Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti Grand Cru 2009 (BH98)

Country:              France
Region:                Burgundy Rating:                 BH98, D100, JS100
Grape Variety:    100% Pinot Noir
Type of Wine:     Red Wine
Bottle Size:         750ml

Burghound 98
As is often the case with this wine when it is young, the nose is almost always very restrained but even so the word brilliant doesn't begin to capture just how marvelous it is. It's a fool's errand to try and capture all of the various nuances but a few of the major components would include dried rose petals, hoisin, clove, anise and cassis that merge seamlessly into regal, pure and gorgeously intense middle weight flavors that possess seemingly limitless reserves of dry extract that almost completely hide the perfectly integrated tannins on the firm, mineral-driven, overtly austere and linear finish. This possesses such a spectacular nose that you don't even have to drink it to be thrilled and the flavors are perfectly spherical. This may well be the wine of the vintage because wine does not get much, if any, better. If you can somehow justify the scratch required, don't miss it. I would also note that I'm not much on using plus signs with a scoring hierarchy that is already implausibly precise yet I do so here to indicate that I have the smallest of preferences for the '09 Romanée-Conti vis-à-vis the La Tâche.

Decanter 100
Just a little less colour than the Tache. Not a lot on the nose at present. You have to go searching for it. What there is is very poised and very harmonious as well as being very complex and classy. The fruit is more red flavoured than the Tache. Marvelously fine and intense. Really quite excellent.

By Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 99
The 2020 La Tâche Grand Cru is magical, mingling notions of mulberries, cherries and cassis with scents of bergamot, black tea, licorice, exotic spices and peonies. Full-bodied, rich and resonant, with a broad attack, huge mid-palate amplitude and a supple, seamless, elegantly muscular profile, this is a remarkably powerful but also profoundly complex, intellectually and sensually thrilling young wine.