feature / symposium / Domaine de la Romanée-Conti at Hélène Darroze


The rich black-pudding purée absorbed the slight tannin dryness of the wine on its own and revealed the Romanée-St- Vivant’s glorious fruit core—another almost exhaustingly rewarding marriage.


5. VENISON WELLINGTON—Rhug Estate organic farm, North Wales; smoked eel, beetroot, quince, “poivrade jus” Adam Brett-Smith: Aubert called 2011 his most difficult year to date. But the more difficult years, the so-called lesser vintages, often give more satisfaction earlier. And here the difference between the vintage perception (lesser) and the tasting reality today (you will see) is particularly interesting. 2006 was an uneven vintage for the reds, but it was at its best, indeed it was very fine, in Vosne-Romanée—with what I call here a calm density, “terrestrial,” as distinct from the 2015 Romanée-Conti’s “aerial” character, for example.


2011 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg Grand Cru (13% ABV)


Medium depth, mid-red, narrow brick-rimmed, indications of early maturity. Still a touch tight to smell, but incipient tertiary characters there, with a bit of glass swirling; a density of cooler, earthbound fruit, as though you sense the clay dominance in the vineyard. The palate, by contrast with the 2005 Romanée-St-Vivant, is much more immediately expressive; full, rich, still quite firmly but finely tannic; deep, sweet, gently muscular, with plenty of Richebourg “matter,” presence, bearing—a mouth-coating and searching character alongside the sweetly ripe, red fruit. Long, refined, typically Richebourg dense in style, a lovely core here, long and rewarding to taste in this slightly cooler year, and with fine length to finish. Here the expression is all on the palate, with all to come on the nose, in absolute contrast to the 2005 Romanée-St-Vivant. Great pleasure now, decades in hand. Now to 2045. | 94


2006 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche Grand Cru Monopole (13% ABV)


Medium depth, mature, brick-edged ruby. Initially surprisingly tight and closed to smell, with none of the La Tâche spice fireworks immediately in evidence. Subtly red-cherry ripe, persistent, mineral-marked, but shy, needing time and encouragement in the glass. A lovely red-fruit perfume emerges as it sits and you swirl—plenty to tempt and to tempt you to linger, the La Tâche extravagance emerging. On the palate, like the Richebourg, this is immediately flattering to taste, full, fresh, very fine in mostly absorbed tannin, deep, sweet, racy, complex, and spicy, very come-hither and appealing, just full of perfume and fruit. Transparent, graceful, intense in flavor, palate-searching, long, rewarding, and with a wonderful length of aftertaste. A (perhaps surprising?) star in tonight’s lineup. All the more when the bouquet opened up as it sat in the glass. This then became a truly beautiful wine, so sweet and seductive to smell, taste, and finish. Ravishingly perfumed, and completely different from the more reserved density of the adjacent Richebourg. Glorious. A magical encounter with this 18-year-old. Now to 2036+. | 96


In many ways, this was the most mature, complete, and beautiful wine of the evening. Well, that was before the haunting but barely mature 2015 Romanée-Conti itself… This, again, was such a complex dish. Just a single slice of the venison fillet, so pink and tender, duxelles-pâté-coated and shortcrust-pastry-cased. And a sublime sauce: the thickened juices from the venison trimmings and bones, infused with intensely smoky aromas from the eel, sharpened with the sweet, lemony flavors of quince, some pieces cooked in quince vinegar, firm and grainy textured. This intricate, elaborate assemblage another gloriously glossy reduction, poivrade


140 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025


pepper-spiced, with, on the plate, the additional contrast of small, sweet, vivid, al dente beetroot. Phew! So, how did the DRC’s fare? The gentle muscularity of the


Richebourg and its abundant fruit kernel were a perfect foil to all this, with plenty of wine presence to taste. As for La Tâche, with time in the glass it tasted so fragrant and subtle, with a delicacy and sweetness so intense it seemed to soar above the dish, as an enhancement, not a detraction. Additional dimensions of sensation, really rather remarkable.


6. VACHERIN MONT D’OR—Jura Vaudois, Switzerland; black truffle from Périgord, ratte potato, puntarelle, tardivo Adam Brett-Smith: 2015 was described by Aubert as an easy, sunny vintage, where Romanée-Conti transports me, at least, weightlessly to heaven. And don’t let the wine go anywhere near the cheese!


2015 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Romanée-Conti Grand Cru (14% ABV)


Deepish red, with an early brick-rimmed maturity. An intense, subtle perfume to smell—sweet, fragrant, spicy, exotic—mesmerizing, unaccountable. Multifaceted just to “scent,” brimming the glass, and immediately of a different order of complexity and scope from even the beautiful 2006 La Tâche. Fragrance apart, this is emphatically black-fruit ripe in character, heady, complex, mineral-touched. To taste, it is full, concentrated, finely tannic, still somewhat youthfully tight in texture, but also ample, fleshy, very marked by a pronounced inner energy and “race” on the palate, prolonged and intense, but a power that is quietly expressed, with all the delicacy and transparency of the finest Burgundy. A gorgeous, sweet, fruit succulence underlies the aromatic wealth and complexity, and the finish is a pronounced and lingering flourish of all the peacock’s-tail spice and scent you would expect. Radiantly beautiful, absolutely effortless. It is an extremely rare privilege to drink any Romanée-Conti, and this was immensely rewarding to ponder, to savor, to relish, all the more remarkable for being a bare ten years of age. With decades of increasing subtlety, bouquet, polish to come. Now to 2055+. | 97+


Describing the vineyards in September 2015, Aubert de


Villaine, the Domaine’s director at the time, said, “I was struck by their beauty, and by the perfect health of the vines, their leaves, their fruit—and the wines seem to reflect this easy, sunny, unstressed character. Serene, peaceful.” Exactly so. And Adam’s comment days later was, “I’m still tasting that Romanée-Conti 2015, which surely was touched by God…” As to whether to serve Romanée-Conti with cheese at all, and if so whether a cheese like Vacherin is a good choice, Richard Olney in his book Romanée-Conti (Rizzoli, 1995) makes some salient points that I couldn’t put better: “The alliance of the Domaine’s wines with cheeses is not necessarily of the sort that inspires each, in the presence of the other, to soar to new heights of eloquence. Romanée-Conti is most often poured with the cheese course, not because it is a marriage made in heaven but simply because, in the context of a traditional modern menu, the climax of a suite of red wines coincides with the cheese service.” And later: “a sliver of Maroilles or Livarot […] can wreak havoc with a Romanée- Conti”—two cheeses for which you could substitute Vacherin, another soft, strong, pungent, washed-rind cow’s-milk cheese. A little further on, he quotes Lucien Peyraud of Domaine Tempier in Bandol: “It’s a crime to drink Romanée-Conti while eating—it has to be analyzed with joy in all its fullness.”


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