2001 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

(88-89 Points) The 2001 Romanee-St.-Vivant is ruby-colored and sports a nose of white pepper, spices, and black cherries. Light to medium-bodied, it is juicy, delicate, and reveals an oak-laced red fruit-flavored character. This complex, lace-like wine tightens in the finish, displaying notes of vanilla-laced new oak. Drink it over the next 6-7 years.

Concerning the 2001s, de Villaine, the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti’s co-director, stated that “it was not an easy year, it was a real roller coaster for vignerons. The estate’s vineyards, like everyone in Burgundy, had rot infestations so we did two harvests, one for the best, healthiest bunches and then another. Of course, we meticulously sorted all the fruit as we always do.”

Those readers who are always looking for news concerning the next vintage will be interested to hear the following. Unlike almost all his colleagues who said that 2002 was going to be a spectacular vintage, de Villaine informed me that it would “another irregular year.”