1999 | Domaine de La Romanee Conti | Romanee Conti (Magnum)

The vibrant, pure, spicy, distinctly floral and unusually high-toned nose introduces big, powerful and concentrated flavors that possess almost painful intensity. This brims with palate staining extract along with plenty of minerality yet it remains regal, almost aloof and quite reserved on the hugely long finish.

Reviews:

•  Wine Advocate: The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Romanee-Conti is mind-boggling. It has a hugely expressive nose of super-ripe black cherries, candied plums, and violets. Full-bodied and possessing a magnificent breadth of sweet, penetrating fruits, this is an unbelievably complex wine. It coats the palate with its velvety sweet cherries, jammy blackberries, and fruit-soaked tannin. Perfectly balanced and seamless, this gem has a remarkably long finish. This is a wine of exemplary precision, delineation, and power with undescribable class and refinement.

• Vinous: This is my third bottle of 1999 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru and it repeats the breathtaking performance of the previous two. That said, it demands more aeration than I was expecting, backward and more introspective for the first 60 minutes until that crystalline, mineral-driven, profound bouquet reveals itself. The aromatics just shimmer. The palate is perfectly balanced as before, mind-boggling in terms of precision and grace, with laser-like intensity and a tension that electrifies the senses. More red fruit than black, hints of orange peel and oyster shell, it fans out languorously on the eternally long finish. Heaven in a glass! Picked on September 20 and cropped at 32hl/ha. 6,917 bottles produced. Tasted at the Romanée-Conti dinner at the Connaught Hotel.

Producer InformationDomaine de la Romanée-Conti, or DRC as it is commonly known, is easily Burgundy's best-known and most collectible wine producer. Based in the Burgundy village of Vosne-Romanée, the domaine sells wines from eight different grand cru vineyards that span the length of the Côte d'Or. The most famous comes from the eponymous Romanée-Conti vineyard, and on average is the most expensive wine in the world. The domaine predominately produces Pinot Noir-based wines from 28 hectares (69 acres) of grand cru vineyard. Alongside Romanée-Conti are La Tâche, Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Richebourg in Vosne-Romanée; plus Échezeaux and Grands Échezeaux bottlings. Fruit from Corton-Bressandes, Corton Clos du Roi and Corton Renardes is combined in a single Corton Grand Cru red. There are three white (Chardonnay) wines made. Only one of these, the Montrachet is made widely avilable. A Bâtard-Montrachet and a Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits are not publically distributed. Of course, La Romanée-Conti is the domaine's most famous asset, and the amount of wine made from less than 2ha (5 acres) of land amounts to just 6000 bottles a year. The vineyard has a long history, dating back to the Abbey of Saint-Vivant in the 13th Century. It took on the Romanée name in 1631, and the Conti in 1760.Today, DRC is owned in part by the de Villaine family and in part by the Leroy family. Aubert de Villaine is the figurehead of the company now – although it was famously run by Lalou Bize-Leroy for a time, until a dispute saw her ousted from control.