1999 La Tâche, Grand Cru, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Burgundy
Critics reviews
This is almost certainly destined to become one of the all-time great vintages of La Tâche.
Words remain inadequate to describe just how good this wine is as the '99 is a classic La Tâche in every respect with its incredibly pure, marvellously intense Asian spice box nose. There is terrific size, weight, and richness to the enveloping flavours of hoisin and pure pinot extract that deliver indescribable complexity at the hugely long finish. The big tannins are completely wrapped in velvet, and while they are by no means invisible, they are beautifully well-integrated.
Indeed, the word seamless comes to mind. Moreover, among the many bottles I have been blessed to have tried, I have never had one that was anything less than sensational. However, note that the '99 LT will be a long-distance runner, so a cellar-and-forget strategy is strongly advised, at least for the next decade or so—multiple and consistent notes.
Drink from 2024 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound (April 2017)
The 1999 La Tâche Grand Cru can be a perfect wine. This was very similar to the bottle opened in 2015. The bouquet sends you straight to heaven with so much purity and detail that, frankly, it is difficult to put into words. Fleeting glimpses of redcurrant, then pomegranate, broom and wilted rose petals, later more earthy scents, autumnal. The palate is perfectly balanced with filigree tannin, an utterly entrancing symmetry and precision second to none. Hints of black plum and blood orange, that mineralité returning towards a finish so tensile you risk cutting yourself. I would have given this my second score had the 1999 Romanée-Conti been in the next glass.
Drink 2020 - 2065
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2018)
A dark, exotic beauty, the 1999 La Tâche hits the palate with soy, blackberry, liquorice, grilled herbs, smoke, graphite, and lavender scents. It is a distinctly brooding, dark La Tâche that speaks with a real sense of gravitas. Just at the very early part of its drinking window, the 1999 will offer profound drinking over the next several decades.
Drink 2019 - 2049
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (May 2016)
Very deep blackish ruby – much deeper than most red burgundies. Actually overnight dregs in an open bottle did not hold up in terms of freshness as well as those of the Mugnier Amoureuses 2001 tasted alongside. Very massive wine that's still brooding and probably needs a few more years to show its best but it's certainly impressive! Great throat warming stuff with real structure and vibrato fruit in the middle. Not to be ignored!
Drink 2015 - 2035
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (June 2012)
Integrated, layered and complex, this wine is incredibly structured yet still fresh and lively. It’s inky black and exotic, with a waft of baking spices and cedar, plus rounded chocolatey tones that drive long but without any unnecessary force. DRC harvest notes say: '1999 marked the first year we couldn’t have done anything better... The grapes of 1999 were perhaps the most perfect we had ever seen.’ That poise and purpose hasn’t faltered in two decades.
Drink 2024 - 2038
David Sly, Decanter.com (April 2024)
Good dark red, not crystal-clear. The ripe, musky, multidimensional nose combines blackberry, raspberry, violet, earth, game, black pepper, herbs, and a positive vegetal nuance. Plush, silky and very ripe but not particularly sweet, with concentrated dark fruit, spice and pepper flavours complicated by a hint of prune. ("More fruit ripeness than the '15," noted Aubert de Villaine just moments after we had tasted the '15 La Tâche) Finishes with substantial dusty tannins and a note of liquorice. This extremely complex wine is not particularly high in acidity, but it is still short of its peak drinking window.
Drink 2020 -2039
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (March 2018)
About this WINE
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC)
Domaine de la Romanée Conti is co-owned by the de Villaine and Leroy/Roch families, the former successors to Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet who bought the vineyard of La Romanée Conti in 1869, the latter since acquiring the shares of other descendants of Duvault-Blochet in 1942. The domaine is today run by Aubert de Villaine. Many people in Burgundy just refer to 'DRC' as "the Domaine".
The domaine has 25 hectares of vineyards, all Grand Crus. As well as the 1.8 hectare monopole La Romanée Conti, the Domaine purchased its other monopole, La Tâche, in 1933, along with significant holdings in the grand crus of Richebourg, Romanée-St-Vivant, Grands Échezeaux, Échezeaux and Le Montrachet at various points in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Domaine is the largest owners of each of the red wine grand crus.
The wines are made by Alexandre Bernier, in succession to Bernard Noblet. Whole clusters are used (no destemming) with a long vatting time avoiding excesses of heat. Yields are mind-numbingly low and the winemaking is traditional and perfectionist. These are not merely among the most sumptuous wines of Burgundy but certainly the most stylish. Ancestor Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet was an advocate of harvesting late in order to ensure optimum ripeness, a philosophy to which his descendants adhere today.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director and author of the award-winning Inside Burgundy comprehensive handbook.
