Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
1, place de l’Eglise
21700 Vosne-Romanée
Tél. +33 (0)3 80 62 48 80
The most expensive wine on the planet and the most coveted at auction, a true grail for discerning tasters in search of the wines of this prestigious estate - a conquest sometimes in vain, as the wines are so rare because they are produced in such tiny quantities - Romanée-Conti is at the top of the list of wine myths. It is the myth and the greatest ambassador of French wines throughout the world. Embodying the perfection of Burgundy and a certain idea of refinement in the bottle as well as the aesthetics of wine, Romanée-Conti, once owned by Prince Louis-François de Bourbon-Conti, is also the story of two great wine families, the Leroys and the De Villaines, who together have been managing this monument to wine, dedicated to the quintessential Pinot Noir, since 1942.
The most famous of Burgundy's estates is located on the route des grands crus at Vosne-Romanée, in the heart of the Côte de Nuits in the Côte d'Or. Originating from the priory of the Abbey of Saint-Vivant in the 10th century (900 to be precise), created by Mannassés, Sire de Vergy, this estate boasts 1500 years of history behind it. The first vines of “Cloux des cinq journaux”, the name given at the time before the name Romanée-Conti came into being (as it didn't until the end of the 18th century), were planted by the priors in the 13th century, in 1241. The priory was attached to the famous Abbey of Cluny. The famous 1.8-hectare plot in question, or rather the “climat” (in short, a strictly delimited parcel of vines) - which has remained unchanged since its creation in the Middle Ages - was first known in 1512 as “Cloux des cinq journaux”, and later became “Cros des Cloux”, with several owners (“cloux” being the Old French term for “closed”). In 1651, the word “Romanée” finally appeared to designate the famous Pinot Noir plot. However, it would be more than half a century before the term “Conti” appeared in the parcel's name.
In 1760, a Prince, Prince Louis François de Bourbon, “Prince de Conti” (a Bourbon, therefore from the branch of Louis XIV), competed with the famous Madame de Pompadour for this emblematic vineyard. At the time, La Romanée already enjoyed a high reputation, and the Prince de Conti bought it at a high price (ten times that of the famous Clos de Bèze, it is said). Subsequently, three years after his first purchase, the Prince de Conti acquired two other adjoining plots. He took the opportunity to equip the vineyard with its own buildings for the first time, constructing staff accommodation and a cellar for vinification and aging. Some of these infrastructures are still visible today, and form a discreet (but above all functional) group of buildings in the small village of Vosne-Romanée, right next to its little church, rue du Temps perdu. On the death of the Prince de Conti, he was succeeded by his son Louis François-Joseph de Bourbon, who was not to keep the property for long, being taken prisoner in 1773 at Fort Saint-Nicolas in Marseille. In 1776, on the death of the Prince de Conti (father), the name Romanée-Conti officially appeared on the land register.
During the French Revolution, the estate and its vineyards (Romanée-Conti and Romanée Saint-Vivant) were confiscated by the revolutionaries and Romanée-Conti became national property, the young Republic getting its hands on a jewel which it described as “the most excellent of all the Republic's vineyards”. A veritable war treasure. Around 1794, in the midst of the Terror, after Romanée-Conti had been appraised twice, the estate was sold to an engineer and economist, Nicolas Defer de la Nouerre. On September 22, 1819, the estate was bought by Julien-Jules Ouvrard, who later became deputy of the Côte d'Or. By 1830, wine was being made at the famous Clos de Vougeot, just a stone's throw from Romanée-Conti. When Julien-Jules Ouvrard died on June 22, 1861, the famous estate passed to his nephews. But the nephews sold Romanée-Conti a few years later, on August 7, 1869, to Paul Guillemont, who sold it as quickly as he had acquired it, on November 25, 1869, to Jacques-Marie Duvault Blochet. At the age of 79, Blochet realized the dream of a lifetime. This new owner was no novice, as he already owned parcels in Gaudichots Richebourg, Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux. He died on February 23, 1874.
