1981 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 94.2 points

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  8/30/2018 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 91 Points

  A private DRC tasting (Waver, Ouder-Amstel, NL): Recently acquired, storage conditions unknown but probably mediocre at best. Bottle No. 006126 / 11.552. Level approximately 3 cm below the cork. Much better level than the previous bottle. Energetic, seems tightly coiled, only slightly vegetal, hint of orange zest, lively acidity, nervous, undergrowth and rosehip, good length.

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  8/30/2018 - Xavier Auerbach wrote:

  A private DRC tasting (Waver, Ouder-Amstel, NL): Recently acquired, storage conditions unknown but probably mediocre at best. Bottle No. 006125 / 11.552. Level approximately 9 cm below the cork. Very bad level but not undrinkable, vegetal, old. Not rated.

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  8/24/2018 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine:

  This limpid melodious beauty was so very good. It was clear red with the prettiest light ruby edges. It was mellow cherry, spice, and pretty earth. My notes are from bullets. Read Keith Levenberg's note if you want to swoon. Bottle number: 004146

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  8/24/2018 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 97 Points

  This was better than it had any right to be, owing mainly to the sense that we had managed to catch it at its absolute peak, not a day too early and not a day too late. (Pristine provenance didn't hurt either.) There is a stage of perfect drinking some wines reach where they seem to shed their physical stuffing but retain all the sweetness and vibrancy they had on day one. That's where this one is, beginning with its physical color which is translucent enough to read a newspaper through but still a bright ruby red. Whenever you see that in a mature wine you know you're in for a treat. The aromatics are the classic Vosne five-spice for which La Tache is ground zero, a wonderful perfume on top of the sweet red cherry and raspberry essence. Someone calls it light-bodied, but I disagree - I didn't find it light at all - but more fundamentally, when something reaches this state of soil-to-glass transfer, the body is just kind of beside the point. It's something you inhale as much as taste. Most La Tâches I've been lucky enough to try in the past have been from vintages that are 1) better and 2) younger, as a consequence of which they were naturally deeper and burlier, but I don't think any one of them delivered the experience this one did just from being so totally in the zone.

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  8/24/2018 - Burgundy Al wrote: 93 Points

  Great Older Wines at the Place to Drink Great Older Wines (Tampa FL): Popped-and-poured from perfectly stored bottle. Nicely mature red berry and cherry aromas and flavors from the start, with charming Asian five spice. Seemed lighter than I'd prefer to start, but this started picking up weight and depth within 10-15 of being served, with additional spice and complexity emerging as well. Best once open an hour, plateauing from there.

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