Romanée Conti, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 2006

Here too is a very reserved yet ultra classy and refined, indeed even ethereal nose that is quite simply kaleidoscopic in its breadth, combining red, blue and black fruits with spice, earth, minerality and a hint of underbrush that stands aside for the perfectly balanced, pure and stylish medium full flavors that are very firmly but not aggressively structured while delivering flat out unbelievable length yet all the while remaining completely understated in personality. As are all the very best vintages of RC, this is spherical with nothing out of place and this will age effortlessly for decades. The La Tâche is truly spectacular but there is simply another dimension of depth present here. A wine of sheer class and the epitome of the phrase 'power without weight'.

An extraordinary as well as extraordinarily intense aromatic display greets you from the glass of 2006 Romanee-Conti. Rose petals, griotte cherries, almond extract, mint, and cinnamon once again put me in mind of archetypal pinot with a soupcon of Gewurztraminer. The remarkable perfume and spice continue inner-mouth, allied to a silken textural refinement (as if the tannins were self-dissolving); to pure, fresh, but not at all superficially sweet cherry and raspberry essence; and to deep, marrowy meatiness and hints of truffle and forest floor. This pivots at midpoint, as it were - though far more subtly than does its Richebourg sibling - from perfume and fruit to almost sinister animal and mineral suggestions. The finish here is at once positively ethereal and deeply, darkly mysterious, like lingering harmony at the extremes of audibility. I suspect it will also outlive the other wines from this estate and vintage.