2014 Romanee Conti

Deep, dark red. Darker on the nose than La Tâche, exuding aromas of boysenberry, black raspberry, violet, brown spices and smoky minerality. Like liquid velvet on the palate but with its purple and black fruit flavors energized by pungent, sappy minerality. The rising, utterly bracing finish shows great breadth and extraordinary noble tannins. This knockout is wonderfully full and thick yet somehow weightless owing to its outstanding mineral energy. An amazing showing today, but this supremely elegant wine is just at the beginning of a 30+-year life in bottle. Bertrand de Villaine noted that Romanée-Conti is typically a wine of aromas while La Tâche is more about the mouth, but not today.

The 2014 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru was picked on 19 September, cropped at 32.6 hectoliters per hectare and bottled on 25 and 26 April 2016. I remember tasting this from barrel, thinking how taciturn it was, before coaxing out those subtle tertiary aromas. Here it remains bashful once more, however, it soon begins to open and deliver the ethereal, mineral-infused red fruit. It is almost conservative compared to the more multi-faceted 2014 La Tâche. This is precise and detailed, not inclined to deliver aromatic "thrills" at such an early juncture. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, perfectly judged acidity, perhaps fuller in the mouth than the 2013 Romanée-Conti, with volume and grip towards the finish. Paradoxically, it is also a discrete wine, quite linear and maybe without the sustained persistence that elevates the La Tâche. You could sum up this Romanée-Conti in three words: precision, precision, precision. A total of 657 cases were produced, which is much above the average of 450, but do not expect the normal economic rules of supply and demand to apply. Tasted February 2017.