Domaine Romanee Conti

Tasting Notes:
The 2003 La Tache reveals aromas of milk chocolate, violets, roses, and dark cherries. Suave, displaying massive amplitude and a full-bodied, velvety-textured character, this behemothÕs flavor profile brings to mind chocolate-covered black cherries. Immensely powerful and noble, it offers an interminable finish that is packed with flawlessly ripe, sweet tannin.Wine Advocate # 160 Aug 2005
Parker Points: 99
Drinking Period: 2013-2030

Tasting Notes:
Highly expressive scents of flowers, perfume, and black cherries can be found in the aromatic profile of the 2002 Grands-Echezeaux. Satin-textured in the attack, its pretty, pepper-laced black berry-flavored personality is light to medium-bodied and lacks the persistence expected from a grand cru. In addition, some bitterness can be detected in its tannic finish.Wine Advocate # 153 Jun 2004
Parker Points: 89
Drinking Period: 2007-2015

Tasting Notes:
The Domaine de la Romanee-ContiÕs policy of late harvests for their Montrachet leads to forward, expressive wines with boisterously flavorful personalities. The 2001 was picked at 14% natural potential alcohol and reveals some hints of botrytis. Buttered toast, hazelnuts, and smoky spices are found in its aromatic profile. This plush, intense wine admirably combines muscular power with elegance. Light to medium-bodied, it is a fresh, delineated, spice-laden effort that is packed with pears and minerals. Drink it over the next 9-10 years. Concerning the 2001s, de Villaine, the Domaine de la Romanee-ContiÕs co-director, stated that Ùit was not an easy year, it was a real roller coaster for vignerons. The estateÕs vineyards, like everyone in Burgundy, had rot infestations so we did two harvests, one for the best, healthiest bunches and then another. Of course, we meticulously sorted all the fruit as we always do.Î Those readers who are always looking for news concerning the next vintage will be interested to hear the following. Unlike almost all his colleagues who said that 2002 was going to be a spectacular vintage, de Villaine informed me that it would Ùanother irregular year.Î Wine Advocate # 147 Jun 2003
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period: 2003-2013

Tasting Notes:
The Domaine de la Romanee-ContiÕs policy of late harvests for their Montrachet leads to forward, expressive wines with boisterously flavorful personalities. The spice box-scented 2000 Montrachet is a huge, medium-bodied, luscious wine. Buttered, super-ripe apples, poached pears, honeyed minerals, and countless spices can be discerned in its extravagant personality. Rich, deep, and dense, it is the sexiest, most seductive Montrachet IÕve encountered. Projected maturity: now-2010. According to Aubert de Villaine, the Domaine de la Romanee-ContiÕs co-director, Ù2000 was a particularly difficult vintage with lots of rot throughout all the vineyards. Rot is simply a sorting problem, and for that we are very well equipped. The sugar levels were very nice, but the grapes did not have the phenolic ripeness of 1999 or 2001. Ultimately, 2000 is the absolute opposite of 1999 at the Domaine since the wines are feminine and delicate. They are wines for connoisseurs, like a cross between 1992 and 1995. In fact, IÕd say they are like 1992 but with more volume and fruit.Î None of the DomaineÕs 2000s are recommended as they were found to be lean, rustic, hard, and backward. In addition, two of the wines had vegetal characteristics and another two may have been tainted with rot. Those readers who are always looking for news concerning the next vintage will be interested to hear the following. Unlike almost all his colleagues who said that 2002 was going to be a spectacular vintage, de Villaine informed me that it would Ùanother irregular year.Î Wine Advocate # 147 Jun 2003
Parker Points: 95
Drinking Period: 2003-2010

Tasting Notes:
The medium ruby-colored 1999 Echezeaux has a demure, dark fruit-scented nose. It bursts on the palate with lush layers of intensely sweet cherries, candied black raspberries, and spices. This lovely wine is forward, feminine, and satin-textured. It is medium to full-bodied, highly expressive, and possesses prodigiously ripened tannin. Drink it over the next 10-12 years. Wine Advocate # 136 Aug 2001
Parker Points: 91-93
Drinking Period: 2001-2013

