DOMAINE DE LA ROMANÉE-CONTI
SINGLE CELLAR SPOTLIGHT
It is with great pleasure that we present this Single Cellar Spotlight of the most hallowed name in Burgundy: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
The relationship between the Domaine and Corney & Barrow is now well into its third decade, the foundations of which began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, culminating in our appointment as the exclusive UK agent in 1991.
There are few names in the world of wine that inspire such reverence. The Domaine remains the ne plus ultra of fine wine an enduring symbol of craftsmanship, heritage and terroir-driven purity. The wines, sourced from some of the most venerated vineyards in Vosne-Romanée, are produced with an unwavering commitment to biodynamic principles and minimal intervention. The result: wines of incomparable elegance, longevity and soul.
This spotlight is offered entirely from a sole private Corney & Barrow customer, someone with whom we have a fantastic and longstanding relationship. Over the last 20 years, this customer has built up his cellar with great thought, energy and enthusiasm, the pinnacle of which is Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
Each wine featured in this offer has been stored exclusively within our temperature-controlled facilities, not only assuring impeccable condition but also complete authenticity.
Although the current market conditions are perhaps less than benevolent, this makes for more accessible prices and therefore a significant opportunity. Our aim is to involve more lovers of the Domaine and ultimately enable them to uncork incredible wines.
I hope you enjoy this rare Domaine de la Romanée-Conti spotlight, and in time, these wonderful, wonderful wines.
GARY OWEN HEAD OF BROKING JULY/
AUGUST 2025
Romanée-Conti:
2014 (ex-cellar 2019)
RED WINES
It is sometimes eerie how this mythical vineyard, always the last red wine to be tasted, appears to nod gracefully to the variously great qualities of the other crus and then effortlessly but with great delicacy simply finesses them. “So calm”, I scribbled in the margin. Means nothing, means everything. Intriguingly, apart from the Échézeaux, this has the deepest colour of all the crus. The nose is infinitely subtle, rose-perfumed with old, old- vined fruit, sandalwooded and dark but delicately, insinuatingly intense. The palate has a lithe, even lush flavour that balloons effortlessly across the mouth with an almost startling purity and freshness. At first the flavours are entirely grounded, obviously terrestrial, which is unusual with Romanée-Conti, and just as you think you have its measure, it trips into another orbit altogether and becomes ethereal, weightless but of quite extraordinary length. Lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17-18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2037
2016 The colour is slightly paler, fractionally more so than La Tâche perhaps but the nose has the same serenity and sense of calm with a floral, gracefully seductive perfume of red fruits, rooted, old- vined, yet of also almost atmospheric, rose petalled fragrance. Once again, the nose has that particular haunting ability of seeming to power up as you run out of breath. The palate is silken, with the briefest nod at the strength of the vintage and offers a layered but profoundly supple array of flavours, delicat ely fresh and sweet with only the finish, with its lift of subliminal power finally paying tribute to the vintage. Wonderful wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2030–2040+
2017
Intriguingly, this great vineyard was one of the first to be harvested on the morning of the 8th September, just before the rain on the 9th. “So wise”, I scribbled in the margin, but I cannot remember whether I was referring to the harvest date or the style of the wine. Probably both. Firm, limpid ruby colour. The nose is serenely beautiful, that calm quality it shares with La Tâche, but with a purity and delicacy of perfume, of rose, of spice, of old, old black and red fruits that is quite lovely. “Fresh and old” was another scribble. The palate is in pure balance, with subtly layered flavours, silken but with the lightest filigree hallmark of 2017 — that mineral astute kick in the finish. Beautiful wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2030–2040+
2018 The nose is impossibly refined, unusually expressive at this stage with an array of subtle haunting spices, old vine black and red fruit, both meaty and mineral and with a latent power that is almost shocking. This is the terrestrial. The unearthly comes on the palate, which has an eerie, gossamer lightness of touch alongside the subtly rich layered fruit and beautifully precise and refined structure. Unimaginably long in the finish, this seemed to be more a wine you sensed rather than tasted. A perfect moment in time, but just a hint of what is to come.
