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97 By Robert Parker
The 2012 La Tâche was picked September 25 and 27 at 21 hectoliters per hectare. It is blessed with one of those aromatic profiles that stops you in your tracks, in some ways stops time itself. There is an intensity and drive here, a mixture of red and black fruit, autumn leaves and wet limestone and later, roof tiles on a hot July afternoon. The palate is medium-bodied and nigh perfectly balanced. The tannins are filigree, the fruit extremely pure with an intense mineralité on the finish. There is an effortless quality about this La Tâche and yet is just clams up on the finish, does not quite deliver that knockout blow that so many other vintages have given. Perhaps it is saving it for later? Readers should note that there is just 1,113 cases produced rather than the usual 1,870.
Producer
Domaine de la Romanée Conti
Not only the most iconic domaine in Burgundy, but also possibly in France and even in the world. With a monopoly of the two greatest vineyards - Romanée-Conti and La Tâche - and with a generous handful of some others within Vosne-Romanée and beyond, it secured its revered position all while being completely discreet and even modest. It is co-owned by the Villaine and Leroy-Roch families, with Aubert de Villaine guiding the ship since 1974. But it can trace its roots back to the 13th century, when its first vines were planted by the monks of Saint-Vivant. They have been organic since the 1980s and biodynamic since the 1990s. They are also undoubtedly the most famous domaine in the region that uses (and has always used) whole cluster fermentation, an established technique that was eschewed by Henri Jayer, but has inspired many others in recent years. Allen Meadows, arguably the most knowledgeable Burgundy expert and critic in the world, has only given one wine a perfect score - the 1945 Romanée-Conti.