The Romanée Conti appellation

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Located in the commune of Vosne-Romanée, this grand cru covers an area of ​​1.81 hectares. Between Echezeaux and Nuits Saint Georges, the vines of the Romanée Conti appellation reach between 250 meters and 310 meters above sea level. The appellation is based on brown calcareous soils with a high clay content. Romanée-Conti estate operates the appellation. The production of the appellation is confidential and represents 45 hectoliters per year, or approximately 6,000 bottles. It is currently owned by the Villaine and Leroy families, who also own other great Burgundy wines. The bottles were sold in mixed cases of twelve. Since 2003, the mixed sale has consisted of thirteen bottles, i.e. a single bottle of Romanée-Conti for twelve other bottles of grands crus from the Côte de Nuits (i.e. its Echezeaux, Grands-Echezeaux, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Richebourg and La Tâche).

The wines have in common aromas of violet and a well-structured mouth. Characterized by aromas of wild rose that evolve on rose petals. The wines of the appellation come from the king grape variety in Burgundy: pinot noir.

Pinot noir is exclusively used in the red wines of the AOC. It consists of small, dense clusters, shaped like pine cones, composed of ovoid, dark blue berries. It is a delicate grape variety, which is sensitive to the main diseases and in particular to mildew, parasitic red rot, gray rot (on clusters and leaves), and leafhoppers. This grape variety, which requires careful disbudding, tends to produce a large number of clusters. It takes full advantage of the growing cycle to ripen in the first period. The potential for sugar accumulation is high for an acidity that is just average and sometimes insufficient at maturity. The wines are quite powerful, rich, colorful, and can be kept. They are generally moderately tannic.

Food and wine pairings

The wines of the appellation pair well with game, strong-tasting meats, duck and roast veal.

International recognition

The international reputation of the appellation is due to the fact that the wines offer an incredible velvety mouthfeel, one of the finest of Burgundy reds. It reflects the complexity of the Pinot Noir grape variety. Enthusiasts will wait 20 to 30 years before tasting these wines. Dark ruby, carmine with age. Diverse and ample on the nose with aromas of red and black berries, violet, spices, undergrowth. Powerful, delicate, frank, complete, subtle, flamboyant mouthfeel.

In a department store in Kobe, Japan, a bottle of Romanée-Conti 2000 sold for 787,500 yen, or €5,000. In March 2005, six magnums of Romanée-Conti 1985 sold for €134,315 at a sale in New York. A bottle of Romanée-Conti 2005 was on sale at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris for €18,000. This record was broken in 2006 by a Château Mouton Rothschild 1945. In 2010, the Wine-Searcher website, which had over 800 references, also ranked it first among the 50 most expensive wines in the world, with an average price of over US$8,000 (€6,150) for all vintages and merchants worldwide.

The Romanée-conti appellation received a lot of media attention in 2002, when the president of the French Football Federation, Claude Simonet, charged a bottle of this wine for €4,800 in a Korean restaurant.