Corney & Barrow Score 19.5/20, recommended drinking 2032–2042+
2019
Firm, dense ruby colour. The nose is muted at first, then opens up to reveal that characteristic old- vine fruit, touched by wild rose perfume and subtly spiced red fruit, both atmospheric but at the same time grounded and terrestrial. The palate is sweetly silken, effortlessly extracted with a delectable, layered pure but physical power and a beautiful, elegant purity to the finish. Terrific poise, terrific length, terrific wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 19-19.5/20, recommended drinking 2033–2043
2020 Fractionally paler in colour than La Tâche and a wonderfully insinuating interpretation of the vintage as if, and as so often, it gently gathers the greatest qualities of the other crus and then finesses them all. Or perhaps not quite all? Does it, at this early stage, offer the transparent majesty of La Tâche? Probably, but the qualities here, again as so often the case, are latent rather than overt. Here the nose is intricate, subtle, with the perfume of old, old vine fruit, rich but muted, savoury, atmospheric. The palate offers layers of delicately but profoundly extracted fruit, intricate, pure, delectably fresh and a calm (that word again), perfect balance and length. An Ode to Joy indeed, Lovely, lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 19/20, recommended drinking 2028–2045+
2021 As always, slightly paler in colour than La Tâche. The joy of 2021 RomanéeConti at this very early stage at any rate is the majestically open, utterly lovely nose of old- vine red fruit, sweetly ripe, fresh and youthful and yet possessed of a perfume that is layered, elegant but with the merest touch of leafy freshness to lift the whole. Magical. The palate is absolutely true to the perfume, perfectly extracted with tannins of infinite grace and refinement, but also strength to match the absolute precision of the fruit. Extended and insinuating flavour and with what appears to be a characteristic of the Domaine’s 2021s that flare of freshness and energy that balloons across the palate to the finish. A very beautiful wine
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2030–2040
La Tâche:
2015 Aubert suggested that in 2015 the wines are marked less by the vintage the higher you go. I am still trying to work out whether this was by topography or perceived seniority. I would however call this a “Reverse of the Slope”* La Tâche in that, to a degree, its main strength remains concealed, unlike Richebourg in particular. When first tasted (on 18th December 2017), there was an aristocratic (gulp) reticence to this magnificent wine with only the colour dense ruby velvet deferring to the vintage. The nose is carapaced with only flashes of spicily sweet, black fruits, perfumed tea and hints of rose petal. The palate is altogether different with fabulously supple but dark, chewy flavours, a fresh, creamy, lithe and dense structure and an effortlessly refined, layer upon layer, power that seems interminable. My score may be slightly conservative.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2025–2035+ *Military tactic used to conceal strength of resource behind a hill or slope.
2016
There is a serenity about this wine in this most vocal of vintages that only Romanée-Conti can match. Fascinatingly it shares the same (slightly) paler colour as Romanée-Conti and has a beautiful, hauntingly ethereal nose of insinuatingly creamy, red and black fruits and that characteristic fragrant tea perfume that floats softly across the glass. The palate mirrors the nose
which is unusual at this early stage with a calm (that word again) but supremely authoritative density of beautifully extracted fruit, almost lazy in its supple power, generously flavoured, confident and long on the finish. A quite lovely wine that wears its heart and the vintage effortlessly on its sleeve.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2025–2035+
2017 There is a noble calm in this wine that defers courteously to the stamp of the vintage before finessing it completely, more completely at this stage than Romanée-Conti itself. Lovely limpid ruby colour. The nose possesses a relaxed but subliminal flamboyance with supple, creamy, rich, spicy red fruits. The palate is powerfully, richly flavoured with powder dry but super fine tannins, a density and freshness of concentration, a sense of cloaked power and beautiful length. And a rather beautiful wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17/20, recommended drinking 2031–2040+
2018 The nose is primal for sure but fantastically exotic, with Asian spices, that characteristic eastern tea leaf perfume (which almost always comes with much greater maturity), darkest red fruits and fascinating flowers lavender and rose all of these presented with an almost atmospheric lightness of touch. The palate is sweet initially, deceptively so for it masks the calm, measured build-up of layered intense concentration, profound powder fine structure, perfect extraction and quite extraordinary freshness and length. The magic is the fact that with all these powerful ingredients and almost ridiculous complexity and purity, there is no sense of weight whatsoever. Unearthly.
