Summary
Few names stand so completely for the pinnacle of the wine world as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, known to connoisseurs simply as DRC. The estate in Vosne-Romanée on the Côte de Nuits owns the two grand cru monopoles La Romanée-Conti and La Tâche and farms a total of around 29 hectares, almost exclusively in grand cru sites. From Pinot Noir it makes some of the most coveted red wines on earth; from Chardonnay a tiny amount of Montrachet and, for a few years now, Corton-Charlemagne. Since 1942 two families have shared ownership – the de Villaine family and the Leroy/Roch family – represented today by co-directors Bertrand de Villaine and Perrine Fenal.
History
The vineyard is much older than the domaine: monks from the nearby Abbey of Saint-Vivant were already working the slopes of Vosne in the Middle Ages. It received its current name – back then simply called 'La Romanée' – in 1760, when Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, acquired it, reputedly after a bidding war with Madame de Pompadour. He attached his title to the vineyard name, and so it became Romanée-Conti.
After the French Revolution the estate was auctioned off as national property and changed hands several times. The real birth of the domaine as we know it came in 1869, when Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet bought Romanée-Conti and added parcels in Richebourg, Échezeaux and Grands-Échezeaux. His descendants, from whom the de Villaine family emerged, carried the estate forward.
In 1942 the négociant Henri Leroy took over half of the shares – since then two families have shared the domaine. La Tâche (acquired in full in 1933), Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Montrachet were added over time. From the 1970s onward, Aubert de Villaine shaped the house, first alongside Lalou Bize-Leroy, from 1992 with Henry-Frédéric Roch and from 2018 with his successor Perrine Fenal, a daughter of Lalou Bize-Leroy. At the end of 2021 Aubert de Villaine stepped back; his nephew Bertrand de Villaine, with the estate since 2008, took over the co-directorship.
Location & Terroir
Vosne-Romanée lies at the heart of the Côte de Nuits, a few kilometres south of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The grand cru sites run along the middle of the slope, where limestone and marl meet clay-rich soils and the vines face ideally east to south-east. La Romanée-Conti itself sits directly above Romanée-Saint-Vivant and below La Romanée, framed by Richebourg and La Grande Rue.
In addition to its sites in Vosne-Romanée and Flagey-Échezeaux, the domaine owns a small parcel in Montrachet on the Côte de Beaune. Since the 2009 vintage it has also made a Corton from leased parcels in Aloxe-Corton, and since the 2019 vintage a Corton-Charlemagne as well.
Style & Philosophy
DRC's work begins in the vineyard. From the mid-1980s the first plots were farmed according to biodynamic principles, and since 2007 this has applied to the entire domaine. Yields are very low, harvesting is done by hand and the fruit is strictly selected on sorting tables. Horses are used in part to avoid compacting the soil.
In the cellar the house practises restraint: the grapes are largely not destemmed, and the wines are aged in new oak barriques. The result is wines that often seem closed in youth but develop extraordinary depth, spice and silkiness over decades of maturation. Each grand cru is meant to express the character of its site clearly.
Notable Sites & Wines
The domaine bottles its wines almost exclusively as grand cru:
- La Romanée-Conti (monopole, around 1.8 hectares) – the flagship, just a few thousand bottles a year
- La Tâche (monopole, around 6 hectares) – denser and more powerful, for many the house's second legend
- Richebourg – opulent and profound
- Romanée-Saint-Vivant – the largest share of this site, fine and fragrant
- Grands-Échezeaux and Échezeaux – from Flagey-Échezeaux, more approachable in youth
- Corton and Corton-Charlemagne – from leased parcels in Aloxe-Corton
- Montrachet – white grand cru from Chardonnay in tiny quantities
In some vintages the domaine also bottles a Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru called 'Cuvée Duvault-Blochet', mainly from younger vines in the grand cru sites.
Awards
For decades, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has been regarded by international critics as Burgundy's benchmark estate and one of the most important wine producers in the world. Its wines regularly fetch record prices at auction, and La Romanée-Conti repeatedly tops rankings as the most expensive wine in the world. Aubert de Villaine was also one of the driving forces behind the recognition of Burgundy's Climats as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