He is also the author of a remarkable book, a wine treatise entitled “De la Vendange” (Harvesting), which brings together no less than 53 years of study (53 vintages), experience and comparison on Romanée-Conti and Burgundy wines. Only one original copy remains in the Dijon municipal library. However, it was republished in 2002 by his descendants, Aubert de Villaine and Henri-Frédéric Roch, co-managers of the Société Civile de la Romanée-Conti. The man is so well known for his contributions to Burgundy that Romanée-Conti will release a cuvée in his name, and will be vinified for the first time in 1999 as Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru, the cuvée being named “Duvault Blochet.” A fine tribute!
In the second decade of the 20th century, in the midst of the Third Republic, a certain Edmond Gaudin de Villaine, together with Jacques Chambon, purchased the shares in Romanée-Conti in 1912. Then the Great War broke out. In 1933, while the effects of the “Great Depression” (“Dark Thursday” of October 1929) were still being felt in the world economy, Romanée-Conti acquired a new climate: “La Tâche Joly de Bévy”. The jewel of Burgundy, already well known in the last few centuries as we have explained, was to experience a brilliant destiny and an overwhelming fame never before attained, to the point where, from the end of the 70s onwards, its auction counters went wild: indeed, Romanée-Conti was regularly the subject of prestigious international auctions at stratospheric prices, due to its small production (barely 6,000 bottles per year), its prestige and its unrivalled reputation. This dazzling development is unquestionably the fruit of two great Burgundian families.
This change of direction was secured at the start of the Second World War with the creation of a Société Civile de la Romanée-Conti. The Société Civile was controlled by a supervisory board with one representative from each family, and co-managed by two managing partners from each family. The first is the De Villaine family. The property was handed down to the De Villaines through Jacques-Marie Duvault Blochet's great-granddaughter, Dominique Chambon (wife of Edmond Gaudin de Villaine). The second family was the Leroys, who, through Henri Leroy (3rd generation) - father of the “Grande Dame of Burgundy”, Lalou Bize-Leroy - acquired half the shares in Romanée-Conti in 1942, after Jacques Chambon had sold him his shares.
Since then, Romanée-Conti has been controlled by Henri de Villaine and Pauline Roch (Lalou Bize-Leroy's sister) from 1990 to 2000, then by Henri de Villaine and Perrine Fenal (Lalou Bize-Leroy's daughter) from 2000 to 2018. Since then, Henri de Villaine and Isabelle Roch (daughter of Pauline Roch, who passed away in 2009) have been members of the Supervisory Board.
In terms of co-management, Aubert de Villaine and Lalou Bize-Leroy co-managed the estate from 1974 to 1991 (Lalou Bize-Leroy left co-management in 1992, but remained a 25-percent shareholder). Aubert de Villaine subsequently co-managed the estate with Charles Roch (son of Pauline Roch), but the latter died in 1992 and his brother Henri-Frédéric Roch took over. However, following the latter's untimely death at the end of 2018, his cousin Perrine Fenal replaced him as co-manager, having previously served as co-president of the Supervisory Board from 2000 to 2018.
Finally, following the much-publicized retirement of Aubert de Villaine (more than 50 years at Romanée-Conti), his nephew Bertrand de Villaine (already involved with the estate since 2008, having worked in the vineyards, cellars and administration) will succeed him in December 2021.
