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Vosne-Romanée is hallowed ground for wine aficionados. It’s a town of royalty, where the kings, and queens of wine fold up their winery doors and windows in the late afternoon just like the rest of us. This village is famous not just for the incredible wines that it produces, but for the cult status of its sojourning winemakers, that have in some respects have transcended the wine they produce. All of this means a rich history, and vibrant culture for this little town.
Vosne-Romanée (pronounced like phone, but with a V. Roman - aye) is unassuming to say the least. Though a beautiful spectacle nestled under the golden slope, it looks like little more than a small farming town with brick-paved streets and wooden gates. The town square has a small church with a bulletin of community events. There’s a pétanque club on Tuesday nights. If you are luckly enough to be there in season, winemakers will be busy hauling used skins back to the vineyards as fertilizer.
Vosne is the seventh stop from Dijon on La Route des Grands Crus, but certainly builds a sense of anticipation as you begin working your way through the network of one-way roads that makes up the tiny hamlets along the Michelin-star lined cobblestone streets. There is a sense of humility in each of the little towns on the way, that certainly does not present any sort of gaud or glamour. If it weren’t for the vineyards and names on some of the buildings, you probably wouldn’t even know you weren’t outside of Boston, or Indianapolis.
The landscape is nothing shy of stunning, but in a modest way. Burgundy won’t take your breath away - and you wouldn’t want to anyway - the air is among the freshest in France. Wineries are simple, small carriage garages, with courtyards and carefully etched bougainvillea creeping up the edges of jumbled cobblestone. Everything has a sense of the rustic beauty of ages past.
Quaint is an understatement. Though not as glamorous, or ostentatious as some of the Châteaux of the left bank, there’s an austere sense of wonderment that echoes through the narrow streets into the town square here - you almost sense that something magical happens right here, just under your feet. Walk west of the town square up the Rue du Temps Perdu, and you will find your magic.
There stands a stone cross, about fifteen feet tall, amidst a sea of vines stretching up the Côte like a quilt of leaves. This cross marks the Romanée-Conti vineyard: a wine synonymous with lavish gaud. Bottles of fair vintages retail for $30,000 on the low end, but honestly, there’s not much here besides a small vineyard, and some stone walls. It would be hard even for the most discerning to see what the significance of this area is - certainly not why would someone part with that type of money for a bottle of wine from here.
This vineyard originally held the title of Cru de Clos by the Abbey de Saint Vivant, the parish responsible for winemaking in Vosne since they owned the place in 1295. They began leasing out their vineyards following initial plantings and research. Vineyards were eventually sold off in Burgundy, this one being no exception, and the property was purchased in 1641 by a flemish nobleman, who changed the name from Cru de Clos, to La Romanée. Oddly enough that’s the same name as the vineyard to the west today, though the two were supposedly never a merged property and havre always remained separate.
These wines were highly coveted, and were sold in small barrels called feuilletes, to be consumed and served at the properties of noblemen. Prices skyrocketed, and all of the nobility of the court of Louis XV wanted to try this La Romanée wine. So much so, that it was rumored, the king’s mistress, Madam de Pompadour had entered a bidding war for the estate against her arch nemesis, Louis Francois I, Prince of Conti - though this was later proven to be nothing more than local legend.
The prince of Conti bought the estate for the eviscerating sum of eight thousand lives, an incredibly amount of money at the time, and proceeded to name it after himself. Thus, Romanée-Conti got its name. The wine from their vineyard was no longer set up for sale, as you would do as an eighteenth century nobleman, because it was relegated solely for the prince’s daily lubrication, and entertaining of his courtiers.
The turn of the century, and the culmination of the French Republic, had shifted the balance of asset ownership, and once again, amidst political turmoil, Romanée-Conti changed hands. 1794 marked the year that a dual-bid was seen for Romanée-Conti and its sister property across the Grand Rue, La Tâche. The vineyard was sold and resold, until in 1869, now regarded as têt de cuvée (head of the vineyards; the best) it ended up in the hands of Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, who is the ancestor of the current ownership.
