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96 Robert Parker
The 2014 La Tâche Grand Cru was picked on 17, 18 and 20 September at 32 hectoliters per hectare, bottled between 1 and 25 April 2016. It has a quite startling bouquet: dark berry fruit, bay leaf, hints of jasmine tea and autumn leaves. It delivers multi-faceted aromatics, a mercurial bouquet, brown spices emerging with continued aeration in the glass. It is a tad more forward than I expected. The palate is medium-bodied with great structure and fine grip. This is a slightly more masculine La Tâche and replicating its performance in barrel, the fruit spectrum shimmies from red to black (incidentally, exactly as I observed when I tasted it in barrel). There is a lovely lift on the finish that leaves you with a piquant kiss on the cheek. This is wonderful. 1,929 cases produced. Tasted February 2017.
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.