The status of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as the leading producer of red Burgundy - the white Crown is more controversial - should be questioned by no-one. There may be arguments over this or that wine from this or that vintage, but year on year the Domaine has turned out wines of supreme excellence with that balance of power and finesse which both seduces and excites the senses.

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Romanée-Conti with Romanée-St.-Vivant and the village of Vosne-Romanée beyond abov

The vineyards are magnificent. Although they own 1.6 ha spread across 5 different Vosne Premiers Crus, and 17.46 ares of Batard Montrachet, these are never sold publicly. What appears, in depressingly small quantities, is the produce of 25 ha of Grands Crus - six in Vosne and one, Le Montrachet, in Chassagne; a total of some 7 500 cases in a good year. The summit of this great range is Romanée-Conti itself, 500 cases of fabulous, highly priced and expensive wine from Burgundy's greatest single vineyard.

The Domaine is owned, equally, by two families, the de Villaines and the Leroys, each providing one manager. Until 1992 the Leroys were represented by Mme Lalou Bize-Leroy. However the Domaine's governing council withdrew her mandate over marketing irregularities - an ignominious dismissal from which she continues to smart. Her sister Pauline Roch's elder son, who replaced her, was sadly killed in a road accident; in 1993, his place was taken by his brother, Henri Roch. The de Villaine family have for many years been represented by Aubert de Villaine.

Much has been written about the history of the Domaine - the ownership of the Prince de Conti and the long-time renown of the Romanée vineyard as a site of special viticultural significance. What, surprisingly has not been much detailed is the way the Domaine works to extract the best from its land - the traditions of management and vinification which contribute ineluctably to the quality of wines, so highly prized and so much discussed throughout the wine-loving world.

The present custodians share with their predecessors the conviction that quality begins in the vineyards. Fine wine is not, as some still seem to think, a matter of the wine-maker's art alone; the skills required to tend the vines and the soil in which they are planted is of equal - if not greater - importance. It is the individuality of these small plots of land which find their unique expression in the grapes grown there, and thereby in the wine made from them.

Quality potential is determined by the quality of the fruit, not by the wizardry of the winemaker who then takes charge of it. As one wine-grower put it: ‘The vineyard gives the maximum potential - one can either diminish or equal this in the cellar; but not augment it.'

Apart from the infrequent occasions when the topsoil in the Romanee-Conti vineyard is renewed - fertiliser is rarely added. Annual soil analyses provide the Domaine and its 'chef de culture', Gerard Marlot, with continuous monitoring of the soil and the equilibrium of its constituents. Apart from small readjustments of magnesium in the lower part of La Tâche and Grands Echezeaux, nothing more than occasional applications of organic fertilisers have been needed in recent years. The Domaine suffers particularly from soil erosion - especially the southern section of La Tâche, and also the land between Richebourg and Romanée-Conti. The topsoil washed down has then to be put back again. The installation of special open cement drainage should mitigate erosion over the coming years.

Romanée-Conti itself, despite a slope of only 3% has suffered erosion and occasionally needed soil replacement. In 1786-7 Grimelin, the régisseur of the Prince de Conti ordered 800 cartloads of 'terre de montagne' to fill in depressions.

More recently, in 1980, an unfortunate mistake led to the infilling of some depressions in Romanee-St.-Vivant with ‘terre blanche’, an earth wholly out of keeping with the existing topsoil. At the request of the INAO the Domaine replaced it with more appropriate soil from hillsides near Gevrey. The Domaine's vineyard aims to retain the micro-climate of the soil and vines. It is not expressly an organic policy, but rather ori-ented towards the minimum use of synthetic products and towards traditional viticulture.

The soils - particularly around young vines - are worked with a tractor-mounted hoe to aerate the earth. This provides a better environment for natural micro-flora to flourish and helps drainage. The soils round the roots are ploughed up each winter and down again in spring.

Pests and diseases are treated as tradition-ally as possible - Bordeaux mixture and sulphur for cryptogams (botrytis, odium and mildew) preceded by the protective copper-based 'Cuivrol’ early in the Season. Sulphur treatments also discourage red and yellow spiders which are particularly virulent on the Côte. Conscious effort is made to avoid systemics, unless there is really no alternative.

Apart from dealing with the grape-worm and using copper-based products to harden the skin and thus make penetration more difficult, no specific anti-rot treatments have been used since 1986. The Domaine prefers to excise any rotten material at harvest than to spray needlessly.