Corney & Barrow Score 19.5/20, recommended drinking 2030 –2040+
2019 Deepest ruby colour. The nose is rich, creamily red and black-fruited, dense and dark and yet, ridiculously, almost atmospheric in its perfume. There is an absolute confidence, a calm about the palate that is richly extracted for sure but silken with it, with effortlessly ripe tannins, layered power and density to the structure and a calm flair of freshness and purity on the finish. I scribbled in the margin, “This wine is not shackled by the vintage, on the contrary it wears it like a cloak”.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5-19/20, recommended drinking 2031–2040
2020
Harvested over three days (30th August, 2nd and 3rd September), this is a beautiful La Tâche that rivals, perhaps surpasses, the glorious 2018. Opaque, deepest ruby colour that coated the glass as it was swirled. The nose is extraordinary, arterially vinous, spicy, cedary-rich with an almost root-like, meaty density of perfume. The palate is lush and supple with a seemingly casual power and profundity. This is a supremely lithe La Tâche, aristocratically calm and authoritative but with rich, vinous layered flavours, perfect balance and fabulous length. What a glorious wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 19/20, recommended drinking 2028–2040+
2021 Deep, limpid ruby colour. There is simply no trace of the tumultuous nature of the growing season in this wine which possesses a calm, utterly delectable nose of supple, lithe, perfumed, plummy red fruit, almost casually profound. The palate is perfectly matched to the nose with an effortless grandeur to its layered density of fresh, sweet fruit and concentrated lush flavours. Perfect balance of structure and fine length. And as if all this majestic sang-froid is not enough, there is a rather magical
flare of energy and tension on the finish that takes this wine away from earth and into the atmosphere. Really rather a beautiful La Tâche.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2029–2040+
Richebourg:
2008 I have often thought of this wine as the ‘Porthos’ of the three Musketeers richly flamboyant, generous, often profound, all slashed velvet and occasional swagger. In 2008 there is a darker, more sinuous, brooding side to the wine from the rich ruby colour to the intense, earthy, sappy nose with only subdued flashes of the extrovert. The palate is dark too, very primary with a tautly rich but restless animal power (shades of Grands Echézeaux perhaps). The excitement and quality are in the finish, however, which is intense, concentrated and both compressed and potentially explosive. The wait for this wine will be worthwhile!
Corney & Barrow Score 17-18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2027+
2016 It relishes the power of the vintage in its deep red colour and almost animal (slightly reductive) flamboyance of powerfully perfumed red and black fruits, spicy and rich. The palate is… delectable, substantially extracted, supple and rich at first and then with a sinuous, coiled masculine clout, densely but ripely tannic, chewy flavours. This is fabulously rich but with a freshness and flare of power on the finish. So good, so Richebourg.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2029–2040+
2017 I always feel that Richebourg, particularly in youth, is instantly recognisable for its richness and flamboyance, its masculinity, even its seriousness. There is a slightly raw edge to the rich fruit in this Richebourg, an ascetic austerity (in the non-pejorative sense) to the nose, which is also spicily perfumed, but without the velvet slashes of flamboyance. The palate is firmly structured, this is a very serious Richebourg, it is trying to say, with glimpses only of this sweet richness underneath. It is a wine of dark freshness and tightly wound concentration. The key is in the length, which is profound. My score may be conservative.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5/20, recommended drinking 2031–2035+
2018 2018 fits this wonderful wine like an iron fist in a velvet glove. The nose has a compressed, almost clenched power of deepest, darkest red and black fruit, earthy, sappy, profoundly masculine (I suppose one can still say this?) On the palate the traditional bulk and sensuality of this “Porthos” of a wine has become super concentrated, dense, meaty and profound, perfectly balanced with freshness, sweetness, purity and massive length. A magnificent Richebourg in awe of itself. Rather more eloquently, “Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves”* or something. Great, great wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2028–2040+
*William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1 Scene 2
2020 As in 2019, this was the first great growth to be harvested (23rd / 24th August). I frequently refer to this cru as the Porthos of the Three
Musketeers all swagger and slashed velvet but there is a fabulously disciplined quality to its 2020. Deepest ruby colour. The nose offers a latent, meaty richness (“so restrained but so Richebourg”, I wrote in the margin) with a sense of barely contained bright, bursting red fruit allied to a startlingly fresh, spicy perfume. The palate, by contrast, is seductive, full, plumply rich, with an utterly relaxed power and structure and effortless length. This is a rather noble Richebourg that transcends itself.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5/20, recommended drinking 2027–2038
2021 Limpid ruby colour. Atypically, the nose in 2021 is quite high-toned in its perfume, vibrant with leafy red fruit and shadows of that characteristic Richebourg sensuality and richness. The palate is more at ease with a chewy density, a more textbook broad-shouldered structure allied to a subtly butterscotched richness. There is a brave, rather defiant, quality to this Richebourg that manages to be half-terrestrial, half-atmospheric and wholly moving. My score may be conservative.
