Montrachet, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 2013

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is the fifth-biggest owner of Le Montrachet, with two separate plots on the Chassagne-Montrachet side. In 1963, 34.19 ares were bought from the Comte de Moucheron (plot 31, the vines running from west to east). Plots 129 and 130 (each 16.7 ares, with the vines running north to south) were purchased in 1965 and 1980. We are in the presence of majesty. As ever, the most opulent example of them all when first tasted. Just an extra level of cream infused concentration, white fruit with a little citrus zest, and very fine persistence. The initial glossy character gave way to a more classical intensity. Intriguingly, this wine was labelled at 12.5%, the lowest in the whole line-up, though the wine had arguably the greatest intensity of all. Drink from now-2035+. Tasted: April 2024.

A whiff of post-bottling reduction does little to detract from the strikingly well-layered and ever-so-mildly exotic fruit, white flower and softly wooded nose. The super-rich and full-bodied yet beautifully delineated flavors possess a borderline painful intensity along with a taut muscularity before culminating a focused, tightly wound and powerful finale that really fans out as it sits on the palate. Moreover this markedly dry but not really austere effort is what I describe as sneaky long because just as the finish appears to be dying away it suddenly come back and plays hide and seek with your palate. Like most vintages of the Domaine's Montrachet this is undeniably built-to-age but unlike some of them the 2013 rendition is not likely to drink particularly well before the age of at least 10 and should reward somewhere between 15 and 20.