Domaine Romanee-Conti Romanee-Saint-Vivant 1991

This bottle has been cellarded in the Alfavin cellar ever since purchase from the importer.

Vineyard and vine management

Domaine Romanee Conti owns 5,29 of Romanee Saint Vivant, which were added to the portfolio of vines with the 1966 vintage through a lease. The owners Marey Monge had purchased virtually the whole Romanee Saint Vivant vineyard from the government when the clerical owners were expropriated during the French Revolution. The vines are located in Cloux du Moytant and in Clos du neuf Journaux which are not the best parts of Romanee Saint Vivant. In consideration of this fact grapes from some plots never make it into the Romanee Saint Vivant from Romanee Conti. Significant new plantings are also sold on to negociants. Under the Marey Monge vines were old but from highly productive clones as Nicolas Jacob, who is in charge of the vineyards, reports. In most places a selection of own clones from the Romanee Conti vineyard where pruned onto old rootstock but in some cases it was necessary to uproot the old vines as in the plot next to Louis Latour's Clos de quatre Journaux which is the best part of Romanee Conti's Romanee Saint Vivant. This parcel was only replanted in 2005 and for the next 20 years will not be used for Domaine Romanee Saint Vivant. In the generous year of 2009 the Domaine bottled about 18200 bottles which would work out at 25 hl per ha if applied to the whole surface. This is too low to be credible. But as Alan Meadows writes, only about 70 % of grapes make it into the Domaine's own wine. So in case you have wondered who is the source for numerous negociant bottlings of Romanee Saint Vivant as for instance Lucien LeMoine's and Nicolas Potel's, you now know it is the illustrious Domaine de la Romanee Conti. Considering the above named complications, it is understandably why in comparative tastings - at least until very recently - the Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Saint Vivant is clearly surpassed by their Richebourg which is not at all the natural order of things. Many would prefer the more intensely perfumed and more complex Romanee Saint Vivant to the more densely structured but less expressive Richebourg. So in tastings of the 2010 to 2014 vintages organized by the Domaine, the Romanee Saint Vivant is now poured after the Richebourg and before La Tache which indicates their own quality ranking.bsp;           After considerable problems due to the then common over fertilizing with potash in the 1970ies which leads to excess yields and diluted wines, under the management of Lalou Bize Leroy who was appointed director in 1972 and Aubert de Vilaine who joined the board in 1974, considerable effort was made to redress the situation, which bore fruit after cellar and vineyards manager's Andre Noblet retirement in 1984 with the year 1985. Even in the difficult days 1978 and 1980 are clear successes. In the meantime, cultivation practice which first became organic in 1986 are biodynamic and ploughing is carried out with a horse to avoid compaction of soils. If your walk through the vineyards you notice that the vines are perfectly kept. However nowadays this is no longer the prerogative of Domaine de la Romaine Conti. You may think this is due to a new generation of quality minded vignerons, but equally importantly virtually all wineries have now reached the pricing level once only open to Romanee Conti and this allows considerably more manpower in the vineyards.

Vinification, elevage and bottling

Today sorting tables are widely used in burgundy but in 1977, when Domaine de la Romanee Conti bought one, this was new in Burgundy. While Andre Noblet who formally retired in 1984 but worked until his death in 1985 only fermented whole undestemmed grapes, the regime under his son Bernard, who was cellar master until the beginning of 2018, was more flexible. The lighter years in the late 1970ies and early 80ies force a rethink as the stem influence gets too prominent gustatorily. Today in years of imperfect ripeness as in 2013 at least part of the harvest is destemmed. Before fermentation the grapes soak about five to six days at cool temperatures in open vats. This method was introduced to Burgundy by Henri Jayer in the early 70ies. Fermenting temperature is limited to 32 centigrade for reds. Fermentation lasts two to three weeks at the end of which the must is pressed once. To improve extractions of tannins and color the Domaine practices frequent - i.e. several times a day - punch downs of the cap but is careful with pumping over. At the end of fermentation chaptalization by one-degree alcohol may occur. Only new oak barrels are used for the Grands Crus. They are produced for the domaine from wood which has been dried for a very long time and is only slightly toasted. This leads to significantly improved oak integration in contrast to the days when new oak percentage was significantly less but there was a marked toasting which affected wine aromas for the first years after bottling. The time of elevage in barrel is 18 to 24 months which is long by today’s standards but less than half of what was common 100 years ago. Wines are never filtered but fined with egg white occasionally.