Romanée Saint Vivant, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 2001

(opened from personal storage and thanks to Bruce Khouri). This displays a positively classic nose of soaring Asian spices, ripe plum and a gamut of ripe, pure and lacy red and black fruits with the latter predominating all wrapped together with a seductive kiss of sweetly scented, highly perfumed violets; the nose is, in a word, intoxicating. All of this aromatic intensity leads to remarkably powerful, linear and still taut flavors that show simply unbelievable complexity and stunning length. This will very likely surpass every other RSV from the Domaine in recent memory from a sheer aromatics perspective as the nose really is dazzling. For my taste this has just about arrived at the front end of its peak drinkability though it should hold easily for years to come. Consistent notes save for one bottle that seemed a bit edgy and drying and not at all like what I have described above.