2020 La Tâche, Grand Cru, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Burgundy
Critics reviews
La Tâche is no denser in colour. The bouquet introduces nobility but as always in a slightly sterner register No easy access here. The stems are apparent on the palate, bringing crushed dark strawberries and white pepper, ahead of the roses. A fleeting thought of tar and roses but not the same acidity of course as Barolo, though there is a good thread nonetheless. There is much more red fruit here and perhaps some iron oxide, and indeed La Tâche does indeed display a redder soil.
Drink 2040 - 2060
Jasper Morris MW, Inside Burgundy (October 2022)
A monopole of 6.06 ha.
Much like the Romanée St. Vivant, here the equally reserved nose is overtly floral in character with a beautifully layered array of hoisin, soy, clove, anise, black cherry coulis, sandalwood and exotic jasmine and pekoe tea scents. Once again, the texture of the rich and impressively concentrated broad-shouldered flavours is super-sleek, and they too exude an almost pungent minerality on the clean, bright and exceptionally persistent finale where the only nit is a touch of backend warmth.
Despite being very firmly structured, the mid-palate density is such that this could probably be approached after only 12 to 15 years. With that said, the 2020 LT should be capable of at least 25 years of improvement and 30 would not surprise me unduly. This is quite simply exquisite.
Drink from 2045 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (January 2023)
The 2020 La Tâche Grand Cru was picked 30 August and 2 and 3 September at 29.7hL/ha. This has to be left for 5-10 minutes to unfurl. Complex nose, pressed flowers (peony and iris), and hints of Lapsang Souchong and briary, this La Tâche has a cerebral nature that sets it apart. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins. The 2020 is an exquisitely sculpted and focused wine, the epitome of an iron fist in a velvety glove. Silky smooth in texture, with a peacock’s tail on the finish with unerring mineralité, this is a divine La Tâche that will age over many many years. 1,237 cases were produced.
Drink 2025 - 2065
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2023)
The 2020 La Tâche Grand Cru is very typically La Tâche. Plum, hoisin, spice and blood orange are all amplified in an explosive, massively backwards La Tâche that will need 15-20 years in the cellar to start drinking well. As is so often the case, whole clusters lend an exotic spice quality that is front and centre. The warm growing season has taken all the La Tâche signatures and amplified them, resulting in a dense, explosive Burgundy that will thrill readers lucky enough to own it for many decades to come.
Drink 2035 - 2070
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (March 2023)
Transparent garnet. Spicy, rich depths but pretty uncommunicative on the nose – just a very slight roasted element. Just a little skinnier than usual. Or is it simply refined? It’s certainly very sleek rather than rich. Very pure, light tannic signature. Perhaps this is a cross between the usual Tâche style and the Richebourg’s transparency? It’s certainly different from previous vintages I can remember. A little stricter.
Drink 2034 - 2050
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2023)
The 2020 La Tâche Grand Cru is magical, mingling notions of mulberries, cherries and cassis with scents of bergamot, black tea, liquorice, exotic spices and peonies. Full-bodied, rich and resonant, with a broad attack, huge mid-palate amplitude and a supple, seamless, elegantly muscular profile, this is a remarkably powerful but also profoundly complex, intellectually and sensually thrilling young wine.
Drink 2033 - 2070
William Kelley, Wine Advocate (January 2023)
La Tâche was the most open and accessible of the 2020 vintage wines tasted at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, showing extra layers of depth and complexity that lifted this wine to an even higher plane than usual. There is a beautiful fruit, with a silky texture that is dense but not heavy. It is tannic but not hard; strict and straight, yet producing ‘fireworks’ (to use Bertrand de Villaine’s phrase) on the palate. Simply superb, this is one of the best young wines I tasted all year.
Drink 2025 - 2080
Charles Curtis MW, Decanter.com (November 2021)
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.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
A monopole of 6.06 ha.
Much like the Romanée St. Vivant, here the equally reserved nose is overtly floral in character with a beautifully layered array of hoisin, soy, clove, anise, black cherry coulis, sandalwood and exotic jasmine and pekoe tea scents. Once again, the texture of the rich and impressively concentrated broad-shouldered flavours is super-sleek, and they too exude an almost pungent minerality on the clean, bright and exceptionally persistent finale where the only nit is a touch of backend warmth.
Despite being very firmly structured, the mid-palate density is such that this could probably be approached after only 12 to 15 years. With that said, the 2020 LT should be capable of at least 25 years of improvement and 30 would not surprise me unduly. This is quite simply exquisite.
Drink from 2045 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (January 2023)
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