Today it is the number in most collectable wine in the world. It’s also the most forged. In 1945, the domaine Romanée-Conti dug up its vines to plant on phylloxera-resistant roots. The last vintage on the troubled old vines was 1945. Yields were extremely low, and by this vintage only about six hundred bottles were bale to be produced. Meaning a vast majority of this highly esteemed. By comparison, today yields are drastically low, but about five thousand bottles are made of a good vintage of this wine.
According to critics, the 2018, considered a candidate for the best vintage ever of this wine, leads with epic notes of fresh ripe strawberry, stewed cranberry, gunflint, and crushed limestone. There are some undertones of oyster shell, rose petal and thyme. The wine is structured well, with lush tannins that add a sense of lavender-like appeal. The wine gives an appeal of organic earthiness in the form of mushroom, as well as a finish of red apple. Might be one to save up for?
Just across the westerly road called La Grande Rue, is a property owned by François Lamarche Winery, by the same name. La Grande Rue is probably the best value right now in all of the Côte D’Or. How the wine has remained at only $500/bottle is unbeknownst to me, when neighboring properties are selling for $30,000. A rung of bad vintages during the seventies spur on bad juju for this particular wine, which has lead it to becoming a bit of a falloff, even though quality had improved ten-fold by the nineties, the winery just can’t seem to shake that old reputation.
This property too was auctioned off after the French Revolution, and found itself under the auspices of the Marey family of accountants in neighboring Nuits-St.-Georges, and eventually to the Comte Liger-Belair family, who owns several properties today, but in 1933, decided to sell this ninety-five foot parcel to the Lamarche estate for fifty thousand francs, who gifted it as a wedding present to their son, Francois. A nice gift, indeed.
Another reason that reputation could mean great value here, is because Francois Lamarche, the winemaker vinifying grapes from this property did not think it necessary to apply for Grand Cru status with the AOC, insisting instead the this action would result in higher taxes. As such, this vineyard remained a Premier Cru site until after much lobbying by the Lamarche family, and a drastic improvement of quality as well, was it elevated to Grand Cru status in 1988, some fifty years later.
The 2018 is going to be a fairly more expensive vintage of this wine to try and get ahold of realistically. Despite battles with powdery mildew mid-season with reduced yields, this is chuffed to be one of the finest vintages of this particular wine. It’s bold, and opens with flavors of black cherry, and ripe red strawberry. There are hints of turned earth, and Rimini mushroom as well as some rosemary, and chalk. Bracing minerality wafts aromas of gravel and leather. This wine finished with aromas of Lilly and hibiscus on the palette.
To the west is vineyard La Tâche, (lah tesh) a monopole of the illustrious Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. The original parcel is a lot smaller than it exists today. Next door to the original La Tâche used to be a much larger premier cru, Les Gaudichots, which in the nineteen twenties, producers who held land in this vineyard could use La Tâche, or Gaudichots. At that time the smaller La Tâche was owned by Comte Liger-Belair, who argued the practice of labeling Gaudichots as La Tâche was harming the reputation of their small monopole holding. By 1931, however, Comtesse Liger-Belair had died, and La Tâche was sold to Romanée-Conti in 1933, who combined its holdings in Gaudichots, to create one large combined monopole vineyard.
The fifty year-old vines in this vineyard are producing one incredible fruit as they age. Flavors of ripe red strawberry, red apple, and blackberry add a supple, yet pure, muscular drive to the wine. The fruit is more brooding than Romanée-Conti, with its more red-fruit finesse. This is as complicated as a fine perfume but more muscular and drive, without compromising delicacy and structure. The mid-palette offers flavors of black tea, cedar, and cypress woods, as well as some clove spice and leather polish. This wine is complex and delicate, showing incredible structure and minerality. Wine finishes with aromas of rose and tobacco semois. This is one that will continue to show more autumnal aromas as it ages: those of dead wood, and leaves which will add an incredible tertiary distinctive.
East of Romanée-Conti is Romanée-St.-Vivant. This vineyard is named after the Abbey Saint Vivant, which owned a lot of these older vineyards at their founding. It lays in ruins just to the west of the Côte. Like the other vineyards, it sold during the insurgency of the French Republic, when it was purchased as part of a land deal in 1791 when it was sold to Nicolas-Joseph Marey, who married into the industrious Monge family of Beaune.
