Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Romanee-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, France, 2021

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Overview of the Wine
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.

Winemaker
Alexandre Bernier

Grape / Blend
Pinot Noir

Origin
Côte de Nuits, France

Tasting Notes
Experience the epitome of Burgundy elegance with Domaine de La Romanée-Conti Romanée Saint-Vivant 2021. This legendary wine offers a sublime bouquet of red berries, rose petals, and earthy nuances, balanced by silky tannins and vibrant acidity. Each sip reveals extraordinary depth and complexity, leading to a long, graceful finish. Raise your glass to a masterpiece of terroir and tradition, crafted with unparalleled precision.

97 Points - Decanter
The Romanée-Saint-Vivant remains a significant step above the Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux in this portfolio, with a deeper colour and a richer, riper black plum fruit character. The floral elements noticed in barrel are still pronounced, along with a brambly note from the whole cluster ferment and a bit more liquorice spice than it showed earlier in its evolution. The texture on the palate has smoothed out now; there is more depth and richness and less grippy tannins than noted in the fall after the vintage. Picked 27 – 28 September; 9,064 bottles produced.(CC)

96 Points - Wine Advocate
The 2021 Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru is intense and perfumed, soaring from the glass with scents of dark berries, rose petals, orange rind, aromatic bark and coniferous forest. Full-bodied, deep and unctuously textural, with a richly layered core of fruit, it's vibrant and penetrating, concluding with an intensely saline finish that marks it out as the closest relative in the range of the Romanée-Conti itself. The 2021 vintage has turned out brilliantly at the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, delivering wines of striking perfume and sensuality. Sadly, there just isn't very much of them to go around. The April frosts destroyed around half the crop in Vosne-Romanée and even more in the Côte de Beaune, indeed, fully 90% in Chardonnay. Harvest began on September 23, lasting until October 2, with Echézéaux and Corton-Charlemagne the last to be brought in. In the winery, Alex Bernier and his team retained all the bunches intact without destemming after sorting, and the wines matured in new barrels until bottling between December and May of 2023. The late harvest brought full physiological maturity without high alcoholic degrees, and the low yields express themselves in mid-palate unctuosity rather than any of the stigmata that can sometimes distinguish frost vintages, especially in Chardonnay. In style, they evoke the classics of yesteryear, but the evocation is surely a little deceptive, as these 2021s are already so suave and structurally polished that it's hard to resist them tod

96 Points - Wine Spectator
Surprisingly rich, yet with a firm backbone, the Romanée St.-Vivant reveals core flavors of rose and cherry, with a spicy element on the finish, intensity and finesse

95 Points - Jasper Morris
Similar in colour to the Grands Echezeaux. Quite discreet, a little bit herbaceous, the aromatics suggesting less body but more lift than the previous wine. The bouquet is growing slowly but steadily, showing a little more density behind. The palate shows the harmony, while ultimately the red berries, alpine strawberries plus a touch of raspberry, deliver energy. Still a touch of youthful bitterness, perhaps stem related, that in no way denigrates the potential quality over the longer term – indeed, it will doubtless enhance the complexity. The 2021 Romanée St-Vivant finishes on the vanilla of the oak, and on the rose petals, with a very silky finish to complete the wine. Drink from 2030-2040. 

95 Points - Vinous
The 2021 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru was picked from September 27 to 29 at 14.5hL/ha and bottled a little earlier than other cuvées on January 12, 2023. It has an adorable bouquet, committing itself to the cranberry and raspberry fruit observed from barrel, perhaps not quite as "exotic" as I wrote then, though there is a hint of wild fennel and Provençal herbs. Outstanding delineation and focus, it opens with controlled fanfare towards the finish and contains an almost effervescent element on the aftertaste. Classy yet one of the Domaine's more sensual offerings. 755 cases produced.(NM)

94 Points - Burghound
A kaleidoscopically spicy broad-ranging nose is both much more floral and more elegant with its notes of lavender, dried rose petal, jasmine tea, tangerine peel and cool red currant. The gorgeously textured and sublimely delicate yet quite punchy middleweight plus flavors possess the finest mouthfeel in the range, all wrapped in a superbly long, youthfully austere and delineated finale that seems just a bit skinny at present. This is at once understated and very classy and my rating offers the benefit of the doubt that it will eventually flesh out with time in bottle.

Product size: 750mL