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98 Robert Parker
The 2008 Romanee-Conti offers an uncanny amalgam of viscosity and velvety texture with fresh fruit vivacity, buoyancy, and ethereal florality. “I think this is the loveliest Romanee-Conti we have made in many years,” remarks de Villaine. It is what it is, he suggests, “for me, the wine with a capital ‘W,’ whereas it’s hard to pull-out the individual parts.” Granted, but it’s my professional duty to try. Black currant and rhubarb; saline meat stock; perfume of peony, iris, and rose; myriad spices; and a crystalline sense of shimmering mineral elements such as one more usually associates with a great white wine are all part of the allure to a kaleidoscopically complex, youthfully harmonious wine that soars and floats for a finale. This will be savored – and much talked-about – for several decades.
Producer
Domaine de la Romanée Conti
Not only the most iconic domaine in Burgundy, but also possibly in France and even in the world. With a monopoly of the two greatest vineyards - Romanée-Conti and La Tâche - and with a generous handful of some others within Vosne-Romanée and beyond, it secured its revered position all while being completely discreet and even modest. It is co-owned by the Villaine and Leroy-Roch families, with Aubert de Villaine guiding the ship since 1974. But it can trace its roots back to the 13th century, when its first vines were planted by the monks of Saint-Vivant. They have been organic since the 1980s and biodynamic since the 1990s. They are also undoubtedly the most famous domaine in the region that uses (and has always used) whole cluster fermentation, an established technique that was eschewed by Henri Jayer, but has inspired many others in recent years. Allen Meadows, arguably the most knowledgeable Burgundy expert and critic in the world, has only given one wine a perfect score - the 1945 Romanée-Conti.