2009 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche Grand Cru
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Tasting notes
The 2009 La Tâche Grand Cru has tasted brilliantly before, though this bottle was not in the same leagues. It is quite a high-toned, flashy bouquet with just a touch of VA that ebbs with aeration, though never fully. There is a soupçon of dark chocolate that infuses the red fruit. Interestingly, this was always a heady La Tâche, but this bottle seems to take that a step too far. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, plenty of bitter cherries and crushed red berries laced with tobacco. It's "fat" on the finish with a reasonably generous, spicy end. Fine, but I was surprised when its identity was revealed. Better bottles out there or a wine whose future is not guaranteed to elicit superlatives? Tasted blind at the 2009 horizontal at Club 1243.
Critic scores
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 2009 La Tâche Grand Cru is the most ethereal of the three wines in this flight. Whole cluster influence is especially marked here. A whole range of spice, dried flower, mint and savory overtones infuse the 2009 with layers of nuance. Next to the other wines in this flight, La Tâche is ethereal and harder to fully capture with words, an attribute many, if not most, of the world’s greatest wines share.
The 2009 La Tâche Grand Cru is still a decade away from the plenitude of maturity, but it's already a head-turning wine, soaring from the glass with an extravagant bouquet of rose petal, Asian spices, grilled meats, rock salt, espresso roast, rich soil tones, plums and dark chocolate. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and richly structured around fine-grained chalky tannins, with a deep and multidimensional core and succulent underlying acids, concluding with a long, fragrant finish. This is an utterly classic La Tâche that ranks among the vintage's high points.
About the producer
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or simply “DRC” is without doubt the most famous domaine in Burgundy and one of the most famous producers on earth. The Grand Cru vineyard from which it takes its name produces the world’s most expensive wine by a long margin.