Tasting Notes:
The 1999 Montrachet reveals golden hues to its color and a nose of massive ripeness. Powerful spice scents are intermingled with tropical yellow fruits and anise in its aromatics. Medium to full-bodied, it is fat, plump, oily-textured, and unbelievably rich. Its layers of spices and hyper-ripe fruits are sensually decadent and linger on the taster's palate for a long while. This is a broad, massively dense Montrachet for drinking over the next 8-10 years. Wine Advocate # 136 Aug 2001
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period: 2001-2011

Tasting Notes:
The 1997 Romanee-Conti reveals a saturated dark ruby color as well as a mouth-watering nose of leather, juniper berries, cherries, and spices. On the palate, it marvelously combines the powerful, ripe fruit characteristic of the vintage with magnificent delineation and elegance. This soy sauce, licorice, flower, as well as blackberry flavored wine is dense and concentrated, yet lace-like and gloriously precise. It stands, as is expected given its rarity, price, and reputation, as one of the stars of the vintage. Wine Advocate # 125 Oct 1999
Parker Points: 95
Drinking Period: 2001-2012

Tasting Notes:
The 1997 Romanee-Conti reveals a saturated dark ruby color as well as a mouth-watering nose of leather, juniper berries, cherries, and spices. On the palate, it marvelously combines the powerful, ripe fruit characteristic of the vintage with magnificent delineation and elegance. This soy sauce, licorice, flower, as well as blackberry flavored wine is dense and concentrated, yet lace-like and gloriously precise. It stands, as is expected given its rarity, price, and reputation, as one of the stars of the vintage. Wine Advocate # 125 Oct 1999
Parker Points: 95
Drinking Period: 2001-2012

Tasting Notes:
Dark-colored, the aromatically tight 1997 La Tache reveals Asian spices, pepper, cherries and black currants. This is a velvety-textured, expansive, and massively ripe wine boasting flavors reminiscent of licorice and blackberry jam. It has superb depth of fruit (particularly for this sometimes "simple" vintage), medium-to-full body, and admirable length to its supple finish. Wine Advocate # 125 Oct 1999
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period: 2000-2012

Tasting Notes:
This blockbuster wine possesses a profound nose. It exhibits awesomely ripe red and black fruits, raw meat, and Asian spices, all of which are encased in sweet toasty oak. This full-bodied, wide, thick, focused, harmonious, and intense wine releases amazingly powerful layers of candied black cherries and blackberries. It is structured, totally precise, pure, and possesses an exceptionally long finish loaded with abundant sweet tannins. It will require patience. Wine Advocate # 118 Aug 1998
Parker Points: 94-97
Drinking Period: 2005-2020

Tasting Notes:
The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti's light-colored 1996 Montrachet is spectacular (it was originally rated 95-98 in The Wine Advocate's Issue #115). Its profound, rich, and embracing nose reveals toasted minerals, white fruits, and hints of lemons. On the palate it displays enormous complexity, a broad, layered core of tropical fruits (mostly mangoes), liquid minerals, and stones. It is terribly refined, bracing, satin textured, medium-to-full-bodied, and mind-blowingly long in the finish. Its tightly wound core of fruit will require extended cellaring to blossom and reveal all of what this glorious wine has to offer. Wine Advocate # 123 Jun 1999
Parker Points: 99
Drinking Period: 2004-2016

Tasting Notes:
This dark-colored wine displays a magnificently elegant nose of cassis, black cherries, and roses. This is an austere yet expansive, complex, medium-to-full-bodied, ripe and masculine wine. It is dense and powerful yet maintains a refined combination of muscle and class. Its tightly wound core offers red and black currants, cherries, minerals, and toasted oak flavors, all of which linger in its admirably focused and firm finish. Wine Advocate # 118 Aug 1998
Parker Points: 92
Drinking Period: 2003-2012