Originally, this vineyard was sold as a monopole, and consisted to several different plots in various areas. It is one of the large Grand Cru sites in Vosne. For whatever reason, the Marey-Monge estate decided to let go of the southwestern flanking vineyard named Le Clos des Quatre Journeaux, which was again split up by the buying party, the Latour family. The vineyard began to be leased to Domaine de La Romanée-Conti by Ms. Marey-Monge, heiress to the winemaking estate, who were also given first buying rights if the property ever came up for sale.
Eventually, of course, it did, when it fell upon a family disinterested in winemaking after the late widow Marey-Monge passed away in 1988. The property’s ownership was then transferred to Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, though thankfully, thanks to the initial breakup sale in the last century by the Marey-Monge family, there are other, more affordable producers making wine from this plot. The Marey-Monge family to this day is honored by Domaine de La Romanee Conti on each other these bottles of wine, just under the name of the vineyard.
One of these incredible producers is Hudelot-Noellat, a name nearly synonymous with the town of Vosne-Romanée. This family was able to come into acquisition of this incredible vineyard when part of it was sold off by negoçiante Louis Latour. This wine emanates a sense of candied dark cherry, hints of vanilla bean and anise. Noticeable also is a savory herbal character of tarragon, and lavender. On the nose you notice white Lilly and red rose, turned earth, white truffle and some more wafting aromas of cinnamon. These wines show incredible complexity right off the bat, and age well.
Featured in the film Sideways is the Grand Cru vineyard of Richebourg. This second largest plot, surrounded by two larger and less-illustrious grands crus, Echézeaux, and Clos de Vougeot, represents some of the finest wines in the appellation. Though not as small or noteworthy as any of the monopoles like Romanée-Conti by any means, it is extremely well regarded, and take great care of the reputation of this smaller plot.
Richebourg means rich town, though it is unknown where this name comes from. This is the second largest grand cru area, again, with only a mere eight hectares under vine, though the soils are exquisite, and benefit this property greatly. It has soils which are similar in nature to those found next door at Romanée-conti, yet they are somewhat more granulated with limestone, and the aspect begins to rear towards the Combe of Vougeot slightly, adding in some areas to the elevation towards the end of the vineyard, which means this vineyard gets nearly perfect southern exposures. Vines are planted to maximize the airflow.
This vineyard also happens to have a higher concentration of sand than those around. Mercifully, this benefits the drainage at this plot, and makes for brighter and often more flamboyant expression of fruit. The marl here is not quite as water retaining wither, though considering the proximity to the Combe of Orveaux, that can be a good thing. No domaine owns any portion higher than two acres of this property
Domaine Anne Gros is a biodynamic producer making some incredible wines. Her Richebourg may not be the most sought after when compared to that of Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, but realistically, it’s just as high quality as it’s biodynamic and being from the spot of land just to the east, on the same prime soil. This wine sings of redcurrant, raspberry and elderberry. There’s some brioche-like notes, and well. You will notice a hint of nutmeg and perhaps some clove as well. Aromas of white truffle and thyme are also present. There is some semblance of turned Earth on the nose.
La Romanée shares more similarities than just a name with Romanée-Conti. Being just to the east and up the slope of the Côte, this slightly inclined aspect results in richer wines, often of the same substance. The vineyard was historically made up of six different lieux-dits, commonly referred to one the centuries as Aux Exchanges, named after the road beside Richebourg, and Romanée-Conti.
This plot has been held by the Ligair-Belair family of great fame here in Vosne-Romanée and is proudly still a monopole, or wholly-owned vineyard like may of these other plots. These wines are bottled by the estate as Comte Liger-Belair La Romanée monopole, and their prices per bottle are not dissimilar to offerings from Domaine de La Romanée-Conti. The reason, is because the family has maintained a firm grip on production of very high quality wines, since they acquired the plot in 1915, ex-post the revolution.
Farming practices here are the same as they were in the last century. The vines are tended to using biodynamic principals, but are realistically an uncertified organic of the utmost quality. This wine costs notes of spiced cedar, rich round cherry bramble, and a bit of mint. There are further elements of black tea, tobacc corojo. These wines fade beautifully into red rose and crisp red apple on the palette with gleans of cinnamon and wet limestone.
Find in-depth information about the Grand Cru vineyards of Flagey-Echézeaux
That's all,
~K