x
  • Country ranking ?

    388
  • Producer ranking ?

    57
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    now to 2035
  • Food Pairing

    Pork Tenderloin

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Parker 95-99 points: The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Romanee-Conti is mind-boggling. It has a hugely expressive nose of super-ripe black cherries, candied plums, and violets. Full-bodied and possessing a magnificent breadth of sweet, penetrating fruits, this is an unbelievably complex wine. It coats the palate with its velvety sweet cherries, jammy blackberries, and fruit-soaked tannin. Perfectly balanced and seamless, this gem has a remarkably long finish. This is a wine of exemplary precision, delineation, and power with undescribable class and refinement. Projected maturity: 2006-2020. 

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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

1999 Harvest / Words fail us when we try to describe the perfection of the grapes that were passing on our sorting table in 1999 ! We already saw superb grapes during the last decade, in 1990 or 1996 for instance, but this year, in our opinion, they surpass them all in finesse and maturity. We could see a lot of small grapes, of « millerandage », and, as a sign of the great years, the older vines, not very productive in general, yielded this year a generous harvest of extremely fine grapes, sumptuous examples of the finest Pinot Noir.

The story of a vintage is so full, so rich, that it is not easy to define the most important factors, those which decided the course of events.

Once again, the scenario was disconcerting : who would have thought in Spring with the rain falling every day and mildew threatening, with the grass growing in the vineyards without our being able to plough, that on September 20, that is to say very early in the season, we would harvest grapes that rank among the most beautiful of the century ? !

It was precisely thanks to the exceptionally rainy Spring that the vineyards could reserve enough water to get through, without suffering, the very hot and dry period we experienced in Burgundy between August 15 and September 20. This consecutive balance permitted the leaves to fully function in their role of sugar producers and the grapes could completely and harmoniously ripen. We observed this year the almost miraculous combination of high contents of sugars (very high degrees), good acidity (concentration in the berries) and perfectly healthy grapes. It is interes¬ting to underline that the combination of these three factors in the same harvest only occurs very rarely.

Another exceptional phenomenon : the grapes that were right in the sun had « roasted » and contained concentrated sugar which released during the fermentations only. All the vats had some sort of natural « sugaring», ending with higher degrees than those, already high, that we noted at the beginning of fermentation.

Moreover, although the grapes were in a totally perfect health, we had a very selective harvest, leaving aside for a second picking the vines that were overloaded or the young ones that were replanted recently.

Only one regret : the fine weather abandoned us after a few days of harvest and the rain disturbed the second part of it, but on the one hand the rain fell mostly in the night, which enabled us to harvest normally during the day, on the other hand they arrived too late to create an appreciable dilution.

As regards quantity, it is exceptional too : thanks to the beautiful bunch setting and the favourable conditions during the flowering, the production is about the same as in 1990 or 1996.

It is therefore a vintage of very high lineage that seems to prepare in vats. Fermentations are slow and reach high temperatures naturally, colours are garnet-red, nearly black, typical of great years. We shall know in a few days, after the wines are drawn, whether they are equal to the splendour of the grapes we harvested. If it is the case, it is by offering a great vintage that the vineyards will have greeted the end of the millennium.

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Vintage 1999

1999 VINTAGE in Burgundy

The last harvest of the century

Generous yields and exceptional quality for Burgundy's 1999 harvest

Burgundy, France, November 1999 ? The 1999 Burgundy wine harvest was as generous in terms of yield as it was exceptional in terms of quality. According to the Burgundy Wine Bureau (BIVB), the climatic conditions permitted, as happens only rarely, the number of grape bunches per plant to exceed the average of the last five years.

The harvest was marked by sunny conditions and record levels of maturity in the crop. Though there was rain in the last few days, well-tended vines yielded a promising harvest of grapes rich in sugar. Volume is expected to total around 1.5 million hectolitres, which is higher than 1998.

The first two weeks of September in Burgundy saw temperature records being broken and, as a result, well-ripened grapes. Sugars were at an average of 180 g/l (16.8g of sugar yields 1% alcohol) for the Chardonnay grapes, the highest average figure reached at the start of the harvest in the last ten years. In the Mâconnais, levels approached those of 1995 (an exceptional vintage). While the sugar level of the grapes in the Côte Chalonnaise left other years far behind, in the Yonne, it fell between that of 1995 and 1996.

The Pinot Noir grapes also experienced record levels of maturity. One vineyard in the Côte de Beaune yielded grapes with sugars at 230g/l at the beginning of September. In the Côte de Beaune, sugars reached 1995 levels, and in the Saône-et-Loire and Yonne records were broken as well. On average, sugar levels were 25g/l above those for 1988. The polyphenolic structure of the grapes (which determines the colour and structure of the wine) was excellent.

Every gourmet knows that the right balance between sweetness and acidity with food is crucial. The same is true of grapes. The sugar level determines the alcoholic strength of the wine while acidity is responsible for the perfect balance to give a wine its keeping qualities. It is clear that the high sugar levels seen in the grapes this year are matched by excellent levels of total acidity derived from the tartaric acid naturally present in the fruit. In the Pinot Noir grapes, average levels of tartaric acid, at around 7.5g/l, are higher than the average for the last ten years and close to those of 1991 and 1993. Equally, average total acidity in the Chardonnay grapes matches the average of the last decade.

