1996 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Assortment Case Dinner

Tasting any wine from DRC is a treasured experience, but the chance to taste all of their wines, including the ultra-rare Montrachet, and from the same mature, ready to drink vintage is surely a very rare and covetable experience indeed. Add to that Allen Meadows expertise and guidance, and we have the perfect DRC experience.

The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is often referred to by enthusiasts, and by almost all other Burgundians as The Domaine. DRC, as is it commonly known, has enjoyed unparalleled stewardship under Aubert de Villaine. This is combined with the finest collection of vineyard holdings in the Côte d’Or. In Echezéaux, Grands-Echezéaux, Romanée-St-Vivant and Richebourg, DRC already enjoys the largest share in each of these top level vineyards, but in addition, it owns exclusively, 100% of what many would argue are the top two vineyards in Vosne-Romanée – La Tâche and La Romanée-Conti.

Also, given the large holdings in each vineyard, DRC has many advantages, not least the opportunity to work with several barrels of the same wine, simplifying and offering greater flexibility in tending.

Finally, the domaine is both diligent and sensitive in its vineyard work, and strict in its selection. Parcels and barrels that don’t make the grade are declassified.

In 1996, the assortment case contained the following 12 bottles – 1 x Romanée-Conti, 3 x La Tâche, 2 x Richebourg, 3 x Romanée St Vivant, 1 Grands Echezéaux, and 2 Echezéaux. To this we have added 1 x extra Grands Echezéaux & 1 x Montrachet, so 14 bottles per table of 15 people.

Why 1996? DRC’s wines are slow to evolve. Twenty years since harvest has given these grands crus characters fully sufficient time to blossom and show full individual expression in the glass. Moreover, 1996 is known to be a particularly terroir-driven year. Good phenolic ripeness was achieved without excess heat, providing very fine, precise, detailed wines, where vineyard character comes to the fore.