A rigorous policy of low yields brings a remarkable dimension of extract and concen-tration to the wines which is indeed one of the Domaine's hallmarks. Average yields are generally well below the rendement de base for Grands Crus of 35 hl/ha, or 1,848 bottles per acre. A 10-year average shows yields of 25 hl/ha, at 10,000 vines per ha; in other words it takes the grapes from 3 vines to make a single bottle of Domaine wine.

Such low yields are achieved by a combination of factors of which short pruning and a deliberately high vine age are the most significant. An old vine produces less, but of better quality and natural equilibrium, especially in acidity. This is important for ageing a wine, particularly in very ripe years such as 1989 when natural acidity levels throughout the Cote tended to be low.

Pruning is undertaken with scrupulous care by dividing the vineyards (notionally that is) into plots and then allocating to each pruner a plot. Tending the same plot each year engenders a feeling for each vine and its growing characteristics, so pruning can be adapted accordingly. For many years the pruning of Romanee-Conti itself was the per-sonal undertaking of Mme André Noblet, the wife of the then cellar-master.

Much work is done to promote the most concentrated fruit. Apart from a very strict évasivage and dédoublage, there is a passage, normally in June after the flowering, to remove either excess embryo grape clusters or sometimes excess wood, which might sap valuable energy from the principal bunches.

When it is considered that there are still too many bunches, there is a further green-pruning. In 1990, for example, a team was sent to remove 7-8 bunches per vine. It is essential that this operation is performed relatively late in the growing season to ensure that the sugar levels remain high and that the plants do not compensate for their loss.

In addition to this, several leaf prunings are carried out to increase foliage exposure. There is a tendency to prune higher now, since this has been found to increase photosynthetic efficiency and thus ripeness.

One off the hardest decisions for the Domaine was taken in 1945 when Romanee-Conti needed replanting because production from its ancient vines, still on their original roots had become uneconomic. Before grubbing it up, plant material was taken to reconstitute La Tâche, 75% of which is now based on Romanee-Conti grafts. After the 1993 vintage, 15 ares of Romanée-Conti were grubbed up. The land remains fallow - undisinfected because to do so would destroy the soil's natural microbial life which has taken so much hard work to preserve. Instead two cover-crops, whose roots are known to kill virus-bearing pests were sown. After detailed soil analyses, the ground will be appropriately composted - not fertilised - and replanted with clones produced from mother vines in La Tâche and Romanée-Conti itself, grafted on to 161/49 roof stock. Altogether a complex, meticulously detailed exercise - entailing, apart from anything else, the loss of 7-8 vintages' production on 1/10 of what is already minuscule.

Nowadays, vines are replaced individually if they are younger than 30-40 years old, otherwise they are replanted as part of the Domaine's. programme - one 'journal' (=1/3 ha) per year. Plant material comes from a population of 50 Romanée-Conti vines selected for small berry size. Cuttings are treated like clones and virus-indexed at Colmar's research station before being grafted on to 161/49 or riparia. Riparia, though excellent, is especially sensitive to any excess of lime in the soil, which yellows leaves and affects the plant's photosynthetic mechanism. So great care is taken to ensure maximal adaptation of a young vine to its soil.

The attention to detail continues at har-vest: prélèvements – ‘trés trés serieux’ - at the rate of one per week per vineyard start 3 weeks before the anticipated vintage date. The results determine the order of harvesting. Once started, a vineyard will be finished before the team moves on to the next. The date of starting is considered more significant than the order of picking. Generally, the harvest takes no more than 8 days, so there is less urgency to start early.

In fact, the Domaine prefers to harvest late, to maximise concentration and ripeness. This is a distinct risk, but one which Aubert de Villaine believes any conscientious vigneron should be prepared to take. If an occasional loss from adverse weather is the price of quality, then so be it. Whilst a high proportion of older vines greatly reduces the risk of unacceptably low acidities, grapes so concentrated and over-ripe that they impart a 'figgy’ taste are equally undesirable.

The pickers are skilled, and well super-vised. No effort is spared to ensure that only the very ripest, intact fruit reaches the cuverie. In fact, so great was the concern in 1983 after the June hailstorms, that a small team was despatched early into Romanée-Conti, La Tâche and part of Richebourg, armed with typesetter's tweezers to remove individual hailed berries. This saved the wine from an ineradicable taste of hail. Damaged berries readily spread the enzyme laccase to healthy fruit, increasing the extent of premature oxidation. So the earlier they are removed the better.

