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  • Country ranking ?

    407
  • Producer ranking ?

    59
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    Grilled Salmon with Sweet Onions and Red Bell Peppers

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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93 points Allen Meadows - Burghound

 One of the greatest post war vintages as well as one of the extremely few big volume/high quality vintages of 20th century, along with '29, '34, '90 and '99. A very ripe and fully mature nose that displays just a hint of volatile acidity along with exceptional spiciness and one that is now beginning to show its age with sweet, round and impressively rich flavors that are intense and mouth coating on the admirably long finish. In sum, a wine of seduction. Note - because of the young vines, '59 is not a genuinely great vintage for Romanée-Conti but it's still a wine of considerable class and grace. I would be drinking up sooner than later as it's not clear how long it will remain at this plateau. Consistent notes.

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The Story

 “As if, in this square of earth, the gods had bequeathed us a memory of the fascinating vestige of a timeless perfection.” — Richard Olney. The wine of Prince de Conti, she is velvet, seduction and mystery. It is the most Proustian of all great wines.

 

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is without question the most famous estate in Burgundy and arguably the greatest, producing some of the best wines in the world. It is probably one of the most traditional wineries in France. Wines are produced in small quantities while the demand is huge. The domaine has 25 hectares of vineyards, all Grand Crus, including the jewel in the crown, the 1.8 hectare monopole of Romanée Conti.

Romanée-Conti, a vineyard of four and a half acres,was originally the property of the Abbey of St. Vivant. In 1760 Prince Conti acquired it against the competition of a famous collector of jewellery, Madame de Pompadour – the king’s minister against the king’s mistress. He withdrew it from the market and reserved it for his own dazzling social events. It was he who created the myth surrounding Romanée-Conti.

The price of this tiny, treasured vineyard was 80.000 livres, which in those days was worth a small kingdom. Reclaimed as property of the nation during the Revolution, the vineyard passed through the hands of several proprietors to an ancestor of the present owner for 14.000 gold pounds in 1868.

–We are the keeper of a certain philosophy of wine and, mainly, we are concerned by the perfection in details" assures Aubert de Villaine. 

 

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

A glorious, big vintage in Burgundy. Fine weather through the summer. July and August were very hot. An early harvest took place under ideal weather conditions. The best wines are still very full, vigorous and generous.

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Vintage 1959

Burgundy: A record crop of magnificent wines, legendary and still very good. Full but soft-textured.  After a number of difficult vintages and small crops, finally a great vintage arrived with the rare combination of sufficient quantity and high quality. 

An ideal spring flowering was followed by hot and dry weather in July and August. Showers refreshed the vines and on 14 September the harvest commenced under clear skies. 

Great, charming wines of rich, ripe fruit balancing the structured tannins. Still with a long life ahead.

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Average Bottle Price

2017 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2005 2000 1995
12 766€ -17.9% 15 551€ +33.2% 11 678€ +14.4% 10 211€ +8.2% 9 439€ -1.5% 9 581€ +36.8% 7 002€ +42.3% 4 921€ +60.5% 3 066€ +153.2% 1 211€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Medium

flavors

Toasty, Smoky and Earthy

recommend

Yes

taste

Complex, Rich and Ripe

Written Notes

1959 DRC Romanee Conti in Magnum – This incredibly rare artifact was shared with about thirty people on a snowy night in New York this Fall. But this wasn’t just any snowy night, it was the first snow of the season, and it threw the city into absolute chaos. I came a long way to get there, actually from Europe, and it took me – no lie – four and a half hours to get from JFK to Legacy Records. I was bouncing off the walls in that Uber. Just watching my 730pm arrival time go to 8pm…to 830pm…to 9pm…I think I got there just after 10, and I needed fifteen drinks. I had come to the right place lol. It was one of the most spectacular dinners we have ever hosted, and the agony of my commute went away with one sip of the 1959 RC. The ’59 La Tache after dinner was pretty spectacular, too.
“The 1959 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti was spectacular with incredible richness. This had ‘weight yet elegance’ per Jetski, and Arvid thought that it only got better on the palate. The wine tasted like Christmas for a Burgundy lover, both literally and figuratively. It was like walking through a royal garden on the highest quality slate path, wearing hot red pants, Louis Michel style lol. This was red, red wine as God must have intended.”(99M)

  • 99p
A glorious, big vintage in Burgundy. Fine weather through the summer. July and August were very hot. An early harvest took place under ideal weather conditions. The best wines are still very full, vigorous and generous. Perfect bottle with 2 cm level. Decanted one hour. Bright and intense brownish colour. Pronounced nose with complex aromas that live constantly in the glass – earth, orange peel, cooked vegetables, toasty, gamey, perfumey and smoky with wild red berry aromas. Dry, medium-bodied wine with gentle tannins, moderate acidity and intense fruitiness. Ripe dark fruits and forest floor flavors. Not a great charmer with elegance but rich wine for Burgundian. Drinking well now but will evolve still.
  • 96p
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Information

Origin

Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

Serious

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

Richebourg

Romanee Saint Vivant

Vosne Romanée

Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cuvée Duvault Blochet

Inside Information

A glorious, big vintage in Burgundy.  Fine weather through the summer. July and August were very hot. An early harvest took place under ideal weather conditions.  The best wines are still very full, vigorous and generous.

Perfect bottle with 2 cm level. Decanted one hour. Bright and intense brownish colour. Pronounced nose with complex aromas that live constantly in the glass – earth, orange peel, cooked vegetables, toasty, gamey, perfumey and smoky with wild red berry aromas. Dry, medium-bodied wine with gentle tannins, moderate acidity and intense fruitiness. Ripe dark fruits and forest floor flavors. Not a great charmer with elegance but rich wine for Burgundian. Drinking well now but will evolve still.  

 

PN

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