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  • Country ranking ?

    1 009
  • Producer ranking ?

    180
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035

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The Story

Richebourg is a king of a wine: the colonnade of the Louvre, the Château of Versailles. You are impressed by its finesse, its length and its delicate sensations, endlessly changing. The fact that no element dominates the others enables you to appreciate all of its aromas, on the nose and on the palate. In any given vintage, Richebourg is always one of the last wines to be drunk. Not because it is too aggressive when young; simply because it needs time to reveal its full complexity.

 

Romanée-Conti lies on brown limestone soils 60 cm deep with a major clay component. Romanée-Saint-Vivant has similar but deeper (90 cm) soils. Higher up, La Romanée occupies a markedly sloping site (12%) and the soil texture is less clayey. La Tâche and La Grande Rue share brown limestone soils, rather shallow at the top end with deeper rendzinas lower down. The same is true for the Richebourg, depending on slope and aspect. The underlying rock is hard Premeaux limestone dating from the Jurassic (175 million years BC).

Lying between Flagey-Échezeaux (home of the ÉCHEZEAUX appellation) and Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée occupies a middle position in the Côte de Nuits. The vines grow at altitudes of 250 to 310 metres and face east or, in some cases, slightly south of east. Vosne-Romanée, the central jewel in the necklace of appellations which is the burgundian côte, is not content with holding a mere four aces but boasts a total of six Grands Crus, each one famous the world over. A thousand years ago, it was the Cluniac monks of Saint-Vivant de Vergy and the Cistercians of Cîteaux who first realised the value of these very special plots of land. 
One of these vineyards takes its name from Prince Conti who lost his heart to it in 1760. Romanée-Conti is one of the wonders ofthe world and has always been a singly-held entity. Next door to it, Romanée-Saint-Vivant recalls the medieval monastery of the Hautes-Côtes which is currently undergoing restoration and which is linked to it by its own path. La Romanée, La Tâche and La Grande Rue are also singly-held entities, as is Richebourg, whose mere name is enough to fill a glass.

 

These Grands Crus frequently give good results from long laying-down. As a general rule, they shouldn't be drunk under about ten years of age but sometimes they will be aged up to 20 or 30 years. Each appellation has its own distinct personality depending on its year of production and on the stage it has reached in its development. These flamboyant red wines fully express the subtlety and complexity of the Burgundian Pinot Noir grape. Their colour is a dark ruby turning crimson with age. Their wide-ranging bouquet is divided among small red and black fruits, violet, spices and, with time, underbrush. On the palate, this wine is well-defined with a powerful body. It is delicate, sensual, frank and full.

 

In addition to their powerful structure and exceptional longevity, these great wines develop tertiary aromas of truffle, underbrush, leather and fur. It goes without saying that strong-flavoured meats will do them justice : furred or feathered game, braised, in sauce, or simply grilled. Wild-fowl (eg Peking duck) or a nice cut of roast veal will be gently enveloped by the close-packed but elegant tannins of these mighty Pinot Noir wines.

Serving temperatures : 15 to 16 °C.

 

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Wine Information

2001 Harvest

At the time of this writing, the vineyards resemble a purplish red and gold tapestry under the sun that is shining through a light autumnal mist. The picture is sumptuous. At last we can feel the calm and softness of the "Indian Summer" which has set in over Burgundy.

This calm and this softness strikingly contrast with the chaotic year we went through : successively rainy, cold, warm, often without any transition, every warm spell being followed by storms... once again we were faced with a difficult year and we had to be as vigilant as ever regarding our treatments and work in the vineyards.

What are the turning points of the year 2001 ?

- The budburst (débourrement) took place at the beginning of May and was two weeks late compared to last year, which was excessively early. Beautiful bunch setting resulting in a severe disbudding.
- May was beautiful, but June was cold and rainy. The flowering began around June 10th in cool weather, which, surprisingly enough, did not slow it down and therefore did not prevent a rather uniform maturation of the grapes.
- The month of July was a succession of beautiful days and storms, of cold and heat. The beginning and second part of August were "bakingly hot" (up to 38°C during 4 consecutive days !) resulting in storms that struck very hard some places in the Côte, but did not affect the Domaine. In every way, the number of sunny days and accumulated heat were equal to what we observed in a year like 1995.

Through that ever changing weather, grapes were forming with rather thick and anthocyane-rich skins, but also fragile, which the vines were not always going to bring to complete maturity.

It is, I believe, the greatest characteristic of the year, which had major consequences on our decisions : the old vines with few grapes and the younger ones that had been carefully thinned out brought their grapes to complete maturity. But, much more perhaps than in other years, the grapes that were borne by vines that were a little more loaded, too vigorous or with large bunches, did not mature completely and created all the conditions for botrytis to develop.

This heterogeneity among the vines was worsened by the few days of cold that preceded the harvest and the day before we started, it appeared obvious to us that it would be necessary to sort out the perfectly ripe and healthy fine grapes from those whose maturation had stopped, leaving aside the grapes that were not ripe enough or exposed to grey rot.

