Back in 2004 a group of 12 Adelaide based wine lovers chipped in a few hundred dollars each and bought a mixed case of 2000 DRC’s with intention of drinking the whole case some years down the track when it was in a good place. The case lay in Colin’s cellar until he felt it would be the best time to drink it, that time was last night. He cut the metal band from the original wooden case and bottles were opened around 5pm. We all got around a 60ml pour from each bottle and where we had multiple bottles it was fascinating to see the small variance. It was also great to see the red line-up in its entirety from one vintage at a point in time where the wine is starting to show some maturity.
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Echézeaux: The first bottle was beautiful, in a perfect place right now. The nose was bright and punchy with notes of sandalwood, dried flowers, red fruits and mint. It was mid-weight in the mouth and fine and lacy with good detail. The second bottle was similar but just a tad sweeter in the mouth without quite the detail of the first bottle.
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands Echézeaux: Both bottles were almost identical. I have mistaken DRC’s GE for La Tâche a few times over the years as it tends to have a soy character that I see in La Tâche and this had it as well as some beef stock and smoke. It still had the engaging florals and red berries of the Echézeaux but was a little deeper and had a bit more stemsy grip to the finish. The fruit was jube like and sweet and luscious.
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée St.Vivant: The first bottle was deliciously perfumed, spicy and exotic. It had a nose of red fruits, sarsaparilla root and roses. It was sweet and lacy, only mid-weight but with perfect poise and balance. There was some grated ginger to the flavour profile and it was ethereal, building through the palate and fanning out at the finish. The second bottle had similar traits but perhaps with a suggestion of black cherry that I did not see in the first bottle (perhaps not, perhaps I just made the black cherry thing up).
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg: There was some discussion before the event about blending the bottles together where we had multiples, I strongly advised against it and was glad we didn’t. The first bottle of Richebourg was ever so faintly tainted by TCA. It flattened the wine’s detail. The second bottle was excellent. It was stacked with red and black fruits and had aromas of smoked meats and aniseed. It was full and sweet with good depth of flavour and finished with sweet, spherical tannins.
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche: All three bottles were in remarkably good shape with bottles two and three perhaps having a slightly sweeter mid-palate. The nose was cherry fruit coupled with aromas of lilies, hoisin, soy and sap. It is a wine that has plenty of power but is light on its feet with a sensually silky palate. It is highly perfumed, filling the mouth with all sorts of sweet and savoury things and finishing with good cut and terrific length of flavour.
2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Romanée-Conti: La Tâche has a bit more heft, La Romanée-Conti has more shit going on and makes LT look simpler when served next to it. This wine was quite tight to begin with, emitting but a faint whiff of plant matter along with cherry and cranberry fruit. It really built in the glass and had some lily, earth, moss and fresh rose perfume. It had such luminosity and detail and was full and sweet yet light and ethereal finishing with a tart cherry snap. Length of flavour was outstanding and a sensual perfume wafts around the gums long after the wine is swallowed.
Cheers
Jeremy
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