 

From mid-September onwards Burgundy saw the return of rain, especially at night, and this upset the smooth progress of the harvest to some extent. However, the health of the grapes remained excellent and the rain had only limited effects on the quality of the crop, especially in the case of those growers who had the foresight and concern for quality which led them to carry out crop thinning or a green harvest earlier in the season.

At Domaine Latour the picking started on the 17th September with the vineyards in Beaune, the average sugar levels were 12.5% potential alcohol with some vineyards, including the Corton Charlemagne at 14%! Our harvest was finished by 27th thus we avoided much of the heavy rains.

The wines have now finished their alcoholic fermentation and will spend the next 18 months in barrel acquiring structure, flavour and complexity. 

Our two sister wineries in the Valley of the Ardéche and further south in the Var both reported an excellent crop of healthy ripe fruit. 

In the Ardéche isolated patches of spring frost and summer hail reduced our yield, leaving a small quantity of fully ripe and concentrated fruit. The two week harvest began on 2nd September under clear blue skies as the Chardonnay d?Ardéche came in at 13.2° whilst the Grand Ardéche easily made 13.5°. The wines have good rich fruitiness, and supportive acidity which gives excellent ageing potential to these well balanced young wines.

The Pinot Noir at Domaine de Valmoissine enjoyed an exceptional year with optimal levels of sun and rain throughout the growing season. The harvest began on 13th September, and lasted for 10 days. Whilst there was a little rain on the 8th day, all the fruit was harvested at 13.5°. This will be Valmoissines? best year yet, already the wines are showing ample richness, subtleness and a silky smoothness.

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Average Bottle Price

2020 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2005
18 660€ +10.8% 16 844€ +25.0% 13 480€ +3.8% 12 988€ -6.6% 13 899€ +33.2% 10 432€ -12.3% 11 895€ +20.9% 9 840€ +24.7% 7 890€ +172.1% 2 900€

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.

Latest Pro-tasting notes

16 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Deep, Ruby red and Bright

ending

Long, Lingering and Pure

flavors

Blackberry, Blueberry, Floral, Spice, Licorice and Vegetal

nose

Intense, Ripe, Rich and Complex

recommend

Yes

taste

High in Acidity, High alcohol content, Medium tannin, Concentrated, Well-structured, Multi-dimensional, Youthful, Medium-bodied, Silky, Harmonious, Rich and Silky tannins

Verdict

Transparent and Excellent

Written Notes

Where were we RC?  Right there with the 1999 which had a deep nose full of t n’ a and spice.  Our host observed the relationship between ‘99 and ‘05.  This was rich, explosive and plush with the oil and the pop.  It had a darker, oilier palate than most and a touch of caramel in a rusty way.  Rich rich rich with endless acidity, it reminded me of a recent 1990 but not quite there.  BC found it ‘spectacular’ and King Richard ‘beautiful and powerful, worthy of its reputation.’  There was great length and spice on its finish. (98pts)

  • 98p

Ruby-red. Deep, sappy, brooding nose dominated by liqueur-like ripeness and oriental spices. Huge yet magically light on its feet; completely unevolved and less showy and sweet today than La Tache, but has all the elements for future greatness. The suggestion of green austerity will be transformed into rose petal in 12 to 15 years, says de Villaine. The thoroughly ripe, suave tannins coat the entire palate.

  • 97p

Vibrant, pure, spicy, distinctly floral and unusually high-toned for the vintage with big, powerful and concentrated almost to the point of painful intensity with its super ripe, palate staining flavors yet this remains regal, almost aloof and quite reserved on the hugely long finish. The focus is unbelievable and while it's hard to speak of subtle power, one can sense the vibrancy and depths of reserve that are still only hinted at now even eight years after the vintage. As seductive as the nose is and as awe-inspiring as the flavors are, the finish lasts literally for minutes, indeed I could still taste it the next day and I've noticed that this happens every time I am fortunate to have the '99. And, difficult as it is to believe, I'm beginning to think that my score is conservative.

  • 99p

The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Romanee-Conti is mind-boggling. It has a hugely expressive nose of super-ripe black cherries, candied plums, and violets. Full-bodied and possessing a magnificent breadth of sweet, penetrating fruits, this is an unbelievably complex wine. It coats the palate with its velvety sweet cherries, jammy blackberries, and fruit-soaked tannin. Perfectly balanced and seamless, this gem has a remarkably long finish. This is a wine of exemplary precision, delineation, and power with undescribable class and refinement  95-99p

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Information

Origin

Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

Be Cautious

Glass time

2h

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

Wine Advocate #136
Aug 2001
Pierre Rovani (95-99) Drink: 2006 - 2020 $11879-$16054 (1100)
The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Romanee-Conti is mind-boggling. It has a hugely expressive nose of super-ripe black cherries, candied plums, and violets. Full-bodied and possessing a magnificent breadth of sweet, penetrating fruits, this is an unbelievably complex wine. It coats the palate with its velvety sweet cherries, jammy blackberries, and fruit-soaked tannin. Perfectly balanced and seamless, this gem has a remarkably long finish. This is a wine of exemplary precision, delineation, and power with undescribable class and refinement. Projected maturity: 2006-2020. 
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