Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti Grand Cru 2012 750ml

Usually, choosing between La Tâche and Romanée-Conti is like choosing between your two favourite children. Not this year. The 2012 Romanée-Conti is one of the most spellbinding that I have tasted since I began 17 years ago. The bouquet is quite astonishing with brilliant delineation and focus, an almost disorientating sense of mineralité that soars from the glass and leaves you speechless. The palate is perfectly proportioned with a sensational line of acidity, brimming over with energy and frisson. This flirts with perfection and you know, one day it might actually achieve it. Just 350 cases produced. Importer Information: Corney & Barrow 1 Thomas More Street, London, E1W 1YZ 0207 265 2430 sales@corneyandbarrow.com www.corneyandbarrow.com Wilson Daniels Ltd St. Helena, CA (707) 963-9661 www.wilsondaniels.com Rating (98 - 100) Release Price NA Drink Date NA Reviewed by Neal Martin Issue Date 26th Feb 2014 Source 211, The Wine Advocate The 2012 Romanee-Conti Grand Cru was picked on September 22. Even from barrel it offers spine-tingling delineation and precision on the nose, showing a slight stemmy note that will be subsumed once in bottle. In keeping with the theme of the vintage, the bouquet is angelically pure, the fruit a little darker than the La Tache with a dried petal element emerging with time. The palate is symmetrical with perfectly judged acidity and a lacelike lattice of tannins. Initially it is deceptively understated, but that is the wine just toying with you, drawing you in to its charms as crescendos towards supremely controlled, somehow nonchalant finish. This has unimaginable potential. Aubert de Villaine was traveling the Far East when I visited the domaine’s relocated offices that lie in the shadow of the church in the main square in Vosne. And so cellar-master Bernard Noblet, distinctive with his hulking frame, escorted me through barrel samples of their 2012. Not everything was available for me to taste. Their Montrachet was damaged by hail and consequently there is less than half the usual crop, and Bernard was adamant that the Corton was not in representative condition. Incidentally, there is no Cuvee Duvault-Blochet in 2012, as one would expect in such a small volume crop. The domaine gave me a summary of this infamous growing season that essentially repeated the remarks of other growers, but expressed in Aubert’s poetic, allegorical fashion, my favorite sentence: “The vigneron’s intervention is quiet and rare, as that of the crew of a sailboat navigating calm weather.” Of course, the domaine, especially vineyard manager Nicolas Jacob, was not spared the choppy waters of the tumultuous season that threatened to capsize many of the region’s finest vignerons. The estate’s biodynamic principles meant that applying the preparations and treatments proved challenging when one day out of every three was rainy. The harvest commenced on September 21 in Corton and finished nine days later in Echezeaux, the secateurs put back into their sheaths when the heavens opened on September 25 and 26. Yields are recorded at 20 hectoliters per hectare, which is approximately 25% less than usual. That said, upon entering the reception area I was confronted with what appeared to be the entire allocation for the United States shrink-wrapped on towering pallets. You have to remember that this is for one of the largest countries in the world. These barrel samples are rather academic. These wines are not available for another year and readers will find bottled reviews, which I have written every February since 1998, more relevant since the wines will be finished and ready for sale. However, I decided to publish these notes so that they can be juxtaposed against their peers and my remarks in 12 months time. One point that I found interesting was the more prudent use of stems, logical when you consider that the lack of sunshine in the early part of the season would mean not all stems would have been fully lignified. Therefore, the pickers had to patiently wait until the berries were fully ripe. You do not need me to tell you that their 2012s are variations upon “spellbinding” and will doubtless cost a pretty penny. Truth is, there are cheaper alternatives out there, many of which I have praised in my recent report. There is only one thing – they are not Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.

The 2012 Romanée-Conti, usually a model of restraint and elusiveness, is surprisingly big in this vintage. The flavors are quite dark and bold in a decidedly structured, brooding RC that won't be ready to deliver the full range of its extraordinary beauty for many years. Deep layers of spiced, mentholated notes continue to open up in a dazzling, contemplative Burgundy. Readers lucky enough to latch on to a few bottles are incredibly fortunate, let's leave it at that.

As with the La Tâche, this is a touch paler in colour than the rest of the range. The aromas on the Romanée-Conti are markedly different: surprisingly expressive on first sniff, with raspberry and cherry singing out in unison, before exotic oak spice and whole-bunch notes chime in. It's an intriguingly ethereal perfume, duly held before the plunge into the red and blueberry fruit which combines seductively on the concentrated palate. It's rich, yet seemingly not so, with a silky textural elegance held together by a seamless combination of fruit, subtle oak and the structural elements of texture and freshness.

Quite deeply colored. A touch of menthol sits atop the somber though quite pretty aromas of black cherry and plum liqueur along with a plenitude of spice and floral elements. The dense and lavishly rich, mouth coating and minerally flavors possess a lovely mid-palate texture thanks to the abundance of dry extract before culminating in a hugely long finish that displays excellent complexity. I would note that this powerful, serious and compact effort needed several hours in the glass to really get going as it was a bit awkward at first. The 2012 RC is at least 15 years away from what should be a magnificent peak!