Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2016: Survivors in bottle

A pared-down range was presented at Corney & Barrow's recent DRC 2016 launch...

It’s a little unusual to be offered Champagne after a trade and press tasting but Adam Brett Smith, le grand fromage at DRC’s UK importer, Corney & Barrow, is keen to keep social intercourse to a minimum at its posh city premises.

Hushed tones are de rigueur at the annual tasting of the new Domaine de la Romanée-Conti range, where the wines are tasted avinés (pre-rinsed with wine to remove any residual scents from the Riedel Burgundy glasses). With an 8am start, it gives trade and press a bite of the DRC cherry and a soulfully nourishing once-a-year breakfast on the wines of, arguably, the most famous wine domaine in the world.

Scroll down for Anthony’s DRC 2016 tasting notes

Survivors

The line-up of the Vosne-Romanée estate’s eight vineyard wines was slimmed down this year by the conspicuous absence of both Échézeaux and Grands Échézeaux. On the morning of 7 April, chef de culture Nicolas Jacob discovered that the young shoots had been burnt off, leaving a tiny crop of only 6-7hl/ha by harvest.

And with only a few grapes surviving in Montrachet, the 2016 will be blended at Domaine Leflaive with lots from Leflaive, Guy Amiot, Comtes Lafon, Fleurot Larose, Lamy-Pillot and Madame Petitjean. The total of around 50 cases will be sold mostly for charity.

The 2016 vintage

2016 had been a year of two halves.

The first half had been inauspicious, with an early budburst resulting from mild weather, but this accompanied by record rainfall – some 516mm of rain fell between January and May. Brett Smith reports that, due to the humidity, ‘around 35 mildew attacks had to be treated biodynamically in the fragmentary windows of dry weather’.

Sun and wind lulled the vines into a false sense of security before frosts struck on 27 April. Despite the damage, Corton, Richebourg, Romanée-St-Vivant, La Tâche and Romanée-Conti were spared, producing average yields of around 25hl/ha.

After a late and protracted flowering, ‘the angry gods’, as Aubert de Villaine called them, made way for glorious weather from 15 July. This continued virtually unabated until harvest, apart from some beneficial rains in mid-August

The crop was almost ripe enough by 15 September, but further good weather encouraged the domaine to wait for the grapes to gain rounder tannins.

Picking was by delayed until 22 September, with some light rains ‘unblocking’ the tannins and allowing the grapes to be brought in juicy, black and perfectly ripe. ‘After such a difficult start to the year, it was a wonderful surprise to achieve the dark, juicy, intense wines that we did’, says de Villaine.

Because the long flowering resulted in some millerandage, the domaine took the decision not to ferment fully with whole bunches, instead opting for between 60 and 70%.

This didn’t stop de Villaine from using 100% new oak, and so it was all the more remarkable that while undertones of oak were evident in the tasting, there was no oak dominance in any of the wines.

Tasting Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2016:

DRC 2016 vital statistics

Corton, Prince Florent de Merode

Average age of vines 46

Production 420 cases

Yield 22 hl/ha

Harvest date 22 September 2016

Bottling dates 27 February & 31 May 2018

Romanée-St-Vivant

Average age of vines 38

Production 1304 cases

Yield 27 hl/ha

Harvest date 27 & 28 September 2016

Bottling dates 1, 2, 6 & 7 March 2018

Richebourg

Average age of vines 46

Production 868 cases

Yield 24 hl/ha

Harvest date 23 & 24 September 2016

Bottling dates 28 March, 3 & 30 April 2018

La Tâche

Average age of vines 51

Production 1814 cases

Yield 31 hl/ha

Harvest date 24 & 25 September 2016

Bottling dates 20-25 April, 25-28 May 2018

Romanée-Conti

Average age of vines 57

Production 440 cases

Yield 24 hl/ha

Harvest date 25 September 2016

Bottling date 19 April 2018

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