2010 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands-Echezeaux

Community Tasting Notes (40) Avg Score: 95.7 points

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  12/25/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 97 Points

  The first thing, I think, is to acknowledge that objectivity will be difficult. However, if I look at the emotional response I got from this, it was immediate on opening and Max Schmeling it and continued through every phase of the evolution of this wine across a full 24-hour period. I was in a Pinot Noir drenched heaven and, truly, it was good.
  
  I am a firm adherent of the Hegelian approach to all things and whilst I like the music and literature of the Romantics, I can only see them as a bad path to travel down, because they are about regression and reaction. However, any commitment to rationality and objectivity has to acknowledge the limits of the human organism and that means accepting and identifying the emotional component. Then it can be isolated to some degree and dealt with.
  
  So, I did a spot of research into this Cru, this maker and this vintage, before opening. I wanted to know about this wine not just 'feel it'. The research was done a few months ago and memory is fallible but this is what I recall;
  
  The wine is 100% whole bunch ferment. I can readily identify stemmy aromas and flavours and early on they also add to a suggestion of an almost cedary oak.
  
  The wine does get new oak, because they believe they have the fruit to handle it and to benefit from it. In the first few hours open, between the stemmy, whole bunch aspects and the sensation of oak tannin and some cedary oak aromas and flavours, although I felt the wine really worked, it did seem to that oak was a noticeable presence. Over time, I found the oak aspect seemed to recede, partly as fruit came up and by about the 6-8 hour mark I found the oak hard to identify, including in terms of tannin (oh Tannin baum) and structure.
  
  The vintage was a slightly tricky one from a vineyard management point of view, but the owner and maker described it as being fantastic towards the end and in his view one of the really great vintages, especially from the point of view of typicity and regionality. My sense of his comments in an interview I saw was that he felt that whilst the vintage was more demanding than 2009, the result was actually a vintage that better displayed classical Burgundy. Given the whole bunch element, I have to say that what I could identify suggested this was not just winemakers BS but a fair description. This wine had body combined with elegance, lift with substance. Indeed, I found 'balance' to be the operative word. The 2009 Burgundies I have had have been wonderful wines but sometimes pushing into the realm of the 'slightly too much'.
  
  The next thing I note is that Grands Echezeaux is basically located between Vosne-Romanee and Chambolle-Musigny, it is really very small (about 18 acres) and one would expect from its provenance that it would combine power and weight with grace and aromatics. My perception is that this is very much the case and I found myself thinking of those 'big cat' cars, like the Jaguars (when they were good), some of the big Mercedes and the old 7 series BMW's. You had the experience of driving something solid, something powerful and large, with a lot of luxury, yet the handling belied the size, the power came on effortlessly and smoothly and you were in driving heaven. There were faster cars, there were more nimble cars but there were none that brought it all together so well. To me that describes this wine.
  
  In flavour and aromatic terms, I found myself reaching at times for the right descriptors. There was a jube or even liqueur cherry/strawberry character that I found intoxicating. There was a slight herbal edge there as well and I altered my sauce for my steak to one using a little fresh ground white pepper and some Juniper berry, along with port and garlic, reduced in the pan in which the steak (God's gift to decent humans) cooked and this worked really well. I also wanted to go to a particular brand of Maraschino Cherry (Luxardo), because there is something there, but it is absolutely not 'same as'. Some plums I have preserved in Sloe Gin also gave a similar experience of heady richness combined with cut and something herbal.
  
  Finally, I found the architecture of this wine to be superb. The tannins really became a pleasure and after the first few hours they were noticeable more at the finish than either on the fore or mid-palate. The mouthfeel became almost like a caress. There was a sense of space and light in the mouth, yet also of being encased. The experience of great Cathedrals is what I am reminded of.
  
  A while back I wrote of my experience of a bottle of 1998 Petrus, another wine that I have wanted to try since I was a teenager. That was a fine wine but it really never moved me. This did. Have I talked myself into seeing this as great, because of the price, the reputation etc.? I like to think my response to the Petrus was that I can recognise the emotional elements and then go beyond them to more objective elements.
  
  I have had many of the characteristics of this wine in other good Burgundies. What I have not had is quite the same balance and quite the same architecture. Over 40 years of loving wine, I have come to the view, erroneous or not, that what separates the truly exceptional wine from the really good wine is not the flavours, not the 'oomph' factor, but the structure, the architecture. And this wine, in my estimation, was exceptional.
  
  So, there you have it. I do really believe that anyone who professes to love wine has to see it as part of their education, their calling, to try the great wines. One way, or another, you have to do this.
  
  In this case, I feel DRC has shown me something about Rostaing and also Clonakilla. Both, I now can see and understand, look to emulate (not copy) the experience of great Burgundy. I had read and been told this about CK, but like visiting a vineyard, a battlefield or a great building or wonder of nature, you don't really know much until you have actually gone there. If that was all I got from the DRC, that would actually be worth the price, but I also got a drinking moment I will never forget. I call that a damned good use of money.

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  11/26/2023 - Lord of the Bottles Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Beautiful wine that evolved over two hours. Initial pop of bright strawberry and stem notes that settled into a groove of decayed leaves and stewed fruit. Very classy and refined, this DRC ‘10 GE seems to remind me more of Meo Camuzet than its La Tache and Richebourg stablemates which I recall as having more of that spice. Still this was unmistakenly DRC with that green stem note. 96-97/100 drink now or hold.

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  8/30/2023 - Mario17 Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Nez typé du domaine de roses, tabac, épices. Une bouche puissante et pleine, avec cette classe et élégance unique au domaine, quelle longueur, bâti pour vivre longtemps. 95-96
  
  Typical DRC signature, roses, tobacco, spices. Gorgeous nose and powerful palate and structure, yet balanced with such class and elegance unique to this domaine. Great now but built for the long haul.

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  8/26/2023 - fcxj wrote: 96 Points

  Floral, sweet aromatics. Toss up versus RSV alongside. (633/10834)

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  1/9/2023 - vvWine.ch wrote: 96 Points

  (Kurznotiz) Die Nase ist relativ schnell voll da, offen, feinwürzig, tiefgründig, rote und dunkle Früchte, Kräuter, Tee, florale Töne. Der Gaumen ist kräftig, jedoch nicht schwer, sehr gute Struktur, top Frucht, die Elemente wunderbar ausgewogen, endet lang, feinwürzig und auf eine rotfruchtige Aromatik. Gut antrinkbar aktuell. www.vvwine.ch

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