wine already shows outstanding focus and spine, not to mention uncanny depth. Fleshier in the early going than La Tâche, but this wine will also need long cellaring to fully express itself. As we tasted this wine, Aubert de Villaine noted that, as a general rule, there was more millerandage in 2016 than in 2015.
About the Producer
The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or DRC is one of the most prestigious wine estates in the world with 25.5 hectares mostly in Vosne-Romanée on the route des Grands Crus in the vineyards of the Côte de Nuits of the Burgundy vineyards (named after the 1.8 hectare Clos de la Romanée-Conti, one of the most prestigious mythical grands crus in the world). The civil company of the same name was founded in 1942 by Edmond Gaudin de Villaine. It is now co-managed for their heir family by the winegrowers Aubert de Villaine and Perrine Fenal.
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