Vosne-Romanée
The small commune of Vosne-Romanée is the Côte de Nuits’ brightest star, producing the finest and most expensive Pinot Noir wines in the world.. Its wines have an extraordinary intensity of fruit which manages to combine power and finesse more magically than in any other part of the Côte d’Or. The best examples balance extraordinary depth and richness with elegance and breeding.
Situated just north of Nuits-St Georges, Vosne-Romanée boasts eight Grand Cru vineyards, three of which include the suffix Romanée, to which the village of Vosne appended its name in 1866. The famous La Romanée vineyard was formerly known as Le Cloux but was renamed in 1651, presumably after the Roman remains found nearby. In 1760 the property was bought by Prince de Conti, and subsequently became known as Romanée-Conti.Vosne is the home of the phenomenally fine wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti; divine wines that are, as they say, not for everyone but for those who can afford them. The region also boasts some of the world’s most talented, quality-conscious and pioneering producers: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti of course, but also Henri Jayer, Lalou Bize-Leroy, René Engel, as well as the Grivot and Gros families, to name but a few.
Vosne-Romanée has the greatest concentration of top vineyards in the Côte d’Or, including the tiny Grand Crus of the astonishing La Romanée-Conti (a monopoly of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti producing about 600 cases a year), the classy, complex La Romanée (a monopoly of Vicomte Liger-Belair, but until 2002 bottled under Bouchard Père et Fils, producing a minuscule 300 cases or so a year) and the little-known La Grande Rue. As the name suggests, this runs up the side of the road out of Vosne. Originally a Premier Cru, it was rightly upgraded in 1992, although its rich, spicy, floral Pinots are yet to reach their real potential under Domaine Lamarche who hold it as a monopoly.
By convention the wines of neighbouring Flagey-Echézeaux are considered part of Vosne-Romanée. These include the large, very variable 30-hectare Echézeaux (divided between 84 different growers) and the more consistent, silky, intense, violet-scented Grands Echézeaux Grands Crus.
La Tâche is another monopoly of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It is explosively seductive with a peerless finesse, and is almost as good as their legendary eponymous wine. Richebourg is one of Burgundy’s most voluptuous wines and is capable of challenging La Tâche in some years, while Romanée-St Vivant, which takes its name from the monastery of St Vivant built around 900AD in Vergy, has a lovely silky finesse but is slightly less powerful.
If that wasn’t enough, Vosne-Romanée also boasts some absolutely magnificent Premiers Crus headed by Clos des Réas, Les Malconsorts (just south of La Tâche, and arguably of Grand Cru quality) and Les Chaumes on the Nuits-St Georges side, Cros Parantoux (made famous by Henri Jayer), Les Beaux Monts and Les Suchots on the Flagey-Echézeaux border. The old maxim that ‘there are no common wines in Vosne-Romanée’ may not be strictly true, but it is not far off.
Drinking dates vary, but as a general rule of thumb Grand Crus are best drunk from at least 10 to 25 years, while Premier Crus can be enjoyed from 8 to 20 years, and village wines from 5 to 12 years.
There are no white wines produced in Vosne-Romanée.
- 99 hectares of village Vosne-Romanée.
- 56 hectares of Premier Cru vineyards (14 in all). Foremost vineyards include Les Gaudichots, Les Malconsorts, Cros Parentoux, Les Suchots, Les Beauxmonts, En Orveaux and Les Reignots.
- 75 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards: Romanée-Conti, La Romanée, La Tache, Richebourg, Romanée St Vivant, La Grande Rue, Grands Echézeaux, Echézeaux.
- Recommended producers: Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Leroy, Cathiard, Engel, Rouget, Grivot, Liger Belair.
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
This is almost certainly destined to become one of the all-time great vintages of La Tâche.
Words remain inadequate to describe just how good this wine is as the '99 is a classic La Tâche in every respect with its incredibly pure, marvellously intense Asian spice box nose. There is terrific size, weight, and richness to the enveloping flavours of hoisin and pure pinot extract that deliver indescribable complexity at the hugely long finish. The big tannins are completely wrapped in velvet, and while they are by no means invisible, they are beautifully well-integrated.
Indeed, the word seamless comes to mind. Moreover, among the many bottles I have been blessed to have tried, I have never had one that was anything less than sensational. However, note that the '99 LT will be a long-distance runner, so a cellar-and-forget strategy is strongly advised, at least for the next decade or so—multiple and consistent notes.
Drink from 2024 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound (April 2017)
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