Once cut, bunches are put into straw baskets which are emptied on to a table where a further scan for ripeness is made. When they reach Vosne they pass into the hands of Andre Noblet's son, Bernard, a quiet, courteous man – ‘un type enorme' - and his team in the cellars.

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	Aubert de Villaine abov

For a short period after Andre Noblet's retirement, the Domaine enlisted the services of a professional oenologist. This arrangement soon foundered - oenologists tend to work by the book rather than vinifying in sympathy with each vineyard. No doubt the imposing presence of Aubert de Villaine (a skilled winemaker in his own right) and a few hundred years of history proved too intimidating. Ruining a vat of Romanee-Conti is no short-cut to enhancing one's personal standing - certainly not in the close-knit circles of Burgundian oenology.

The philosophy behind the Domaine's winemaking is to achieve l'expression le plus pur du terroir'. The vigneron is no more than an intermediary between the soil and the wine and should interfere as little as possible.

As Aubert de Villaine somewhat cryptically puts it: 'Nothing is more difficult than to act simply; the ideal is to do nothing,’ adding, 'but that is impossible’. 'Trying to reduce a Grand Crus to a certain number of 'savoir-faires' is like attempting to define Bach's music by analysing its counterpoint. Translated into more tangible terms, vinification is ultra-traditional - no destalking, even in the leanest years, smallish dose of SO2, and a light crushing by foot.

Thereafter, the wines come to life in a series of old open wooden cuves of various shapes and sizes which line the walls of the neat cuverie in a side street a short walk from the Domaine's offices. No two are the same shape - one is oval, another tall, some conical and at least one straight on one side and tapering on the other. Collectively, they give the appearance of an overfed, pot-bellied and decidedly misshapen, wooden chorus. Romanee-Conti itself, is invariably fermented in cuve number 17, a splendid vessel made in 1862.

There have been trials with stainless-steel cuves for at least 20 years but since these give no appreciable difference in quality there are no plans to demolish the ultra traditional wooden cuves – ‘plus ca change’.

Where the precautions taken in the vine-yards fail to prevent an excessively dilute harvest a saignée de cuve precedes alcoholic fermentation. This is a last resort - not even in 1982 was there the need to saigner.

Under ideal conditions, the pulp would arrive at 15°C - the temperature at which Burgundian grape yeasts begin to ferment grape sugars. In years like 1989, when the grapes are picked in great heat, attempts are made to cool the pulp by natural means. As Aubert de Villaine points out, pulp is far less easy to cool than juice. Fortunately, the cuves are equipped with internal heat-exchangers which will cool the pulp if all else fails. Only natural yeasts are used for fermentation, with a remontage at the beginning to get them working. Two or three times each day, the cap is broken up by compressed-air pistons, which are more effective than the traditional expedient of human feet. Their power means that they can be used earlier, further maximising extraction and minimising the risk of acetification from a dry cap.

The temperature is allowed to rise to 33-34ºC, with cooling where necessary. Since the aim is to have the longest possible cuvaison - on average 18-21 days - any necessary chaptalisation is performed in several small doses towards the end of fermentation. This must be done with care, since the added sugar must be fully fermented out to alcohol - it is not wanted in the wine.

The vin de goutte is run off as soon as the cap starts to fall, indicating that there is no more CO2, and thus no further fermentation. The remaining pulp is pressed in a pneumatic Bucher press, tasted, and added to the free-run wine. The pressing is very light yielding about 5-10% of the total volume.

No debourbage is considered necessary, since the care taken to excise unripe or rotten fruit leaves only fine, healthy lees. These will nourish the wine and help the malolactic fermentation to proceed smoothly.

The casks in which these precious wines spend the rest of their upbringing are completely renewed each year, a policy started in 1975. It is felt that the advantage of eliminating any possible problems from older casks, which might impart off-flavours, justifies the considerable expense. Since 1979, when the surge in demand for French oak caused widespread doubts about the authenticity and quality of casks, the Domaine has secured its own supply of wood from the forest of Troncais which is delivered to its coopers to be air-dried.

This is a massive investment - 300 new casks are needed each year and the Domaine has two harvests in cask at any one time. Since the wood takes three years to dry, pro-vision has to be made for five years supply. This ties up the cost of 1,500 casks at around £300 sterling each.

