2001 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Echezeaux Grand Cru

Producer note: Co-director Aubert de Villaine describes 2001 as a "vintage of charm and though the wines are robust, they are at the same time charming. It reminds me of 1962 or perhaps 1979 but with more tannic structure. In particular, it was extremely important to separate the ripe from the unripe, not only in terms of the grapes themselves but also the stems as not all of them were completely lignified. But with careful sorting, we saved only that which was optimally ripe. And while the 2001s are certainly robustly structured, it is precisely these tannins which will permit the wines to age very well indeed". Readers may remember that in 1999, a special Vosne "1er" Cuvée Duvault-Blochet was created but de Villaine was of the view that neither 2000 nor 2001 were quite good enough to create it again; that said, he was cautiously optimistic that 2002 would be. The bottling regimen for the 2001s had not yet been decided at the time of my November visit. "We may bottle barrel by barrel but it will depend solely on whether the wines are in need of aeration when they are finally ready. We racked the 2001s and for the first time ever, kept the lees as our tests have shown that this appears to add a bit of fat to the wines". The 2000 DRCs as group made it into bottle almost exactly as originally previewed. The only exception to this was the Romanée-Conti which surprised to the upside and surpassed the La Tâche in my view. de Villaine believed the wines would benefit from the additional aeration that occurs with an assemblage and thus they were grouped together in 6 barrel lots and bottled by gravity without fining or filtration between April and June; the sole exception was the La Tâche which was bottled barrel by barrel. As the tasting notes indicate, the Domaine's 2000s are very ripe and indeed, they required virtually no chaptalization except for the commonly seen .2 to .3% that was added merely to prolong the fermentation. Now that they are in bottle, de Villaine calls 2000 "a feminine vintage as it's both very pure and transmits well the underlying terroir". As he did during my November, 2001 visit, de Villaine believes that 2000 resembles 1992 in style but that the overall quality is materially better than 1992. It's also one of those vintages where the La Tâche and the Romanée-Conti were head and shoulders above their stable mates. (Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, California) Tasting note: Knockout sexy black fruit aromas trimmed in a deft touch of oak and distinct animale notes with expressive, full, pure, sweet and quite powerful flavors and a long, persistent, mouth coating finish. The amount of sève is impressive as is the sheer spiciness and this is a good deal more refined than it usually is. A great vintage for this wine. Tasted: Jan 01, 2004 Score: 92 Drink: 2013-20 Issue 13, Burghound