Corney & Barrow Score 17++/20, recommended drinking 2030 –2039
Romanée-Saint-Vivant:
2002
Deep, dark consistent ruby. After years of investment, this is now a supremely beautiful wine, utterly distinctive and a complete contrast to Grands Echézeaux. The vineyard borders Romanée-Conti, but lies north and east of that fabled parcel. Lovely nose of brightly perfumed, sweet, red cherry fruit on top of a spicy, stony, profound old vine base. The palate is initially silky, certainly generous, but there is real concentration and intensity here that expands elegantly in the mouth to a finish that is sustained and supremely intricate and pure. Lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2035
2013 Aubert summed up this wine beautifully as “wanting to attract attention but not wanting to show it”. A nod perhaps towards Romanée-SaintVivant’s comparative openness in 2013 allied to that atmospheric quality that yearns for, and sometimes even shadows, Romanée-Conti itself. Firm, translucent ruby colour. The nose combines the contradictorily intense with the elusive, which after much swirling offers that almost sherbet fresh, lacy red fruit perfume and a subliminal, even exotic sweetness. The palate is silken again, even lush, almost languorously supple, and then with that kick of powder fine fruit, intricate and refined to the finish. Of the many inconsequential thoughts I have whilst tasting, I scribbled this in the margin: “Romanée-Saint-Vivant seems both utterly at ease with itself and slightly ashamed at its own wantonness”.
Corney & Barrow Score 17-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030
2014
I felt that this was the wine that wore, at this stage at any rate, the vintage’s “happy” nature most expressively. In fact, it slips into the qualities of 2014 quite beautifully. Limpid ruby colour. The nose is quite lovely with an elusive but tugging perfume of black and red fruits, insinuatingly spicy, delicate, filigree fine. The palate is fresh with very pure, supple fruit which is beautifully extracted, avoiding the comparatively “rude”, i.e. masculine, qualities of Échézeaux and Grand s Échézeaux and as if in yearning appeal to Romanée-Conti itself (you must be a little fanciful in this most serious tasting). The palate is gracefully structured, nicely chewy but graceful with
it, with elegant depth and lovely length. A heart-on-sleeve Romanée-SaintVivant, but true to itself and the vintage.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2025–2031+
2017 I have previously suggested that this frequently enigmatic cru was quite planted and earthbound. In 2017, which to me is a terrestrial rather than atmospheric vintage, Romanée-Saint-Vivant slips subtly back into the more intricate, delicate strength that shadows Romanée-Conti itself, which secretly, secretly it yearns to be… Fancy aside, this is a beautiful Romanée-Saint-Vivant, slightly paler in colour than Grands Échézeaux but with a nose that tugs so delicately, but insistently, on the senses with a lacy, super fine red fruit, almost creamy, and sweetly ripe. The palate is perfectly, beautifully extracted, firm in structure, but so super fine that its concentration is deceptive wi th the red fruit of the nose giving way to a darker, blacker fruit on the finish. A lovely Romanée-Saint-Vivant.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2029–2036+
2018 Limpid but profound ruby colour, perhaps my imagination, but the reddest ruby of all the crus. That lacy, intricate, sherbet fresh, subliminally rich red and black fruit quality that Romanée-Saint-Vivant so often shows is here only detectable in flashes. The palate is powerful, profound, terrestrial rather than atmospheric again unusual with that textbook, silky sweetness and refinement to the powder fine and sweetly substantial tannins. “Sensual and scary”, I wrote in the margin, but I have no doubt that, a little like the magnificent 2003, this uncut diamond will approach the flawless for the patient.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2027–2040
2019 Deep ruby colour. The nose offers a delectably plump red and blue fruit perfume with flashes of that characteristically lacy, intricate mineral refinement, rooty and berried. The palate is both grounded with the vintage’s density and richness and lifted wi th an infinitely subtle but insinuating extraction that carries the weight beautifully. Very fine with a touch of claw to the finish. Lovely wine
Corney & Barrow Score 18-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2028–2040
2020 There is sometimes an almost feline, aérien quality to this Great Cru. In 2020 it wears the vintage lightly but does so with a joyous relish from its opaque ruby colour to a nose that is crystalline and lacy with a sense of curve and plumpness to the bright, utterly vinous and deep red, red fruit. The palate has a silken density, with profound but ripe tannins, sweetly degraded (in the best sense) flavours, but the whole lifted by a taut freshness and huge length. It is almost as if Romanée-Saint-Vivant is startled by its own beauty
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5/20, recommended drinking 2027-2036
2021
Even in extreme youth, there is frequently something slightly extraterrestrial, atmospheric about this, the most feline of the grands crus, but in 2021, along with a deep ruby colour is a creamily plump perfume of ripe, red fruits, a sense of contented extraction, not simple, just more terrestrial. The palate obediently follows the nose with firm, juicy flavours of charm, delectable freshness, medium concentration and purity and a finish that almost fizzes with intensity and energy.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5/20, recommended drinking 2029–2039
Corton:
2009 Well, a moment in history. This is the first vintage of the Domaine’s Corton, a result of a lease taken out in 2008 for the Grand Cru vineyards of Clos du Roi (0.57 hectares) Bressandes (1.2 hectares) and Renardes (0.5 hectares) from Domaine Prince Florent de Mérode, family friends of the De Villaines and Rochs. What a wonderful vintage to start with. Deep, brilliant ruby in colour. The nose is darkly, almost wildly fruited with a spicy, stony minerality. The palate is richly flavoured, generous, firmly, even powerfully structured, but in fine balance with a dense but silky and intricate concentration to the finish. Oh this is very, very good indeed!
Corney & Barrow Score 17-18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030
2017 It seems like only yesterday that the Domaine acquired from the Prince du Mérode family an extended lease on perhaps the finest Pinot Noir vineyards on the hill of Corton Le Clos du Roi (0.57 hectares), Les Bressandes (1.2 hectares) and Les Renardes (0.5 hectares) and this is actually the 9th vintage made since that acquisition and the Domaine is well and truly in its stride. Firm, ruby colour. The nose is beautiful, mineral-rich, very pure with cool, stony black and red fruits. By contrast the palate is silken at first, with a firm, lithe weight but with, in the best sense, a disciplined, upright structure, fine concentration and tellingly, a delectable poised sweetness on this finish, that promises rather well for the future.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2029–2036+
Grands Échezeaux:
1997 Fractionally firmer and more brilliant ruby to rim. Not always the case in youth, but a big difference here when tasted side by side with Échézeaux Gorgeous nose. Exotic, creamy richness of fruit, meaty and spicy too, with old vine perfume. The palate is round and sweet but generously extracted and with a big-hearted, dark, rich structure leading to a powerful, extended finish. Lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030
2015 Beautiful deepest ruby in colour, unusually more dense than Échézeaux. The nose is initially subdued, dark, and has a sense of the monolithic, then flashes only of spice, root and black fruits. The palate by contrast is majestic, with that characteristic “iron fist in the velvet glove”, dense, rough silk tannins, a wild quality to the concentrated, almost clenched fruit and gusty concentration to the finish. When this (very Grand) Échézeaux settles down and the terroir seduces the vintage which it will this is going to be great.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2025–2035
2017 Slightly firmer ruby colour than the Échézeaux . The wine is less showy, but perhaps more complete. The nose is darker with inky black-red fruit perfume, earthy and mineral. The palate is juicily fresh at first but with a firm core of concentration, a darker power than Échézeaux and an excellent balance of fresh fruit and structure that will reward the patient.