Although there is no fixed policy on rack-ing, Aubert de Villaine admits that bottling without racking incurs risks which are best avoided. Provided the lees are clean, there is little chance of gout de lie, gout de reduit or unpleasant hydrogen-sulphide. At present, they are examining the variables which determine the best moment to rack.

There is never more than one racking which, tradition dictates, occurs in early spring, after the malos are complete. Clean lees allow the Domaine to delay this to give the wine more fat and complexity. The wines are racked cask-to-cask, by gravity (all cellar movements following fermentation are by gravity), some 2-3 months before bottling. The length of this interval is under discussion.

The Domaine's red wines are fined, but not "since a long time filtered". Although not completely excluded, Aubert de Villaine is strongly disinclined to filter. In advance of fining, Bernard Noblet is despatched to a local farm to fetch 900-1200 fresh, free-range eggs - the fresher the eggs, the better the fining. The chickens having delivered, the whites are added 3-4 per cask and allowed to settle for 1-4 weeks.

The Domaine used to bottle cask by cask. However, variation between different casks of the same wine and even between first and last bottle from the same cask was significant enough to be unacceptable. Since 1982 the wines have been unified in five-cask lots - by gravity but with access to air - and assembled in stainless-steel vats before being bottled.

The Domaine's only white wine, a meagre 3 000 bottles from old vines on a precious 0.67.59 ha of Le Montrachet - is vinified with equal care. According to Aubert de Villaine, "The fruit from this vineyard is of very high quality" to which, no doubt, vine age and a deliberately late harvest both contribute. The Domaine generally harvests the Montrachet after its other vines, and is often the last to pick in that fabled vineyard.

The Chardonnay grapes are brought directly to Vosne-Romanée, pressed and the juice immediately sulphured to prevent oxidation. After the lightest possible overnight débourbage, the juice is put into new Troncais oak casks to start its fermentation (never, as has been widely reported, in stainless steel).

There is no attempt to intervene to control the fermentation temperature - which rarely rises beyond 21-23ºC, The wine is 'roused’ 2-3 times each week, to keep the lees evenly distributed and add richness and flavour. Following the malo, the wine remains on its fine lees for about 9 months or until the time is deemed right for racking. This is performed by gravity, cask-to cask. It is then lined with fresh, unpasteurised skimmed milk - Bernard Noblet being again despatched to a nearby farm to choose and collect, this - 'almost direct from the cow'. After 3-4 weeks sur colle - 'Not too long on milk, it isn't good,' - the wine is racked clear and unified before being bottled. If necessary, it is first lightly plate-filtered.

The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is surrounded by much myth and some absurd speculation. The intense, almost quintessential Pinot-extract of its wines has led some to the malicious and groundless conclusion that the fermentation is stopped - it was even rumoured, with vintage Port! The rarity and price of its wines has made them collectibles - Romanee-Conti and Montrachet above all. Recently there has even been fraud. One unsuspecting Japanese collector apparently paid $5,000 a case for 5 cases of Montrachet only to find that it was counterfeit. His wine-merchant refunded him, but the Domaine had the headache of tracing the source. Curiously, the alarm would not have been raised were it not for a simple mistake on the labels, instead of "Appellation Montrachet Controlee' the ignorant tricksters had put 'Appellation Romanée-Conti Contrôlee - nonsense of course.

Few would contest the claim that the Domaine's wines are among the worlds finest. Their hallmark is an extraordinary finesse and complexity allied to a great concentration. The care that goes into their mak-ing results in virtually impeccable typicity and balance, and fabulously seductive richness.

Each Cru has its own characteristics. The Montrachet is among the finest from that appellation with an old-vine concentration and a magnificent complexity which takes ages to develop. When fully mature, the pro-fundity and completeness of flavour is stupendous. What leaves such a lasting impression is the combination of mighty power and thoroughbred class. If in lesser vintages, the wine needs time to evolve, in great vintages it seems to need as long as its red stable-mates. For example, the 1978 Montrachet tasted in 1989 was still in its infancy -just beginning to show the honey and grilled almonds trademarks of its origins, but in reality far from full throttle. The 1993, tasted in 1995 was explosively opulent - gorgeously intense, yet inherently complex, floral aromas, with an equally multi-faceted spectrum of flavours and extraordinary power, length and persistence. Unmistakably Grand Cru, unmistakably Montrachet.

