Tasted at the domaine and at Corney & Barrow. There is a wonderful sense of transparency on the nose here: raspberry leafy, chalky elements coming through; dried autumn leaves and dewy morning lawn. There are less herbaceous elements here that on other crus. The palate displays a supple entry, quite understated at first but certainly expanding in the glass. Very fine backbone. The bottle in November at the domaine was leafier but four months later it has a lovely rounded, silky finish with pure red cherries, raspberry and wild strawberry struck through with wonderful minerality. This is fare prettier and more alluring that the Richebourg at this stage. Drink 2012-2025. Tasted January 2010.

Medium red. Precise aromas of violet, cocoa powder, smoky oak and earth, with red berries emerging with aeration. Tighter in the middle palate than the Grands-Echezeaux, showing somewhat cooler, soil-driven flavors and a sexy dusty minerality, but this still boasts impressive breadth and fat. Finishes classically dry and extremely long, with building tannins. An exciting wine in the making but austere today and in need of a decade of patience.

The Domaine’s 2007 Romanee-St.-Vivant predictably inhabits a different world – not to mention being in a different league of complexity and intrigue – from their Echezeaux, Grands Echezeaux, or Richebourg of that vintage. Peat, leather, humus, forest floor, and decadent floral perfume are joined by an oceanic saline, alkaline, kelp-tinged aspect, and these surf-and-turf aspects follow on a polished palate that – despite only the slightest nod in the direction of overt fruitiness by way of dark berries – nevertheless displays a mouth-watering juiciness to accompany its myriad mineral and organic complexities. A persistently satisfying and thought-provoking finish points to the likelihood of 12-15 years continuance. Domaine de La Romanee-Conti director Aubert de Villaine perceives both the estate’s 2008 and 2007 collections as vins de garde, and I can’t argue with that assessment, even though when I first tasted the 2007s – soon after they had come out of malo – I harbored reservations, wondering whether to interpret de Villaine’s description of them as “ethereal” to read “ephemeral.” He says holding back the usual 5% share of production for the Domaine’s own cellar was difficult in the greatly reduced 2008 vintage, and that he is already regretting not having arranged to bottle a larger share in magnum. He still had time when I visited in April to reconsider the bottle format for three appellations, which were the only ones I was able to taste, since De Villaine is loathe to show wines in the first 9-12 months after bottling. (I’ll report on the full 2008 collection from bottle at a later date.) If the 2007s here were unusual for that vintage in the degree to which they gained stature in the course of elevage, such behavior was normal when it came to 2008, so that I was not surprised to hear de Villaine remark on a new-found degree of confidence in the stature of that collection. To an even greater degree than in most vintages, success in 2007 and 2008 came down to meticulousness at every stage; to quality of vine material; and to location, in all of which respects no estate in Burgundy has any advantage over the Domaine de La Romanee-Conti. Interestingly, the estate lingered no longer over the picking of their 2008s – from the first of the La Tache on September 27 to the last of the Echezeaux on October 6 – than they had over the 2007s, which were picked from September 1-11. The inclusion of stems was lowered to less than half in 2007, incidentally, but in 2008 was typically closer to three-quarters. Vendange entier is a technique not only time-honored and in continuous use at the Domaine de La Romanee-Conti (even when it fell out of favor at most Burgundy estates in the waning 20th century), but one which de Villaine and cellarmaster Bernard Noblet have subjected to repeated testing, so as to establish in any given vintage the right balance between 100% de-stemmed (“which lacks something by way of complexity,” says de Villaine) and 100% (“which can be too marked by the stems,” he continues). Importer: Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, CA; tel. (707) 963-9661

An ultra elegant, pure and quite delicately fruited and spiced nose that is extremely fresh, floral and expansive as it introduces seductively textured, detailed and gorgeously delineated middle weight flavors that possess laser-like focus if less density than is usually seen with this wine. Indeed, this is rather like a ballerina with limited power and weight but the watch word here is purity, purity and purity. I quite like this but it will strike some as unduly light though I believe the underlying material is present such that it will add weight in bottle as it ages.

Exuberant and bright on the nose. Smells cooler though all the samples are the same temperature. Slightest touch of white pepper. Tightly furled on the palate, very fresh and no fat but not lean either. Tannins are fine and upright. Less playful on the palate than on the nose, more like an athlete limbering up even though the mid palate is already scented. (JH)