As for Aubert de Villaine, although he wasn't initially destined to take over co-management of the famous estate (he might have imagined himself as a teacher after studying literature and law), he joined Romané-Conti in 1965 at the age of 25, joining his grandfather Edmond Gaudin de Villaine and his father, Henri Gaudin de Villaine, who managed Romanée-Conti from 1950 to 1974. What changed his mind about his “career plan”? The fact of being, de jure as well as de facto, an heir to an estate, with the feeling of not being able to escape his destiny to contribute to ensuring the destiny of the iconic estate? Not quite! It's a meeting, and not the least, with the famous Californian Robert Mondavi (Opus One), while Aubert has been in the USA for nine months, working for Frederick Wildman & Co (the exclusive importer of Romanée-Conti in the USA). The “pope of the Californian wine revival”, with his modern vision of viticulture, is said to have captivated Aubert during a journalistic interview he conducted, who sees here a few principles from across the Atlantic to be made compatible with the viticultural tradition of the old continent. Encouraged by this encounter, and recalled by his father to join him at Romanée-Conti, Aubert de Villaine returned from the United States and joined Romanée the following year. As he would later say, Aubert de Villaine was deeply convinced that his time in the USA had given him “a fresh eye, unencumbered by the past”.
In 1974, alongside Lalou Bize-Leroy (4th generation and representative of the second family in co-management), Aubert de Villaine became co-manager of the estate with the intention of bringing new things to the famous Burgundy domaine. One of his ambitions was to play a major role in the future of the estate: to succeed in making wines of the same caliber as those that Romanée-Conti was able to offer before the key date of 1945; that is, wines made from the historic, “franc-de-pied” Pinot Noir vines (a veritable treasure trove and guardian of the history of the great pre-phylloxera Pinot Noir), i.e., the original plants from the mythical plot (recognized by the plaque dominated by the famous cross (le calvaire). This parcel faces east (the best of all exposures) and has an ideal slope (hence good drainage), and the wine produced here exudes the taste of an exceptional terroir like no other.
For the record, Aubert de Villaine had the opportunity to taste old Romanée-Conti from 1910 to 1945. What is the famous model parcel in question that so inspired Aubert de Villaine in his project? This is the historic climat “le Grand Cru Romanée-Conti”, unchanged in terms of surface area since 1580. This “Monopole” - since it has belonged exclusively to Romanée-Conti from the outset - is a parcel of 1 hectare, 80 ares and 50 centiares. Aubert de Villaine would explain that the vineyard in question had managed to retain its original, ungrafted seedlings for longer than other plots, even though phylloxera had wreaked havoc throughout Burgundy (as well as throughout wine-growing France and wine-growing Europe) at the end of the 19th century. Where other vines had been progressively replaced by grafted plants (vitis vinifera on American rootstocks insensitive to phylloxera), La Romanée's vines were still resisting, and we didn't want to uproot them because they were a true genetic heritage and the unique signature of Romanée-Conti. But in 1946, when the original vine had been maintained until 1940 thanks to carbon sulfide treatments (a treatment that became impossible to carry out during the German occupation, as the product was no longer available), Aubert de Villaine's grandfather and Henri Leroy were forced to uproot and replant it, as it was exhausted: by 1945, it was producing just two “pièces” (a total of 456 liters of wine).
Once the vines had been replanted, thank goodness with grafts from other vines that the original vine had given (like a “massal selection” from mother to daughter), Aubert de Villaine and his teams were able to reproduce much later - from 1946 to 1951, Romanée-Conti no longer produced any Grand Cru vintages - wines of great femininity and intense finesse, just like the old Romanée-Conti wines before 1945, for this has always been Aubert de Villaine's ambition.