2018
The lack of showiness is deceptive, the “Reverse of the Slope”* quality is very evident as it were.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2030–2035+ *military tactic used to conceal strength of a resource behind a hill or slope
As always this is fractionally paler in colour than Échézeaux. The nose is carapace, initially impenetrable but then slowly yields a perfume of super refined, old- vine fruit, clenched, Asiatic, almost shockingly pure and elegant. The palate is sweet on entry, but with a dry concentration, layer after layer of powerfully rich almost seductive flavours and a massive finish. This is definitely Grands.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2026–2038+
2019 Slightly paler in colour than Échézeaux, but still profoundly deep. This is even more coiled, restrained on the nose, a sense of power to the perfume, earthy, mineral, with that same “reverse of the slope”* quality that it shares with 2018. The palate is compressed, clenched even but with a lithe, even graceful quality to the power and a chewy, dry extract density and richness and an eerie purity and freshness to the finish. Very powerful, very Grands.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2028–2038 *military tactic used to conceal strength of a resource behind a hill or slope
2020
One of the first of the Domaine’s vineyards to be picked (25th August), this is, as almost always, more reserved than Échézeaux on the nose, with a sense of muted profundity and fathomlessly dark fruit. By complete contrast, it is sweet, even creamy, on the palate, less Grands Échézeaux than is immediately apparent perhaps. There is dry power here, flavours juicily rich and full, and an almost toffeed finish of great length .
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2027–2037
2021 Intriguingly, the colour is slightly darker than Échezeaux normally it is the other way round and here the nose is more latent, brooding even, with a measured, refined, rather aristocratic perfume of stony red and black fruit, subtly mineral and earthy. The palate, by contrast, which possesses an upfront sweetness unusual for Grands Échézeaux in youth is richly and roundly extracted with fresh, dark tannins and a burst of equally dark, sweet fruit on the finish like a firework that settles slowly towards the earth I wrote, rather fancifully. Lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5-18/20, recommended drinking 2028–2038
Échezeaux:
2015 In 2018 we commented that this vineyard, lying just above Grands Échézeaux was in about as perfect a state as it could be. It is often picked towards or at the end of the Domaine’s harvest, and in 2015 it was the last to be brought in on the 12-14th September. Almost solid ruby in colour. The nose is darkly rich, spicy, almost camphorous, with flashes of cedar and weirdly, mineral gun oil. The palate is… noble, tannic for sure, but even at this early stage super refined, dry, rich in flavour, layered, concentrated, chewy and long. There is a sort of clenched grandeur about this wine that is rather impressive.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030+
2017 It is wonderful to be able to offer this 2017, however, which, for different reasons than the 2016, appears to have poured its heart into this vintage. It was the last to be harvested (on 13th and 15th September). Here is indeed d'Artagnan of the three (four) musketeers with its firm, ruby colour and almost showy creamy, toffeed, flamboyantly spicy fruit very Échézeaux. The palate is interestingly quite mineral, very flavoury with fine tannins, a chewy fresh concentration and a finish I described as “alive”. This Échézeaux dances well.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5/20, recommended drinking 2029–2035+
2018
Deepest ruby colour. The nose is flamboyant at first “all slashed velvet and lace”, I wrote in the margin with rich, biscuity red fruits at the primary level but then curiously, magically, followed by a super refined, subtly rich concentrated essence of this time black fruit perfume with hints of spice. The palate is powerfully structured with a sweet concentration of those almost perfectly balanced fruits, a burst of freshness and purity and fine, fine length to the finish.
