A Mid-1980's Tasting of Twenty One Vintages of La Tâche (1945-1980)
Private residence, San Francisco
Tasted February 10, 1985 by drwine2001 with 382 views
Introduction
Over the course of digging through old basement memorabilia (in August, 2018), I came across a treasure trove of old handwritten tasting notes. Most of these were not worth taking the time to enter into the database, but I wanted to memorialize this tasting since it gives an interesting historical snapshot of young and old La Tâche at one point in time, and I am more than 100% certain that I will never again have the opportunity to taste this sort of vertical of any DRC wines. I've tried to stick to my rudimentary notes at the time without embellishment or benefit of the retrospectoscope. Looking back, it appears that somehow, every major vintage of this wine from this period was represented, save for the 1949. Amazing to think back to the type of tastings you could put together back then before prices skyrocketed and availability of the older wines plunged. By my recollection, I'd guess that each of us paid around $200 apiece to split the entire cost of these wines! The total invested wouldn't even buy a single bottle of the current release some 30 years later. I wish I could say something about the provenance or preparation of the wines, but those details escape me. However, I don't think that there was any concern about the authenticity of the bottles back then; many of them were acquired on release by a fine, long gone San Francisco wine merchant called Crane & Kelly.
Flight 1 - 1971 to 1980 (7 notes)
Red
1980 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Moderately concentrated color with a splash of purple-youngest looking of first flight. Restrained, grapy aromatics, then some new oak and bacon, and finally a calm, finer fragrance at 90 minutes. Tannic and tight with average acidity and medium length at first. Then, it fleshes out and becomes really nice wine if not particularly memorable.
Red
1979 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Pale ruby center, surprising amount of browning at the edge. Forward, exotic, gamy scents. Odd-rich, warm, spicy red fruit, quite open, but little complexity, depth, or length. Acidic, short finish. Wholly unimpressive.
Red
1978 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Most concentrated looking in the flight, but still some maturity of color. Lovely sous bois fragrance, smoke, and some toastiness which really did not develop much over 90 minutes. Closed and tannic, but outstanding balance, sappiness of fruit, and concentration underneath. Coiled and brimming with potential.
Red
1976 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Pale, the lightest of the flight. Simple, rather sweet nose that did not change with air. Watery, simple, lacking fruit, tannic, and short. Disappointing to say the least.
Red
1975 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Feeble tawny appearance. Musty nose-all you can smell beyond this is some alcohol. Tart, sour, and unripe. Just awful in keeping with the reputation of the vintage.
Red
1972 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Good color, slightly deeper than the 1971 next to it. Restrained, poised, mature aromas. Light weight, slightly dry edge to the red fruit, noticeable acidity, faded tannins. Very, very good and completely resolved now.
Red
1971 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Clear, light, maturing color. Gorgeously ripe, spicy, red fruited aromas-the fruit is just singing and smells so fresh. More haunting secondary perfume appears later. Light, elegant, but luscious at the same time. Rich, naturally sweet fruit, beautifully balanced, fine acidity, and perfectly integrated tannins. Just got better and better in the glass. None of the young wines came close to this, and one senses it could still unfold and improve for another 15 to 20 years.
Flight 2 - 1961 to 1970 (7 notes)
Red
1970 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
As deep as the 1971. Simple, sugary (chaptalized?), berry scents. Fat, full bodied, alcoholic but does not fan out at all. Finishes thin and tannic. Inoffensive but nothing more.
Red
1969 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Beautiful mature glow. Real secondary fragrance. Rich and long, excellent acidity, somewhat one dimensional flavors and quite tannic finish. This was right on the cusp and dried out in the glass.
Red
1966 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Even deep brown color. Stinky hydrogen sulfide, barnyard aromas. Fat, charred, overripe, and alcoholic. Odd peanut flavor and bitter finish. Lord knows what combination of flaws accounted for this bizarre showing.
Red
1964 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Medium ruby. Spice and some light mustiness. Big for Burgundy, fat, lush, ripe, and lowish acidity. Exotic, chocolatey flavors, very sappy. Atypically heavy and almost clumsy to start, but this steadily loosened and improved all the way out to the 2 hour mark. A blockbuster, old style wine from a ripe vintage. Based on its evolution, it could still improve. An outlier that is extremely interesting.
Red
1963 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Watery looking. Awful combination of underripeness, maderization, and artificial sugariness. Can't bring myself to taste this one. Wretched.
Red
1962 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Freakishly dark color. Forest floor, light fruit, absolutely killer nose. Dense and sappy, exquisite balance, gorgeous, fresh fruit, perfect acidity, amazing mouth coverage and length. I can sum it up in one word-EVERYTHING! It kept changing and expanding. A total wow wine. I was lucky enough to taste it a few years ago, and then, like now, it was one of the most amazing wines I've ever had. Essence of Burgundy and the potential to go on for who knows how long given its material and balance.
Red
1961 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Also surprisingly youthful looking. Less complex, developed aromas than the incredible 1962. More elegant, somewhat leaner than that wine although nice ripeness and natural sweetness in the mid-palate. Stylish but less depth and excitement than the younger vintage. Anything would suffer after that wine, though. This is excellent even if not at the same level and much further along.
Flight 3 - 1945 to 1959 (7 notes)
Red
1959 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Deep and unevolved looking. Youthful, poised, calm, great weight and feel. Profound, rich, and tannic. Still very young with fantastic potential. Every moment it sat in the glass, it just got better and better. What a tremendous wine.
Red
1955 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Pale and limpid compared to the rest of the wines. Some garlic on the nose. Slightly sharp and thin, but reasonably nice, mature flavors. Not a perfect bottle, but certainly seems past its prime.
Red
1953 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Very pale. Fragrant and terrific perfumed nose which is marred by cardboardy cork-drat. Transiently delicious, still has significant tannin. Turns vinegary and harsh, and falls apart very quickly. I would love to see a sound bottle of this, which should be ethereal.
Red
1952 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Clear tawny color. Pure Pinot fruit aromatics. Medium weight, lovely fruit across mid-palate, then a rather abrupt finish. Even if this is hardly perfect, the strength of the fruit is impressive. All in all, probably underrated compared to some of the more heralded vintages.
Red
1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
Remarkably dark for its age. Perfect ripeness expressed aromatically. Fresh strawberry fruit that is rich and concentrated. Only some early secondary fragrance. Sweet, delicious, still some remaining tannin. Incredible quality of fruit for age 40, simply incredible. Continued improvement and staying power for 2 hours. This is monumental and could last for another 20 years. What a great finish to a fabulous event.
Closing
Needless to say, a once in a lifetime opportunity. That said, a roller coaster ride with a few wines representing the pinnacle of red wine, some turning out to be disappointing, and others from horrible, rightly forgotten vintages being abjectly miserable. Vintages like 1975 and 1963 probably should never have been released. The consensus great wines were 1945 and 1962, with 1959 close behind, and 1971 and 1978 in the next tier.
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