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ProducerDomaine de la Romanée-Conti
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Vintage2014
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Grape VarietyPinot Noir
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RegionBurgundy
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Sub RegionVosne Romanee
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Importer LabelAustralia – Negociants Australia
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SizeBottle
Domaine de la Romanée Conti is co-owned by the de Villaine and Leroy/Roch families, the former successors to Jacques-Marie Duvault Blochet who bought the vineyard of La Romanée Conti in 1869, the latter since acquiring the shares of other descendants of Duvault-Blochet in 1942. The Domaine is today run by Aubert de Villaine and Henri-Frederic Roch. Many people in Burgundy just refer to ‘DRC’ as “the Domaine”.
The domaine has 30 hectares of vineyards, all Grand Crus. As well as the the 1.8 hectare monopole La Romanée Conti, the Domaine purchased its other monopoly, La Tâche, in 1933, along with significant holdings in the grand crus of Richebourg, Romanée St Vivant, Grands-Echezeaux, Echezeaux, and Le Montrachet at various points in the 19th and 20th centuries. Corton was added in 2009 with Corton-Charlemagne to be released in 2018. The Domaine is the largest owners of each of the red wine grand crus.
96 Points Allen Meadows
This is perhaps the most floral wine in the range in 2014 plus it’s even spicier than the RSV if not the La Tâche with its Asian spice, sandalwood, dark berry liqueur and lavender-scented nose. Not surprisingly this is both bigger and richer than the RSV with excellent muscle and intensity to the mineral-driven broad-shouldered flavors that deliver stunningly good complexity on the impressively concentrated but seamlessly well-balanced finale. While this is certainly robust, the 2014 Riche displays a bit more refinement than usual at this early stage of its development.
96 Points Robert Parker Jr.
The 2014 Richebourg Grand Cru was picked on the 20 and 21 September at 29.75 hectolitres per hectare. This has a gorgeous, flamboyant, vivacious bouquet with blossoming red cherries, crushed strawberries, less undergrowth scents compared to the showing in barrel, replaced by pressed rose petal notes. There is wonderful delineation and exuberance here. The palate is medium-bodied with a lively, spicy, white-pepper tinged entry, just a faint hint of black truffle tincturing the dark berry fruit. There is superb backbone and density here, a Richebourg delivering on its promise here from barrel, plus it comes around with extraordinarily long aftertaste that evokes marine-like images, something wild and esturine. While not as flattering as the Romanee St-Vivant at the moment, just wait 10 years.
18.5/20 Jancis Robinson
Dark cherry; lighter colour than the Romanée St-Vivant. Sweet, spicy nose. Very charming and packed full of fruit. One of the more accessible but less dense of the DRC family. Perhaps it will take on density in bottle but it is already opulently scented. Fruit is on the sweet side. A charmer rather than being very concentrated.