2018 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Corton “Prince Florent de Merode” Grand Cru, Red Burgundy, France.
Some days are better than others, and when you are blind tasted on a bottle from Domaine de la Romanée, well then you’ve won the lottery, for sure an amazing experience for which I am incredibly grateful to DRC enthusiast David Fink of Hotel L Auberge in Carmel by the Sea. The 2018 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Corton “Prince Florent de Merode” is deeply hued, floral, savory and powerful in the glass, so it was no wonder I was not even close to guessing it, but after a few moments of swirling the tannins tamed significantly to make it clear it was in fact a Burgundy and the layers began to unfold. The medium bodied palate of this dark garnet/ruby colored Corton opened up to black cherry, dark berry, plum and strawberry fruits, along with what most people call sauvage, or Umami, a feral stem note, mineral tones, seeped roses, espresso grinds, sweet toasty wood, minty herbs, fennel, baking spices and orange tea. After the reveal, you got the family resemblance and the finish was lingering, luxurious and beautiful, pretty well coming together for a young DRC. First produced in 2009, the Corton “Prince Florent de Merode” by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is sourced from their leased three Corton parcels, which are in Clos du Roi, Bressandes and Renardes. As per DRC tradition, the Corton was fermented using almost all whole-cluster, with stems and matured in all new oak, of course these are custom spec barrels that are old forest oak with tight grain and extended air drying with medium plus toast. So, my own limited experience with DRC wines, I find they really need a decade or more to truly reveal themselves in any sort of pleasurable way, but that was not the case here, with the 2018 Corton being already a gorgeous wine. I had sampled a couple of the earlier vintages of the Corton and while good, they were not capturing the mystic and magic of the Monopole name sake DRC and or the La Tâche, though this 2018 is getting much closer and I was thrilled how it performed on the night.
The original Prince Florent de Merode was a 15-acre domaine in Aloxe-Corton, Ladoix-Serrigny, the home village, and Pommard. It had been owned by the same family since 1700, but in 2008 the prince died, and so did his wife – a member of the Lur-Saluces family of the famed Sauternes Château d’Yquem and it’s noted the family chose to sell of most of their vines. I learned some were sold (reported by Clive Coates, the legendary Burgundy expert) to Vincent Sauvestre of Maison Béjot, though three important remaining plots of Grand Cru Corton, a tiny 2.27 hectares were leased by the family to the famed Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Wanting to keep a connection to someone who knew the vines, the talented Didier Dubois, who managed the the vines for de Mérode since 2000 retained his position, only now with a reporting line to Vosne-Romanée and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s vineyard manager, Nicolas Jacob. It’s a rare thing that such vineyards and especially in one of the most famous Grand Crus come available, so Domaine de la Romanée did not miss this chance. When Prince and Princess de Mérode, whom DRC co director Aubert de Villaine knew, died six months apart, their children contacted de Villaine and offered to lease the three Grands Cru parcels they own in Corton, which was sad, but an incredible chance to add to the DRC lineup. These vineyards, according to de Villaine, are situated in the heart of the historic part of the Corton appellation with a good proportion of old vines. These two factors, he says, gave them a high potential to produce great wines, as seen here in the warm and fruit dense 2018 vintage. Again, I must say a huge thank you to the generosity of David, so share his personal bottle DRC Corton with a small group of wine professionals, who were all very much entranced by it, even before we all knew what it was, even though most of us would have expected nothing less when tasting with Mr. Fink, who has a sublime collection of wines. In this day and age, I doubt I’ll get that many chances to sample such wines and this makes David’s generous gesture even more special.
($2,400 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive