(est. 2,500-$2,900) Good deep red. Less expressive but still utterly sexy nose offers plum, raspberry, flowers, smoke and earth. Hints at its superb volume but this is quite closed and tightly knit today, and much less expressive and sweet than La Tache. But this superconcentrated wine seemed to gain sweetness with aeration, showing an increasingly fat, seamless texture without any loss of energy as it opened in the glass. Really saturates the palate on the aftertaste, where the tannins are thoroughly buffered by the wine's strong extract and superb depth.

A supremely beautiful if very reserved nose with a stunning mélange of spice notes, floral notes, particularly violets, red and black berry fruit aromas plus nuances of earth, game and smoke combine to perfectly complement the equally reserved, pure and unbelievably precise and pure medium full flavors underpinned by sophisticated tannins and huge length. One of the aspects that I most admire about a great RC is that while other wines have class, Romanée-Conti defines the term. The other aspect that I find to be perhaps the most remarkable of all is the wine's ability to aggregate attributes unlike any other. Like the '04 La Tâche, this isn't the greatest vintage of Romanée-Conti I have ever tasted but it is one of the very finest in terms of the delicacy and harmony of expression.