Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet 1982-2012
http://www.vinous.com/articles/domaine- ... 2-nov-2015
Co-director Aubert de Villaine described the 2014 growing season as “a kind of play that unfolded in 3 acts. The first act was a wet and exceptionally mild winter that was followed by one of the finest and driest springs I have seen in many years. Naturally this allowed for a very early bud break and consistent with the clement weather, the foliage developed rapidly and with almost zero disease pressure. The flowering occurred earlier than usual but was spread out due to the cool evenings. As such we had a percentage of shot berries but very little shatter. The near-perfect conditions ended on the 28th of June as there was a huge hail storm that hit much of the Côte d’Or and while it was worse in the Côte de Beaune than the Côte de Nuits, it did cost us a bit of yield in Vosne and Chassagne. Immediately after the storm we had a very brief period of extremely hot weather which had both a beneficial and a negative effect. On the plus side the heat prevented rot from spreading from all of the hail-damaged berries but on the negative side the shredded foliage couldn’t shade what fruit remained and thus we had some losses from sun burned berries. However given that the fruit set was abundant, in the end, the minor reduction in overall crop loads was not necessarily a bad thing given the degradation in weather conditions during most of July and August. The second act visited unexpected weather on us that included much cooler than normal temperatures with constantly cloudy and rainy conditions that included more than 100 mm more rain than usual. Not surprisingly this engendered an attack of botrytis at the beginning of August though happily it didn’t seem to ever become a serious problem. The véraison was uneven and slow and basically required all of August to finish. Thankfully the early start to the season and the rapidity with which maturities climbed in the spring and early summer compensated for the poor July and August. The third act is in complete
contrast to the second in that as bad as July and August were, September was great which allowed the slumbering maturities to accelerate. Moreover unlike some in Vosne, happily we had no problems with the Suzukii pests and I attribute this to the fact that our fruit had very thick skins which is one of the attributes that biodynamic viticulture tends to engender. In particular the chardonnay maturities spiked though those for the pinot weren’t far behind. We began the harvest on the Hill of Corton on the 16th of September and then followed with: La Tâche on the 17th, 18th and 20th; Romanée-Conti on the morning of the 19th; Richebourg on the 20th and 21st; Romanée St. Vivant on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd; Grands Echézeaux on the 23rd and 24th, Echézeaux on the 24th, 25th and 26th; and finally the Montrachet on the 22nd. There was some sorting required for a variety of minor problems such as hail or sun burn from June and July, botrytis from the August attack or any overly large and/or unripe berries. The pinot quantities were the best that we have had since 2009 which was good to see as well. We vinified with between 60 and 70% whole clusters and had no difficulties to speak of. Like the pinot the chardonnay was essentially in perfect condition with good quantities and in total we are extremely optimistic for the quality of the Montrachet as well as all of our reds.” De Villaine provided several updates on the Domaine which include: Romanée St. Vivant has now been completely replanted to vine selections that they believe are of much higher quality; beginning in 2012 the bottling is now being done with a wax wafer that is positioned between the cork and the capsule; the desired level of CO2 is 800 mg in red and 900 mg in white; as was the case in 2012 and 2013, there will be no Vosne “1er” cuvée Duvault-Blochet in 2014; lastly, the 2013s revisited below, were bottled between February and April 2015. As is usually the case I had the opportunity to taste the 2014s twice within about one month and my notes were remarkably consistent and this is always a good sign in terms of wine quality
.....But let us finish with the wines. The 2013s from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are crisp, fresh, poised, complex and terroir-specific. In a vintage perhaps eclipsed by 2012, 2014 or the forthcoming 2015s, these 2013s are bound to surprise a few people when they are eventually opened. Their freshness means that in most cases they are deceptively approachable, though as always, they will repay several years cellaring. They are sadly unaffordable to most human beings, conversely they are made by some of the most down-to-earth winemakers you could ever meet, both figuratively and literally. The one thing I will say is that for any oenophile, a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti will never be surplus to requirements. Oh, and in case you were wondering, of course I didn't use the spittoon..
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