Corney & Barrow Score 18/20, recommended drinking 2025–2035
2021 This wonderful vineyard is on a roll, noted before in the last three vintages but perhaps most typified in the ravaged 2021, where just 13.9 hl/ha was offered. Firm ruby colour. The nose is super refined for Échézeaux with racy, elegant, startlingly fresh, red, red fruit. The palate is subtly dry, with earthy, rooty dark fruit, profound even, more chiselled than rounded, less extrovert than normal until that final burst of slightly wild flavours on the finish, which is pure, reassuringly d’Artagnan-like* in style
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5/20, recommended drinking 2027–2037
* D’Artagnan, the fourth of the Three Musketeers as it were. I see Richebourg frequently as Porthos.
WHITE WINES
Montrachet:
2017 If I ever detected a subtle lightening of the style of this profound wine a tickle in 2013, a positive scratch in 2014 then 2017 marks a glorious return to the lush uplands. As if in rejoicing at its return after the ravages of 2016 (in which no wine was made at the Domaine), the 2017 has that textbook yellow-green colour and a glorious golden and white peach, creamy, almost tropical perfume on the palate. The palate is infinitely graceful, supple and sensuous, layered in its richness and then effortlessly lifted by a mineral kick of acidity on the finish. Perfection.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-19/20, recommended drinking 2025–2032
2018 I last used the phrase “Reverse of the slope” writing about La Tâche 2015. It is a military tactic used to conceal strength of resource behind a hill or slope, and it is peculiarly appropriate to Montrachet 2018. We have left the lush uplands of the 2017 vintage and, as if in a casual dismissal of the sometimes torrid conditions of 2018, this Montrachet has produced a high tensile, elegant, super pure, sinuous wine. The nose is pointed, fresh and almost zesty, even Puligny-like. Oh, the palate is rich and full yes, but the hallmark is a reined-in refinement, a citrusy elegance and of course a profound length. Here's the curious thing I drank the remnants of our tasting bottle four days after it had been opened. It was magnificent, inevitably more evolved, fuller, richer, more exotic, but still in a state of perfect control and beauty. Aubert compares it to the 1970, “one of the great Montrachets we made”.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-18.5/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030
2020
Rather like the 2019, this 2020 appears, once again, to wear the vintage effortlessly, as if the combination of relatively cool nights and profoundly old vines (60+ years) finessed the frequently torrid conditions of the growing season. Tasted immediately after the Corton-Charlemagne and with that hallmark golden yellow colour, the nose appeared more muted, richly perfumed for sure, but with a floral elegance and intensity to the perfume, with a yearning, almost atmospheric quality. The palate is lithe, both dense and elegant, with layered, golden flavours, but with a fresh balance and beautiful length. A grand wine that you will be able to drink immediately, and in 25 years’ time…
Corney & Barrow Score 19/20, recommended drinking 2025–2042+
Corton-Charlemagne:
2019
A moment in history. This is the first vintage of the Domaine’s CortonCharlemagne, a tiny 2.9- hectare holding leased in 2018 from Domaine Bonneau du Martray and which lies in the two greatest locations, Le Charlemagne (Aloxe-Corton) and En Charlemagne (Pernand-Vergelesses). And what a wine it is. Golden yellow in colour. The nose is quite beautiful with creamily rich but zesty fruit, with an ethereal, haunting ly mineral, stony perfume. The palate is silken on entry, yet lush, but the sensuality is refined with a delectable lean grip and fan of freshness and light to the finish. How wonderful to begin this chapter with such a vintage and with
such a wine. Ridiculously exciting to see this appellation wearing the Domaine’s label for the first time.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+/20, recommended drinking 2025–2030
2020 This is the second vintage of the Domaine’s Corton-Charlemagne, born of a very small (2.9) hectare plot leased from Domaine Bonneau du Martray, and lying in the two finest locations of Le Charlemagne (Aloxe-Corton) and En Charlemagne (Pernand-Vergelesses). This surpasses the 2019, itself a great wine, and was the last of the Domaine’s vineyards to be harvested on 7th, 8th and 9th September. Golden-white in colour. The nose is lushly fruited, creamy, almost buttery but with that telltale hint of stony minerality. The palate is both succulent and supremely fresh, fullflavoured, powerful but restrained and with a delectable kick of refined austerity and minerality to balance the weight superbly. A beautiful Corton-Charlemagne
Corney & Barrow Score 19/20, recommended drinking 2026–2036