Tasting Notes:
I cannot think of a more profound, young red Burgundy tasted than DRC's 1990 La Tache. Although it still requires another 3-4 years of cellaring, it is incredibly endowed, with an extraordinary perfume of Asian spices as well as jammy black raspberries, cherries, and blackberries infused with smoke, toast, and dried herbs. Full-bodied, but ethereal, with layers of flavor, as well as mind-boggling delicacy and complexity, this youthful La Tache will be at its finest between 2004-2015. eRobertParker.com # E2002 Feb 2002
Parker Points: 100
Drinking Period: 2004-2015

Tasting Notes:
In 1988 there are 575 cases of Romanee-Conti. Consumers should be deliriously happy, considering there were only 225 cases in 1987. It is more backward than the 1987, 1986, or 1985, and is one of the fullest and most tannic examples of Romanee-Conti I have tasted this decade. It may even outlive the otherworldly 1985. It is staggeringly concentrated with a bouquet that almost defies articulation. There is no doubting what it is and who made it. It is a flashy, dramatic wine with astonishing length and mystique. I would not dare touch a bottle before the mid- to late nineties. The prices for the wines of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti may be exorbitant but the quality of the wines produced in the eighties is truly remarkable. The 1988s are celestial wines selling at stratospheric prices. The 1988 production was twice what it was in 1987, but the same as in 1985. The 1988s are fuller-bodied, deeper, more concentrated wines than the superb 1987s, and will need some time in the cellar to shed their generous amounts of tannin. The only vintage they can be favorably compared with is the 1985 vintage, and the 1985s were a great deal more forward and flattering to taste when young. There is more depth in the 1988s than in the 1986s or even the superb 1980s (which turned out to be the finest wines made in that underrated vintage). Burgundy Book # B2 Jan 1990
Parker Points: 97
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes:
The Echezeaux, normally the lightest and least distinguished of these wines, is the best I have tasted from them. Deep ruby, with a fragrant, rich, complex bouquet of violets and spicy oak, this full-bodied wine is quite long, velvety, and will keep until 1995-2000. This fabled estate has had a brilliant track record since 1978. Lalou Bize-Leroy and Aubert de Villaine seem to have everything tightly within their grasps, so it is unlikely that some of the lapses in quality control that occurred previously will resurface. I am sure they still cannot understand why their estate is so frequently singled out for malicious attacks, but no one should have any trouble appreciating the domaine's 1985s, which are their best wines in decades, even surpassing their sensational 1978s. The problem is coming up with the cash to finance them. The wines, aged in 100% new oak, are never filtered. Burgundy Book # B2 Jan 1990
Parker Points: 92
Drinking Period: 1990-2000

Tasting Notes:
PRODUCTION: Not available. The fully mature 1984 La Tache possesses the earthy, vegetal side of Pinot Noir, plenty of sweetness, but a cloying fruitiness and a diffuse personality. The wine's structure, tannin, fruit, and alcohol have never meshed. Drink it over the next 3-4 years Wine Advocate # 100 Aug 1995
Parker Points: 83
Drinking Period: 1995-1999

Tasting Notes:
PRODUCTION: 2,017 cases. A healthy, medium to dark garnet color with considerable rust and brown at the edge is typical of a 26-year old, high class red Burgundy. A pungent, smoked duck, Asian spice, sweet, red and black fruit, caramel-like bouquet explodes from the glass. If there is ever a wine that can be said to reek of terroir, it is this 1969. From one of the more structured vintages in the last 25 years (let's hope the finest 1993s turn out this well), this fully mature, medium to full-bodied La Tache still retains some tannin. It is beautifully sweet, expansive, and rich, with complex aromatics. If the flavors deliver outstanding ripeness and complexity, the tannin in the more rustic finish is obtrusive. I would not push this wine's longevity curve any further given the fact that this example was from a magnum in pristine condition. It is a terrific La Tache that proves that in some instances, great red Burgundy can last for 25+ years Wine Advocate # 100 Aug 1995
Parker Points: 94
Drinking Period:  -