Romanée-Conti wine is a work of art, as precious and rare as a masterpiece that has survived the centuries. Yet, as curious as it may seem, the inaccessibility of Romanée-Conti wines, due to the average bottle price (thousands of euros), has not always enabled the estate and its heirs to make a decent living from the hard work and heavy investment, at least up to and including 1971, to elevate the wines to the pantheon of the nec plus ultra of drinking. Aubert de Villaine, when he joined his grandfather and father in 1965, recognized that at that time, Romanée-Conti was still not making any profits and was even losing money, a fact that was even truer in the 1930s. Anecdotally, it was the agricultural activity of his father's farms in the Allier region - Henri Gaudin de Villaine, then co-manager with Henri Leroy - that ensured the survival of Romanée-Conti. Who'd have thought it? It wasn't until 1972 that the prestigious estate began to make a profit. Since then, the privileged few who are able to obtain precious bottles of the world's finest Pinot Noir have had to pay an average of 7,000 euros, the very high prices being explained in particular by the micro-production available each year (around 300 to 500 cases, i.e. 6,000 to 7,000 bottles for the whole world). In some years, such as 1983, Romanée-Conti was only able to produce 700 bottles). A bottle of La Romanée-Conti (the Monopole) can cost from 10,000 to 15,000 euros, depending on the vintage, but for decades it was not possible to obtain a bottle on its own, even if the customer only wanted one, since “allocation” purchases are made directly from the estate. Indeed, Romanée-Conti very early on set up a reservation system, with unavoidable waiting lists that could sometimes involve two or more years' waiting, as the prestigious wine was sought after to the maximum by the wealthiest amateur or professional customers. For several decades, a single rule prevailed when it came to buying wines: the obligation to subscribe to a case of wine (around 7,000 euros) including the Domaine's other Crus (d'excellence) in order to claim the grail. So, in addition to the mythical bottle with its exceptional terroir, La Romanée-Conti (Monopole), the privileged customer was for a very long time able to obtain in his case (and therefore had no choice) La Tâche Grand Cru, Richebourg Grand Cru, Romanée Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru, Echézeaux Grand Cru and Corton Grand Cru. From now on, it will be possible to buy just one bottle of Romanée-Conti, a real event worth mentioning.
In addition, the rarity of a product and the prestige of a brand mean speculation and, unfortunately, counterfeiting. La Romanée-Conti, like all the world's iconic wines and high value-added luxury goods, is a prime target for counterfeiters. So how do you avoid speculation on parallel markets or at the numerous auctions held in sales rooms? La Romanée-Conti, which wants its wines to be drunk by connoisseurs rather than become collector's items for speculators, does its utmost to control speculation through a system of traceability and by reserving the wines for those who will consume them. Each bottle purchased is associated with a known buyer in a file (regular allocations and, for the luckiest, new buyers). But speculation is real, and Romanée-Conti can't always control everything. Wines are snapped up at a premium from one auction to the next. A single bottle of Romanée-Conti Grand Cru (Monopole) can fetch 50,000 euros in fairly recent vintages, or even more if the vintage is mythical and very old. By way of anecdote, among the many recorded in the sales room, a 1945 Romanée-Conti (a mythical year for its historical significance, intrinsic quality and symbolism, as only 600 bottles of the last vintage produced by Romanée-Conti before production resumed in 1952) sold in 2018 for the stratospheric price of $558,000 (€482,000).
Another example: two cases of La Romanée-Conti 1988 were once sold for 74,551 euros each. And a final edifying example: a collection of 114 bottles of Romanée-Conti (6 bottles of each of the 19 vintages produced between 1992 and 2010) once sold for a total of $12,556,250. Stunning! The skyrocketing prices and seemingly eternal enthusiasm for the wines of this prestigious estate are not about to abate, nor are record sales pushing back the boundaries. La Romanée-Conti is - even if the prices have nothing to do with it - akin to the art market.
As far as fraud is concerned, the bottles are numbered and bear the double signature of the two co-managers for the period in question, making them traceable and enabling us to verify, during appraisals, that the wines offered in the sales room - all numbered and double-signed on the label - are not forgeries of Romanée-Conti and that they were indeed produced in the vintage in question by the iconic estate, are not forgeries of Romanée-Conti and that they were indeed produced in the vintage in question by the iconic estate, for let's not forget that La Romanée-Conti produced no more wines from its mythical climat from 1946 to 1951 inclusive.
