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Wine Description
The Story
The Romanée Saint-Vivant Grand Cru lies west and northwest of the village of Vosne-Romanée, at the bottom of the hillside, where the slope is steep (7%). The plot varies very little in altitude, from 253 to 254 meters. Le lieu-dit faces southeast.
The reddish-brown soil is 50 to 60 cm thick and contains a variety of blunt-to-rounded limestone fragments.
The substratum underlying Romanée Saint-Vivant is mainly composed of limestone fragments cemented together by a salmon-colored clay limestone matrix. This conglomerate rock is the result of major erosion that occurred as the topography of the Côte de Nuits took shape.
Vintage 2019
“2019 is ‘the perfect storm’ of a vintage,” said Laurent Drouhin of top negociant house Drouhin, which owns vineyards in many parts of Burgundy. “We keep smiling because some wines will be great.” The mix included the hottest temperatures since the time of the Black Death 700 years ago (!), frost in April, rain in June, and no rain for nearly four months.
Drouhin’s harvest started on time on Sept. 13, and Laurent’s winemaking brother Frederic reports, “The first reds show an intense and beautiful color, good concentration, great balance and acidity and depth. The whites also show good richness with balance.” It’s a great year for reds, with slightly higher alcohol than usual.
The downside is very low yields. In just one April night, frost destroyed about 30% of the crop in Macon, though what’s left is making wines with good acidity and aromas.
Export company Le Serbet gathered reports from 65 producers in its portfolio, and head of marketing Peter Wasserman says the loss of grapes varies from vineyard to vineyard; in some places it may be as much as 50% to 60% lower than normal. Northern appellations such as Gevrey-Chambertin seem to have done best, down only 10%.
With less wine, you might predict even higher prices, but producers worry that this would drive away consumers.