That is the reason why we decided to have a very selective picking and to pass twice through the vineyards. The work was very difficult and required everybody to be very vigilant : from the pickers to the sorting-team at the winery. But the expected result was achieved and if the 2001 vintage reaches the quality that we hope for, we shall owe victory to the "haute-couture" selection that was performed.

It is at present too early to give our opinion on the final quality or to venture comparisons with other vintages. The vinifications proceeded very well and at the time of the devatting, which we are finishing, we can already say that the wines have beautiful colours, are extremely aromatic - the powerful fragrances are fit to knock you down ! - and show a beautiful length in the mouth. We shall see during the next weeks and months whether these positive impressions are confirmed.

The harvest began on September 24th and was completed by the 30th in the following order : Echezeaux, Grands-Echezeaux, Richebourg, Romanée-Conti, La Tâche and Romanée-St-Vivant.

The Montrachet was also harvested on September 30th, which was very late compared to other producers, but as you know now, this very great terroir makes it possible to wait for extreme ripeness without losing the freshness that gives it its balance.

2001 is once again a "vigneron's year" : that is to say as far as the work before the harvest enabled us to bring in ripe grapes that were produced according to a controlled yield, we can expect a beautiful quality.

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Vintage 2001

2001 VINTAGE in Burgundy

A promising start to the new millennium...
 

Growing season and weather conditions

The winter, during which the vines lay dormant, was a mild one.

The first signs of bud-burst came early but wintry conditions in April accompanied by frosts in the most exposed vineyards slowed down the start of the growing season.

Spring, from May onwards, was marked by periods of fine sunny weather.

The first flowers appeared, precociously, at the beginning of June, but the process was then slowed by a recurrence of low temperatures. Flowering was thus spread out over a period of some two weeks and the resulting unevenness in the progress of maturation persisted until harvest-time.

The natural weight of the crop burden led many growers to resort to green thinning ("vendanges en vert") - cutting out superfluous grape bunches at an early stage to ensure a harvest lower in volume but higher in quality.

Maturation and harvest
July was cool and rainy. Summer only really arrived in August with sometimes scorching heat and high levels of recorded sunshine. Violent rain- and hail-storms caused significant damage to the vines in some localities.

Maturation proceeded under favourable circumstances and the physical condition of the grapes remained good.

A slight drop in temperature at the beginning of September together with some light rain meant that in choosing the right moment to begin picking, growers needed to be alert and exercise great judgement (given uneven maturation and changeable weather conditions), and to make the best use of dry and sunny periods.

The need to wait, in some cases, for the moment of optimum ripeness meant that the harvest period was prolonged. Maturity was variable with sugar levels ranging from moderate to very good, good levels of acidity, and variable polyphenol levels in the red wines.

Estimated yield totals 1.5 million hectolitres, a slightly lower volume than the 2000 and 2001 harvests.

Vinification and character of the wines
Vinification of the white wines proceded in a lesisurely manner and without incident. The red wines demanded more attention in order to extract the maximum potential from their colouring matter and tannins.

As of mid-November, the white wines are fine and straightforward, well-balanced with good concentration and well-developed fruit backed by firm acidity.

The reds are vividly and intensely coloured. They have a well-defined structure thanks to firm tannins and a good level of acidity. They are meaty, with agreeable and expressive fruit.

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

The 2001 DRC Richebourg that followed showed spectacularly well, making up for the last time I had this wine. Bottle variation, it happens. There was great perfume and lots of red fruit to this rich and oily red. It was very concentrated with lots of rose and oil components. Rich, long and tasty, I noted it was even better than the ’01 La Tache I just had in Miami. I don’t say Riche is better than LT often; again, it could just be a bottle thing. Rich and saucy, everyone was a fan of the 2001. The topic of aging wine too long came up as a compliment to drinking this ’01 now; let’s just leave it at that (96).

  • 96p

The 2001 Richebourg Grand Cru from DRC is deeper in color than the Leroy. It is very expressive on its regal nose of black fruit rather than red, crushed stone and hints of juniper and sage, all exquisitely defined. The aromatics simply stop you in your tracks. The palate has enormous backbone and brings to mind images of a vaulted cathedral. The acidity is perfect, and it fans out with dark berry fruit on the structured, aristocratic finish. This is evolving into a marvelous Richebourg that has style and class to spare. Tasted at the DRC/Leroy comparative dinner in Hong Kong.

  • 95p

Rich, fat nose, still a little closed. A much bigger wine than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant. Fat rich and opulent, with very good grip. Lots of vigour and intensity. High class fruit. Lovely finish. Very fine.

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Information

Origin

Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy

Other wines from this producer

Bâtard-Montrachet

Corton-Charlemagne

Corton Grand Cru

Echézeaux

Grands Echézeaux

La Romanée-Conti Grand Cru

La Tâche

Les Gaudichots

Marc

Montrachet

Romanée Conti

Romanee Saint Vivant

Vosne Romanée

Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cuvée Duvault Blochet

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