The terroir of the Grand Cru de La Romanée-Conti (“Monopole”, which is the object of the craziest requests and covetousness the world over) is made up of exceptional Pinot Noir grapes of rare genetic purity, with a very high average vine age (around 70 years since replanting in 1946). This plot of 1 hectare, 80 ares and 50 centiares - facing south-south-east (with ideal sun exposure) and situated at an average altitude of 200 to 300 meters, with fairly steep slopes - is made of stony soil, a mixture of clay and limestone. The topography and nature of the soil make for excellent natural drainage. In this ideal environment, Romanée-Conti expresses all the nuances of its microclimate in its wines, thanks to the exceptional quality and response of the Pinot Noir grape. This explains the unique character, richness, grandeur and complexity of the mythical wine produced here. In short, as Aubert de Villaine would say, it's the sacred union of terroir, climate and tradition.
The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti also boasts a number of other dream wines, all signed de la Romanée-Conti. It's a veritable collection of jewels, the mere mention of which lights up the eyes of wine lovers. These other crus and climats are La Tâche Grand Cru (6.06 hectares), Le Richebourg Grand Cru, La Romanée Saint-Vivant (5.29 hectares originally leased to Romanée-Conti in 1966, before the latter bought it in 1988), L'Echézeaux Grand Cru (4.67 hectares) and Grand-Echézeaux Grand Cru (3.53 hectares) and Corton Grand Cru (2.27 hectares). For the whites, there's also Montrachet Grand Cru (0.67 hectares), which is not always produced or vinted every year, as the quantities are far too small (e.g. in 1922 or 2016). The Montrachet vines were acquired in 1963, giving rise to the Montrachet Grand Cru, which is the only white wine produced by Romanée-Conti and which is snapped up by the most affluent connoisseurs. Finally, since 2019, a newcomer is Corton-Charlemagne (2.5 hectares) leased by Domaine Bonneau du Martray (whose owner since January 2017 is none other than American Stanley Kroenke, owner of the famous Californian estate in Napa Valley, Screaming Eagle). The farm was entrusted to the teams at Romanée-Conti for their expertise in biodynamic viticulture. In all, the estate, under the technical direction of Nicolas Jacob (vineyard manager), cultivates almost 30 hectares (26.5 hectares for Pinot Noir, 0.85 hectares for Chardonnay). Since 2008, the vineyards of the Prince Florent de Mérode estate, i.e. Corton Clos-du-roi, Bressandes and Renardes, have been leased to La Romanée-Conti.
The entire vineyard has been farmed organically since 1985 - La Romanée-Conti was one of the first Burgundy estates to convert to organic farming - (organic certification obtained in 2012) before officially switching to biodynamic viticulture in 2007 (certified biodyvin in 2016-2017). In fact, with the arrival in 1992 of Henry Frédéric-Roch (representing the Leroy family, co-managers) alongside Aubert de Villaine, who became a fervent advocate of biodynamic viticulture in 2007, biodynamic viticulture took a more significant turn, opting for a 100% biodynamic policy for the entire DRC vineyard.
