The Richebourg shows its exuberant personality even in barrel. The palate is opulent and round with gorgeous flavours that are intricately layered, generous and persistent in the long finish.
Reviews:
- Wine Advocate: The 2011 Richebourg was picked on 7 and 8 September at 28.36hl/ha. It has a very pure bouquet, a mixture of blackberry, raspberry leaf, freshly tilled meadow and a touch of cold stone. It is not a powerful bouquet, but delineated and very focused. The palate is not dissimilar to the Grands Echezeaux on the entry: linear and poised with crisp brambly red fruit. But it swerves another way mid-through, developing a wonderful candied core of strawberry and Morello and a caressing finish sending ripples of pleasure across the senses. In many ways it is a self-effacing Richebourg with charm and candour, but I Richebourg that I suspect may be deceptively long lived. The Richebourg 2011 is a fair prince rather than a grand king.
- Burghound: This is also intensely floral, in fact it may very well be the most floral wine in the range. Though it may not be quite as elegant as the Romanée St. Vivant it is arguably even more aromatically complex with a wonderfully fresh if restrained nose of hoisin, black fruit, soy and anise. There is remarkable concentration of dry extract that completely buffers the otherwise tightly wound tannic spine while pushing it to the background as the broad-shouldered flavors culminate in a balanced, long and velvety mineral-inflected finish that delivers astonishing persistence. While the Domaine’s 2011s will in general drink well earlier than is typical, the Riche may be an exception to that generalization.
Producer Information
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, or DRC as it is commonly known, is easily Burgundy’s best-known and most collectible wine producer. Based in the Burgundy village of Vosne-Romanée, the domaine sells wines from eight different grand cru vineyards that span the length of the Côte d’Or. The most famous comes from the eponymous Romanée-Conti vineyard, and on average is the most expensive wine in the world. The domaine predominately produces Pinot Noir-based wines from 28 hectares (69 acres) of grand cru vineyard. Alongside Romanée-Conti are La Tâche, Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Richebourg in Vosne-Romanée; plus Échezeaux and Grands Échezeaux bottlings. Fruit from Corton-Bressandes, Corton Clos du Roi and Corton Renardes is combined in a single Corton Grand Cru red. There are three white (Chardonnay) wines made. Only one of these, the Montrachet is made widely avilable. A Bâtard-Montrachet and a Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits are not publically distributed. Of course, La Romanée-Conti is the domaine’s most famous asset, and the amount of wine made from less than 2ha (5 acres) of land amounts to just 6000 bottles a year. The vineyard has a long history, dating back to the Abbey of Saint-Vivant in the 13th Century. It took on the Romanée name in 1631, and the Conti in 1760.Today, DRC is owned in part by the de Villaine family and in part by the Leroy family. Aubert de Villaine is the figurehead of the company now – although it was famously run by Lalou Bize-Leroy for a time, until a dispute saw her ousted from control.
