2019 DRC, Romanee-Conti Grand Cru 2x75cl

Robert Parker – 100

The 2019 Romanee-Conti Grand Cru is a wine that brought tears to my eyes. Unfurling in the glass with scents of rose petals, black tea, wild berries, exotic spices, violets, bergamot and licorice, it’s full-bodied, sensual and enveloping, with a broad attack that segues into a weightless but pungently intense mid-palate defined by striking energy and precision. Seamless and elegant, with melting tannins and mouthwatering acids, it concludes with an expansive, intensely floral finish. It’s a monument in the making. [02/01/2022]

Anticipated maturity: 2033-2070

JancisRobinson.com – 19.5

Adam Brett-Smith of Corney & Barrow wrote about his experience of tasting this in Vosne, ‘“To be swallowed” is the tradition of the Domaine when tasting Romanée-Conti, after you have shuffled the other Grands Crus into some sort of comparative order and prepared yourself for this, the most subjective, mythical, adjectively elusive of all wines. Unlike last year when, for reasons of Covid restrictions we tasted here, at 1 Thomas More Street, we heard faintly once again, the 12-noon tolling of the Angelus bell in the church at Vosne-Romanée above the near-silent cellar room at the Domaine.’ A little more restrained on the nose than the Tâche. Intense nose that has hints of blackcurrant! More majestic than La Tâche. Not as approachable but certainly at least as magnificent – even more so. And then on the palate there is such integrity! Such concentration of pure Pinot grown with care. Great life. If I try to contrast this with Leroy wines (for obvious reasons), the DRC style is definitely more restrained, more obviously dry, but just as persistent. A monument. [04/02/2022]

Anticipated maturity: 2030-2050