Domaine
de la Romanée-Conti 2005 Vintage
Corney & Barrow, 14 February 2008
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti makes Burgundy's most
expensive, sought after wines from its incredible collection of
Grand Cru vineyards (for background, see this
and this, or
an excellent report from the web archive of Neal Martin's wine-journal).
Jamie Goode tastes the newly released 2005 vintage.
There was a real sense of anticipation today at Corney
& Barrow, as tasters arrived to see whether the 2005 vintage
at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is really as good as expected. The
expectation stems from the fact that the 2005 growing season was
pretty much perfect. A little warm and dry, perhaps, and with
fruit set affected by some strong wind – but otherwise just
right. Harvest was over 15–23 September, and the grapes that
came in were in such good condition that hardly any sorting was
needed.
When Aubert de Villaine reported on the wines in
November 2007, six months after bottling, he had this to say:
‘What we have here is wines with incredible energy,
virility and concentration: their power more than measures up to a
vintage keen to stamp its mark, against which they are fighting
long and hard to impose their terroir’.
‘I think this is a great vintage’, he commented,
‘but you know, these are wines that detest the imprisonment of
bottling more than any other vintage’.
So what were the wines like? It’s really, really hard
to be completely objective about iconic wines like these,
especially when they are carefully poured with reverence, in such
a setting, in the presence of Aubert. But my notes and scores are
my honestly held opinions, and I’ve tried my best to be as
objective as I can. Still, it would be very interesting to taste
these wines blind in the company of their peers. It would also be
instructive to taste them blind against each other, without the
implicit hierarchy of the tasting order. [As an aside, I hate it
when my scores seem to track this sort of hierarchy, as they
mostly do here, but they are the scores I gave.]
Echézeauz 2005
Lovely, open expressive nose is really elegant, showing pure,
vibrant red berry and cherry fruit. It’s really aromatic. The
palate is open and expressive with an earthy undercurrent to the
beautifully elegant cherryish fruit. Delightful and approachable
even now, but I reckon it’s a serious wine in its own right and
will continue to improve for a while. 94/100
Grands Echézeaux 2005
Quite earthy on the nose. In fact, earthiness is the
distinctive feature here: it’s quite marked. The red fruits have
a spicy, earthy edge and this comes across as brooding and
intense. The palate is also earthy, with some grainy tannins.
Quite a solid wine, and it is hard to predict how this will
evolve. 92/100
Romanée-St-Vivant 2005
There’s a veneer of spicy, chocolatey oak on the nose with
ripe, dark fruits. Aromatically alive and quite seductive, with
dark cherry fruit. The palate has some tannic depth along with
pure, elegant dark fruits and a bit of chocolatey richness. Tight
and quite tannic on the finish. Really interesting – definitely
one for the future. 95/100
Richebourg 2005
Smooth, pure, aromatic, with hauntingly elegant red fruit
character. The palate is really expressive with lovely rounded
pure fruit and subtle earthy character. The silkiness of the ripe
fruit covers substantial structure here. Great balance. 96/100
La Tâche 2005
Fantastic nose: multilayered, complex aromas of cherry and
berry fruits with great aromatic purity and balance. The palate is
concentrated with lovely fruit purity and minerality, and a bit of
earthy structure. Intense and long with lovely expressive
personality. 97/100
Romanée-Conti 2005
Fantastic aromatics to the beautifully perfumed nose. Starts
off with bright spicy red fruits, and then reveals layers of
complexity, and a subtly tarry edge. The dense, full palate
combines power and elegance, with some beguiling spicy earthy
notes mingling with the powerful fruit. A superbly expressive wine
that’s rich and full, yet perfectly in balance. Lots of density
and structure, but no square edges. 98/100
Domaine de la
Romanee Conti releases
2001,
2002, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2008
Wines tasted 02/08
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