Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echézéaux Grand Cru, 2019

About The Producer
Considered the pinnacle of Burgundy, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti produces some of the world’s most revered wines from its tiny vineyards in Vosne-Romanee. Two of the Domaine's seven Grand Cru vineyards - La Romanée-Conti and La Tache - are monopoles (appellations entirely owned by the Domaine) and unarguably the greatest vineyards in Burgundy. Richebourg, Romanee-St.-Vivant, Grands-Echezeaux, Echezeaux, and Montrachet (in Chassagne) are also Grand Cru vineyards, yielding sublime wines that are among the most highly-sought, seductive and rarest in the world.

Grape / Blend
Pinot Noir

Origin
Flagey-Echezeaux, Côte de Nuits, Côte d'Or, Burgundy, France

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
This wine is “Grands” before being Échézeaux. It is a country gentleman, aristocrat and dreamer, who idles willingly with the unhurried step of his horse in a forest filled with the scents of sundry mushrooms, mosses, decaying leaves and of furtive small game, which spill forth in a multitude of shifting alliances. All of that is expressed with feeling, in a refined language: musical, concise and pure like the message of a Mozart quartet.

97 Points - Decanter
Bertrand de Villaine, co-manager of the domaine, has often evoked the savoury nature of the Grands Echézeaux produced from their 3.53-hectare plot down-slope from their Echézeaux. To my palate it showed more of an influence from the whole clusters – a freshness and a slightly rustic hint of menthol and earth, but he assures me that the use of whole bunches is consistent across the board. Perhaps the wine is closing down slightly – it shows less of the lush dark fruit than it did out of barrel, although the length and complexity are a testament to the quality of the wine.

96 Points - Wine Advocate
The 2019 Grands Échézeaux Grand Cru is more reserved than the Échézeaux, even if it's far from forbidding. Mingling aromas of blackberries and raspberries with notions of exotic spices, orange rind, smoked duck and forest floor, it's full-bodied, rich and concentrated, with broad structural shoulders supplied by ripe, powdery tannins. Layered and muscular, it's remarkably seamless and integrated at this early stage, concluding with a long, sapid finish.

96 Points - Vinous Media
The 2019 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru is absolutely stunning. It is also the first wine in this tasting that feels less marked by the vintage, where there is a good deal of freshness to play off all the natural richness of the vintage. There is plenty of power and volume, and yet all the elements are so well-balanced. Blood orange, menthol, coffee and layers of red purplish-toned fruit all meld together seamlessly. In richer years the Grands Echézeaux is often one of my favorite wines in the range, as is the case once again with the 2019. Of course, all of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines are frightfully expensive today, but if there is one hidden gem in the range in 2019, it is without question the Grands Echézeaux. It's the wine I would personally go after most given its quality, personality and relatively - and I do mean relatively - modest price next to the other wines here.

Product size: 750ml