Thursday, December 15, 2016

2015 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Tasted from Barrel



Normally, I taste the wines from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in my last week of tasting, when I already have a very good idea of the vintage’s styles and possibilities. However, that was not the case this year; indeed, my very first visit of my four-week October-November visit in Burgundy was at the Domaine.

As explained elsewhere in my commentaries on the 2015 vintage in general, everything went about as well as possible in the vineyards. After the rapid and uniform flowering, Aubert de Villaine in his annual report on the vintage wrote that over the summer, the vines “liked the dry weather in 2015. The July heat waves stopped their evolution at least twice, but each time these were counterbalanced by stormy episodes that brought the needed humidity. As a result, the evolution of the vineyards was nearly ideal and thanks to these exceptional weather conditions, 2015 was a rather easy vintage for the vigneron. We could always intervene in the right place at the right moment, whatever the work to be done: compost supply, manual work, work for the oil or phytosanitary treatments.” 

He did note the challenge of oïdium, as the sulphur compound that the Domaine uses to combat the fungus loses its effectiveness above 30º C (86º F), a threshold frequently crossed in 2015, but in the end, the threat did not materialize. (Continue reading here.)

posted by Claude Kolm has been writing The Fine Wine Review since 1986. At the end of 2014, it switched to a blog in order to allow more timely and in depth information about estates. @ 10:01 PM