2007 Domaine de la Romanee Conti TNs-You heard it here first!

WINE TALK
1

This past Thursday, I had the opportunity to sit with some of NY’s “Elite” in the wine trade. Aubert de Villaine was on hand to discuss and sample the 2007 lineup of DRC wines. 30 people gathered in a conference room at the Carlysle Hotel, in what has become an annual tradition in these parts. As I look around, I always feel out of place. For starters, this year, I was the only male not wearing a jacket. Many are wine directors/sommeliers off to work after, so they get dressed for work before work. I gave up a suit when I left the legal world almost 10 years ago. Never looked back, although my closet is still filled with suits that get worn once per year, max.

Okay, enough background, onto the wines…

Aubert discussed the difficulties and confusion with the 2007 harvest. An abnormally hot April/May was just the beginning of a strange road that led to harvest at the beginning of September. Much of the fruit was rotted, and subsequently discarded. One thing I always enjoy about this tasting is that Aubert is a straight shooter. He may try to sugarcoat like any vigneron, but at the end of the day, you know how good the wines are before you taste them. Nevertheless, we still get to taste…

So, I went through and smelled all of the wines before tasting them. Then I tasted them through once and jotted notes. I then did a second round of tasting and the “notes” are a compilation…Just for the record, I am pro flavor!

  1. 2007 Echezeaux: A slightly medicinal smell. Harsh in the mid palate. Decent finish, but not much fruit.

  2. 2007 Grands Echezeaux: This is much richer. Nose shows a lot more berries. Still on the palate, a harsh taste. I think this wine has a great potential based upon the aromas, but, in the palate, it was just not there.

  3. 2007 Romanee St. Vivant: A very bright color in my glass. The nose was muted. Very closed. Lots of structure in the wine. This appeared to be a favorite based on comments in the room. For me, it was one of the worst wines.

  4. 2007 Richebourg: This had a very “DRC Richebourg” like aroma…earthy, mushrooms. Dense, “dark” color. I was into this nose. But the taste just did not follow. Decent wine, and maybe will get better.

  5. 2007 La Tache: Very floral bouquet. Pretty wine. The most well rounded wine of the tasting. Needs time, but this clearly has the stuffing to be a great wine.

  6. 2007 Romanee Conti: Initially, very muted nose. Then earthy, dirty nose. This is a very muscular, masculine wine. Very earthy, with a slight green streak, but very rich.

  7. 2007 Montrachet: This wine is a baby. High acid and vastly different from what I remember in tasting 2004-2006 Montrachets. I suppose this is destined to be a classic, but I would not touch a btl for 10 years.

As a whole, this is the least impressive lineup of DRCs that I have tasted. Aubert said that the wines appear to be getting better, but he does not appear to high on these either. Nevertheless, what appears more depressing is how negatively he spoke of the 2008s, as the growing conditions were even worse in 2008 than they were in 2007. I am always honroed to get to attend these attendings. Unfortunately, I just cannot speak all that positively about these 2007s. These wines appear very young, and hopefully they will take on weight, fill out, and balance well, but I am not an expert with a crystal ball to say that that will happen.

2

Looks to be plenty examples of the non-monopoles in this list that achieve equal or higher recognition from critics at a fraction of the cost. (I’ve been doing some research on this lately because I want some of these for my cellar, but refuse to pay dollars for anything but the quality of the juice.) And in absolute terms Leroy seems to have taken the crown from DRC for highest-priced and highest-scored Burgundy (with the sole exception of the RC, and in price only).

But nothing says my weiner is bigger than your weiner more than having a cellar full of DRC, I guess…

3

You could of course just use the Milton Berle technique and only slap as much of the crippler down on the rosewood as you need to win the argument. [wink.gif]

4

I haven’t tasted them myself, but some friends that I trust have told me that the '07 DRCs are the weakest since at least the '97s.

5

Kevin

I asked him what vintage he compared the 2007 most to, and Aubert mentioned a few, but the first one was 1997, which I expected after tasting them.

6

Good read. Thanks for posting this.

7

Did anyone ask him about silicone-lubricated corks -vs- wax-lubricated corks?

Or anything else having to do with Premox?

8

Premox did not come up with him. I have not heard of DRC Montrachet suffering from Premox. Is it an issue?

9

Interesting tasting, thanks for sharing the notes.

10

Thanks for the update - tasted them out of barrell in the fall of '08 and wasn’t overly impressed. I thought there was a big gap between the Ech, GE, RSV and then the Richebourg, LT and RC, with the former three being merely good.
However, it was a great experience.

PS - Some of you guys need to give the Jeff, Rob, etc, sarcasm a rest - it detracts from too many threads.

11

After all the hype, these notes are a little disappointing. neener

12

Here is the link to Jon Bonne’s impressions from the St. Helena tasting of the 07 DRC:

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13

Ray,

Good to see we are in agreement, and yes, I concur on RSV and Echezeaux, although the GE could turn out well.

Josh

I cannot figure out what this means…

The result are true Burgundy lovers’ wines.

That is always a cop out.

These are not great wines. I love Burgundy, but I guess I am not a true lover of Burgundy.

14

I typically enjoy Jon Bonne’s writing but I found his review of hte 07 DRC to be generic and blah. I tend to think that even well known and experienced writers have a hard time critiquing esteemed wines like DRC. Maybe he opted for generic instead of critical. Who knows.

15

I think it is hard to be critical of a producer like DRC. Especially at this tasting, where very few people get invited. Nevertheless, I just call 'em as I see them. Aubert was not very high on these wines, which as I said, has always earned my respect.

16

+1

17

Let’s move on now. It was said. Done.

2007 DRC, stay focused.

FYI, Bruce Sanderson, of WS will be posting his blog either today or tomorrow. I sat next to Bruce at the DRC event. We did disagree on the RSV at this tasting. Like I said, many did disagree with me, including Aubert. Aubert did say that the RSV showed much better in NY than in LA just 3 days earlier.

18

I can’t tell whether you’re joking.

19

Not that I am even remotely a buyer…but was there any discussion on the pricing structure for these?

20

Bill,

What Aubert/DRC sell the wines for has little impact on what it winds up costing a typical consumer. The big markups, assuming the market can bear them, are from the middlemen.