It could be said that La Romanée-Conti has been a pioneer in this field of respect for the environment and preservation of terroir, precisely in order to fight against the standardization of taste and the denaturing of terroir, to give back to wines the “taste of terroir, the taste of place.” His reintroduction of horse-drawn ploughing and tillage in the 90's was also in line with this fundamental approach to preserving climates. And when it comes to “climat” (a Burgundian definition that can be summed up as a parcel of vines bounded by an enclosure, where the nature of the soil, exposure and microclimate create a unique, protected identity), Aubert de Villaine has been around for a long time. For Romanée-Conti, which he managed for half a century (from 1974 to November 2022), reminds us all of what a Burgundian climate is, a precious asset that guarantees the expression of a place, but whose fragile balance demands respect and care through rigor and quality work, generation after generation. With La Romanée-Conti Monopole, which hasn't moved a centimeter since its creation in the Middle Ages by the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Vivant, Burgundy has the paradigm to follow. For it is the Climat of climats (Burgundy boasts no fewer than 1,247). In this respect, defending the notion of climate is neither an empty word nor a fantasy battle for Aubert de Villaine, who has always been a talented guardian of the DRC temple. Let's not forget that, as Honorary President of the Climats du vignoble de Bourgogne, he was also the Artisan of artisans and the “kingpin” of the 2015 Unesco World Heritage listing of the Burgundy Climats. This registration of climats, which complements the protection afforded by the appellations, is designed to safeguard 2,000 years of Burgundy's winegrowing history, including its know-how, its landscape heritage, its villages - in short, the entire culture of winegrowing Burgundy. For nowhere else has the subtle and intelligent choice of the reference to place and time - in fact, the harmony between the wine and the place where it is produced - as the ultimate criterion and sole marker of the quality of wine production been so prevalent as in Burgundy. The preservation of Burgundy and its system of climats was as much a question of the classifications ingeniously put in place by the monks in the Middle Ages.
Everything here is done in the purest tradition, with extreme precision and a rarely seen sense of detail. The teams take care of each vine stock square metre by square metre, cutting off half the grapes to concentrate the raw material (which results in very low yields, said to be half those of other neighbouring DRC producers). Each harvest is carried out by hand, with the bunches sorted grain by grain before arriving at the vat room for de-stemming, if at all. Vinification and ageing (under the responsibility of Alexandre Bernier, the cellar master) are carried out with precision (respecting the expressions of the terroir) in a vat room and cellar that, against all expectations, are not ostentatious, even though the reputation and financial means of the estate might suggest otherwise. No, DRC is all about functionality, and has always preferred discretion and humility. As for the ageing of the wines, this is the work of a true goldsmith, and therefore of the utmost precision. The wine is placed in barrels and aged for 18 months in new barrels, which are renewed each year. Once lucky buyers have received their bottle of La Romanée-Conti, they should ideally wait at least ten years before tasting their precious nectar. 10 years is the minimum needed to ensure that the wine reaches perfect maturity and to be able to appreciate all the nuances of the terroir-climate of the La Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, given that the wine can age, depending on the vintage, for 20, 30, 40 or even more years. The DRC's other Grands Crus also require the ability to wait a little, as the DRC produces only great wines for ageing, and this is an indisputable fact.
To understand the Grands Crus of Romanée-Conti, you also need to understand the wines produced in the Vosne-Romanée appellation. In this village near the commune of Vougeot, which alone encompasses no fewer than eight Grands Crus, the wines generally produced combine the harmony, finesse, richness and complexity of Pinot Noir, in varying expressions according to the Grands Crus in question.
For the record, La Grande Rue, La Romanée-Conti and La Tâche are “Monopoles” of the DRC.
For La Romanée Conti, this climat, which is also an appellation exclusively owned by La Romanée-Conti (in the same way as Château Grillet in the Northern Rhône Valley or Coulée de Serrant in the Loire), possesses the most sumptuous aromatic complexity, breed, intensity, suavity and gustatory energy. Its wines often evoke spices, leather, truffles, violets and dried roses. The finest, most complex interpretation of Pinot Noir in the world. Note that Romanée Conti is not to be confused with another highly reputed climat, situated higher up from the famous DRC plot, the “climat” vineyard of La Romanée. This 85-acre parcel (just under 4,000 bottles) produces Pinot Noir in a privileged setting, on loamy-clay soil with friable limestone. The “La Romanée” climat is another Monopole, but one that has belonged to the Liger-Belair family since 1976, and is run by the highly acclaimed Domaine Comte Liger-Belair (located in Nuits-Saint-Georges).
