Produced by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti from the monopole vineyard Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, located in the Côte de Nuits, from Pinot Noir. The 2005 harvest began with La Tâche and Romanée-Conti and concluded with Romanée-St-Vivant on the 23rd of September, all within a single week. That year, the Côte de Nuits region received slightly more summer rainfall than the Côte de Beaune region, and the fruit came in concentrated.
Bottling was scheduled to take place in March and April in batches of six barrels using gravity.
Robert Parker (99)
There are more startling complexities in the 2005 Romanee-Conti than in any other wine here today, perhaps in the vintage. A stunning, high-toned and utterly unique perfume of pink grapefruit, blood orange, tangerine rind, vivid rose petal, musk, cinnamon, sage, and cassis seduces the olfactors in kaleidoscopic rotation. I hesitate to court sacrilege or ridicule with Germanic allusions but it is impossible not to imagine a great Pinot scented with Gewurztraminer and Scheurebe. On the palate, a pure, clean meatiness emerges, like butchering a meadow-fed lamb, bitter-sweet flowers flying forth in an inner-mouth profusion. Soy and black truffle lend a dark, savory note to the proceedings, leading the long finishing procession over a path strewn with rose petals. Fear not: despite its silken texture, there are abundant tannins woven into this amazing tapestry as well, and I am sure those lucky enough to own some can retain it as collateral, then leave it to their children, safe in the knowledge it has not decayed. Reverential drinking after a dozen or more years would, however, be my preference.
Once the grapes in these fabled vineyards had reached a potential alcohol of 13%, reports Aubert de Villaine, he was ready to pick, because conditions had seldom been so conducive to perfect ripeness (including that of the stems). It was all done in a week, commencing with La Tache and Romanee Conti, and finishing on September 23 with Romanee-St.-Vivant (and Montrachet, on which I shall report at a future date). De Villaine intended to bottle in March or April by gravity in six-barrel lots, as has become general practice here over the past decade.
Jancis Robinson (20)
Bright crimson with a surprisingly deep shaded rim already. Seems even more complex than the Tâche on the nose – such a jewel! So sturdy and heady and rich and flattering. More hints of a mature DRC with mushrooms and violets than the Tâche which is a little more pointu and direct rather than this cloud in which one can lose oneself. So complete on the palate – less raw than the Tâche seemed last night. Such concentration. Dangerously enjoyable. Just like a string on a cello that has been plucked and reverberates. So long. Great savour and juiciness. The weight of fruit is such that it is easy to overlook those pretty marked tannins that are so easy, ripe yet fresh! Wilder than la Tâche. Mind you, I'm glad I tasted this in blissful ignorance of the price.