There was unfortunately no 1992 DRC Montrachet, a fact which attracted much wine-press attention. The facts, widely misrepresented, are simple: as with many 1992 whites, alcoholic fermentation was unusually slow and reluctant to finish. Aubert de Villaine added yeast to complete it. The resulting wine is without technical fault, in fact well up to the quality of which other domaines would be happy to sell as Montrachet. The nose is expressive with an exotic fruit element attributable to a long, cool fermentation, and the palate round and complex with an enriching hint of botrytis. The wine is somewhat hollow and lacks the power and class which people have come to expect from a DRC Montrachet. It was on this relatively marginal palate imperfection that the decision not to release the wine was taken. The wine is not, as has been suggested, a disaster, nor in any justifiable sense was the vindication mismanaged. It is curious that when a Domaine which is some pilloried for releasing wines which are not, in the view of the critics, worthy of their pedigree, decides not to release a wine for just such a reason, the circumstances are sensationalised to the point of scandal.

The 200 cases of the Domaine's Montrachet made in each normal year are fiercely fought over at ever soaring prices. As with any rarity, price bears no relationship to quality - a Chevalier Montrachct from Leflaive or a Montrachet from Ramonet would probably give DRC's Montrachet a good run in a blind tasting, at a fraction of the price.

For the Domaine's red wines, however, there is less contest. The Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux might find peers worthy of comparison, but in great vintages, the Richebourg, La Tâche and Romanée-Conti stand above all others. Their individuality is difficult to characterise - especially in youth when they can range from the depth and pepperiness of a young Syrah, to deceptively lean-framed liquids with mouth-puckering acidity. It may not always be easy to forsee what will emerge after a decade or more in bottle but one is rarely disappointed.


The Domaine's wines are generally characterised by individual aromas and flavours of spice - especially cinnamon - violets, sometimes liquorice, and often by almost but not quite, overripe sweetness. This great concentration results in wines which take a long time to develop. After many years, often twenty or more, they lose their youthful awkwardness and transform into seductively ripe, silky mouthfuls - with the texture of slightly worn velvet. A 1953 La Tâche drunk in 1988 was a yard stick example of what fine Burgundy is all about - a deep, limpid, slightly singed black cherry colour, with a massive, yet understated, complex nose of sous-bois and overripe wild fruits and a complete flavour from front to back of the mouth which simply went on and on, ending in the famous Romanee-Conti trademark- a peacock's tail. Lesser vintages often provide pleasant surprises - a 1956 Romanee-Conti tasted at the Domaine in 1995 was quite remarkable - light tawny, with a refined nose of old tea-rose and muscat and still plenty of fruit holding together a soft, elegant palate; oxidative flavours, indeed, but still a powerful, complex and finely-poised Grande Dame.

Romanee-Conti itself takes this ‘expression le plus pur du terroir' a stage further. Perhaps - although trying to describe these wines brings one perilously close to pretention-a touch more elegant than La Tâche but always with that supreme aristocracy. There is nothing obvious or showy about these wines - just essence of quality.

Their fame and scarcity makes the Domaine’s wines more tasted than drunk for pleasure as they were intended to be. It also makes them controversial. American critics pilloried the 1992 reds, with no justification whatsoever. The wines are all sound well-coloured and constituted, with the individuality of their Crus - not as massive and extracted as the sensational 1993s, but pretty wines which, after a decade or more, will give much pleasure.

The care that goes into these wines provides a yardstick for vignerons along the Côte who may be tempted to think that it is enough to have Grand Cru land, some old vines, and a competent cellar. The Domaine's policy is that there are no shortcuts.

For Aubert de Villaine, the monks who 'invented' the Côte, and planted a mosaic of vines on its precious soil, are his inspiration. Those who try to imitate come in for some mild mirth - 'the gimmicks of winemakers' who believe, as did the unfortunate frog in the Fable, de la Fontaine, that they can mimic something greater. Putting 'Montrachet' yeasts to ferment a New World Chardonnay will not turn it into a Montrachet.

Aubert de ‘Villaine would be the first to admit that the Domaine's wines fall short of the perfection that is his constant goal. His and Henri Roch's contribution is 'the most attentive, but also the most humble and invisible', to ensure that their wines are free from faults and that this matchless terroir expresses itself with the utmost purity. The intrinsic qualities and personalities of their wines rest, not on them, but on the mysterious fusion of soil, micro-climate and 'that, genie of terrior, of which they are merely 'the modest and obliging servants'. If anyone is in a position to defend the primacy of terroir in the production of great wine, it is the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.