Another “Monopole”, highly reputed from the 17th century onwards and a major contributor to the glory of Romanée-Conti, is the famous climat La Tâche. This “small” vineyard covers no less than 6.06 hectares. But it was originally owned by monks, and then by various families, such as the Joly de Bévy family in the 18th century (before the vineyard was confiscated from them during the Revolution). It was at the beginning of the 20th century that La Tâche changed hands significantly with the Liger-Belair family (see Domaine Comte Liger-Belair), until 1933, when Romanée-Conti became the exclusive owner. Around 20,000 bottles are produced here every year. The wine's consistency is exemplary, whatever the vintage (exceptional, very great, great, very good, even “average”). When the La Romanée-Conti climate stopped producing vintages from 1945 to 1951 (due to the uprooting of pre-phylloxera vines that had become too fragile and slow to produce), it was the La Tâche climate that enabled the DRC to offer wine on the market, notably in the 1950 and 1951 vintages. The wine's style is one of great finesse, with great concentration and silkiness on the palate and intense aromas of spices, black fruits, truffles and red roses. Although different, it is very similar to the famous La Romanée-Conti climat. A highly sought-after wine!
Next came La Romanée Saint-Vivant Marey Monge, bought by the partners of La Romanée-Conti in 1988. Romanée Saint-Vivant is the largest of the eight Grand Crus in the Vosne-Romanée appellation (9.44 hectares). For the record, the vineyard is named after the monks of Saint-Vivant (a monastery founded around 900 not far from Nuits-Saint-Georges). Romanée-Conti is not alone in owning vines on this Grand Cru, as Maison Louis Latour, Maison Albert Bichot, Domaine de L'Arlot, Domaine Confuron Jean-Jacques, Domaine Follin-Arbelet, Arnoux-Lachaux, Maison Chanzy, Domaine Poisot Père & Fils and others also grow Pinot Noir here. In this climate, the DRC produces a Romanée-Saint-Vivant with singular aromas of intense black fruits, dried flowers and spices (pepper, cinnamon, cloves). Pinot Noir, on these brown limestone soils with a clay matrix, gives character to the wines with a certain power, but in restraint, i.e., without overflowing.
The entire Richebourg vineyard covers 8.03 hectares and can produce up to 40,000 bottles (which is both a little and a lot compared to La Romanée-Conti, with its 5-6,000 bottles a year). The soil of this Grand Cru climat is composed of limestone on a fairly abundant clay matrix, encouraging the vines to go deep into the soil. Richebourg is shared between a dozen owners, including Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy, Domaine Meo-Camuzet, the Gros family with Domaine Gros Anne and Domaine Gros frères et sœurs, Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret, Domaine Gerbet François and Domaine Liger-Belair Thibault. Typically, the wines produced from this exceptional climat - which are not unlike those produced from La Tâche (while retaining their own character) - are sumptuous, racy with a solid structure without lacking in power and above all charm on aromas of black fruits, ripe or candied with notes of humus, leather, even game. They are long-lived and age perfectly. You just have to know how to wait for them. But Richebourg made in Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is in a slightly different league (one that could be contested by Domaine Méo-Camuzet, the latter also being very good with its Richebourg wine) if we take into account its breathtaking concentration. This difference is undoubtedly linked to the highly perfectionist approach to winemaking and ageing that Domaine de la Romanée-Conti applies to all its Grands Crus, “Monopoles” or otherwise.
These two Grands Crus, which come under the commune of Flagey-Echézeaux and not Vosne-Romanée (as is the case for the other six Grands Crus), border on plots of the famous Clos de Vougeot. Grands-Echézeaux is a 9.14-hectare climat, while Echézeaux is much larger at 36.36 hectares. The wines produced here are highly aromatic (spicy, floral, empyreumatic) with harmonious mouthfeel, fine tannins and astonishing length. Less intense (power) than the wines from La Tâche or Richebourg, Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux are nonetheless another fine showcase for the savoir-faire of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and the other producers who officiate there, such as Château de Marsannay, Maison Louis Jadot, Maison Joseph Drouhin, Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, Domaine des Perdrix, Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret, Maison Bouchard Père et Fils, and others.
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