It is only with time that the uncanny dominance of this vineyard becomes apparent. Initially somewhat restrained, the wine is starting to show a lovely complexity with ripe cherry, plum, and pomegranate fruit aromas and complexity from floral notes and hints of spice, smoke, and earth. The texture is dense and compact, giving the sense that there is great depth and that this wine will age for decades. Along with its stablemate La Tâche, this is among the triumphs of the vintage. While the La Tâche might be more accessible today, the Romanée-Conti has more ultimate potential. Picked 25 September; 4,835 bottles produced.

The 2021 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru is the most integrated and complex—that's to say, hard to describe—wine in the range. Wafting from the glass with scents of sweet red berries, exotic spices, espresso roast, rose petals and violets, with only subtle hints of the coniferous bass-notes that mark out many of the other cuvées this year, it's full-bodied, pure and seamless, with an exquisitely suave, harmonious palate that effortless integrates vibrant acids, melting tannins and intense retronasal perfume. Concluding with a mouthwateringly saline finish, this is a wine that will delight, even enchant, Burgundy purists.

The 2021 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru is cut from a completely different cloth than the La Tâche. The phrase I immediately scribble down is that is does not exude the same confidence. Dark berry fruit, hints of undergrowth and crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins, lightly spiced with hints of bitter cherry and citrus fruit. It does not possess the weight nor the cohesion of the La Tâche from barrel, yet there is no denying that it carries intellectual weight and restrained gravitas. Biding its time or letting La Tâche carry the honours in 2021? Only time will tell.

Co-director Bertrand de Villaine describes Romanée-Conti as 'always in another universe', especially in more difficult vintages. Vines are around 60 years old, harvested 25 September 2021 with a yield of 20 hl/ha. Total production 403 cases of 12, bottled 11 January 2023. Mid to light ruby and a little more evolved in colour than La Tâche, with a suggestion of brick red at the rim. Smells of tiny, sweet, wild red berries and is seductively floral at the same time, plus just a hint of toasty oak. Lightly stemmy on the nose and more so on the palate, giving a dry yet mouth-watering effect in the mouth. The tannins are delicate, definite, extremely tense as they build in the mouth, high-wire and high energy. Long in its dry, elegant purity.  (JH)