Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2022 in bottle: A first look at this abundant vintage

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has released its 2022 wines in bottle and the UK wine trade and press were the first to taste them in London last week.

The domaine’s co-directors Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine were present, alongside UK agent Corney & Barrow’s managing director Adam Brett-Smith.

Following cripplingly low yields in the frost-stricken 2021, the 2022 vintage delivered an abundance of healthy grapes.

‘It’s almost as if the 2022 vintage was listening to us,’ says Brett-Smith, ‘because it has compensated for the tiny volumes that we tasted together last year, with a vintage of wonderful abundance’.

Detailed in bottle tasting notes and scores for DRC’s 2022 wines by Burgundy correspondent Charles Curtis MW will be published in March

‘Everything just seemed too much’

Despite plentiful rain in December, the 2022 growing season quickly became hot and dry. There was no significant frost at the domaine, ‘what a relief to be able to leave candles and wind turbines in their storage,’ says Fenal.

Spring sprung with great vigour, ‘bursting with enthusiasm and at a crazy tempo, joyful but exhausting to follow daily in the vineyard,’ says Fenal, and the team were kept busy as the vegetation exploded.

Flowering came early, on 20 May, and the absence of coulure or millerandage in the bunches, and the lack of mildew and oidium due to the dry conditions, promised a large crop – a stark contrast to the previous year.

Summer was scorching, yet heavy rains between 22 and 26 June set the vines up well for the drought that followed in July and August.

As the pressure mounted and the vines began to suffer from blockages in maturity, ‘the fate of the vintage was sealed,’ says Fenal, with rain at the perfect moment between 15 and 18 August, swelling the grapes and leading them to full ripeness.

It was a vintage where ‘everything just seemed too much’, says Fenal, ‘too much sun, too much heat, too much light, too many grapes, too much sugar, too many vats, too many barrels,’ yet in the end, everything was just right.

The domaine waited for as long as possible before harvesting on 30 August, starting with the Corton reds and finishing with Echézeaux and Corton-Charlemagne on 13 September.

Clear character

With so many grapes coming in, ‘the winery turned into a puzzle,’ says Fenal, with layers of barrels stacked on top of each other. Yet the mood was jubilant, she says, as the wines tasted like fruit juice, luscious, concentrated and ripe, with deep colours.

De Villaine says that each cru showed itself early in the cellar, each revealing its own delineated character.

The impression of the 2022s is of depth and concentration, purity of sweet, ripe, succulent fruit, caressing tannins and tantalising drinkability, with the ability to age very well.

De Villaine says, ‘even with this maturity, the wines are really fresh, expressive, and keep a kind of transparency,’ and Fenal says they have a calm and serene quality.

Prices and stock

The wealth of grapes in 2022 can be better understood when comparing with the pitiful 2021 yield. Where 21.6 hl/ha were obtained from Grands-Echézeaux in 2021, 2022 brought in 43 hl/ha.

Corton went from 5 hl/ha in 2021 to 40.4 hl/ha in 2022, and Corton-Charlemagne from 4.8 hl/ha to 52.4 hl/ ha.

While prices increased 10% across the range between the 2020 and 2021 vintages, the 2022 prices remain in line with the 2021s – bad news for buyers hoping that a jump in volume would lead to a fall in prices.

The cheapest of the grands crus is Corton at £1,305 for three bottles, followed by Echézeaux at £1,605 for three, the particularly gorgeous Romanée-St-Vivant is at £3,900 for three and the Romanée-Conti comes in at £4,250 for one bottle.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2022: In barrel scores

These scores are Charles Curtis MW’s in barrel scores from his Burgundy Report published last year, his in bottle scores will be published next month

Related articles

• DRC 2021 in bottle: Seven wines and two library vintages tasted
• Burgundy 2022 en primeur: Full report plus top-scoring wines
• Demand for Burgundy 2022 wines better than expected – Liv-ex