2012 Romanee St Vivant

Deep ruby-red. Reticent but pure nose offers scents of blackberry, black raspberry, minerals and bitter chocolate. Silky on entry, then ripe, sappy and chewy in the middle, with a restrained sweetness and terrific concentration to the youthful flavors of dark berries, violet and licorice. Finishes with chewy but ripe tannins, excellent grip and lingering black fruit and violet perfume. I can see this wine developing in bottle for 15 years or more.

The crown jewel is the 2012 Romanee-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru that comes from the 0.50-hectare slither planted in 1922. It already boasts an enticing bouquet laden with luscious dark cherry and creme de cassis fruit, stupendous mineralite and exotic touches of blood orange and marmalade. The palate is silky smooth with razor-sharp tannins, once again superb mineralite and a sleek, sensual, quite piercing sorbet-fresh finish that lingers in the mouth much longer than the Clos de Vougeot. This is a sophisticated, modern take on the grand cru, one with panache and oozing class. My final visit of the day was to Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron, just up the Route Nationale from Domaine de l’Arlot in Premeaux-Prissey. It took me a while to engineer the car into the courtyard since a man-eating hound refused to budge out of the way of the vehicle. It would probably not go down well with winemaker, Alain Meunier, had I run the mutt over. Alain’s father-in-law was Jean-Jacques Confuron, a quietly spoken gentleman who has done much to make this one of the most sought after domaines in Nuits Saint Georges. The domaine includes 8.5-hectares of vines in the Cote de Nuits that have been farmed organically since 1989, the portfolio crowned by a parcel in Romanee-Saint-Vivant, a thin but precious strip to the north of the climat, sandwiched between Alain Hudelot-Noellat and Lalou Bize-Leroy. Though usually most of the fruit is de-stemmed, Alain told me that this year the premier and grand crus include 20% whole clusters. The use of new oak here is quite pronounced relative to others: 30% for the village crus, between 40% and 50% for the premier crus and over 60% for the grand crus, but I did not find it excessive and it was beautifully knitted into the fabric of these 2012s, especially his sumptuous grand crus that should easily age over 20 or 30 years. I look forward to visiting once again - mindful of not running over the dog of course. Importer: J.A.O. Wine Importers, 1507 Hampton Hill Circle, McLean (VA) Tel 1 703 628 9615. Also available in UK at Enotria Winecellars Lts. and Ballantynes of Cowbridge.

This is severely reduced though there is good verve and freshness to the wonderfully refined middle weight flavors that possess the grand class that makes Romanée St. Vivant inimitable. Unfortunately the reduction reappears on the finish and this is always a cause for concern. Note that my projected range offers the benefit of the doubt as I have long collected this wine and Meunier rarely misses with it. Tasted: Jan 15, 2014. Drink: 2022+