Following the recent flight of 09 Burgundy tastings, the past few days have seen the first notes and scores emerge for Domaine Romanee Conti 2008. Every year, DRC waives the region’s en primeur campaign and then – with the dust settling – presents its latest vintage to be tasted by the world’s press.Though many of the major critics have yet to publish their in-bottle scores for the 08s, the first string of reviews seems to bode well.
Allen Meadows of the Burghound rates the vintage particularly highly, with the estate’s six flagship wines averaging 94.7 points (compared to 92.8 points for 2007). Having championed Tache 2007 over Romanee Conti last year, the latter received the highest 08 score at 97 points:
“The underlying sense of proportion and perfect balance very much confers a Zen-like character to the '08 Romanée-Conti. A potentially great vintage for this most storied of wines…"
As you can see from the table below, Tim Atkin and Julia Harding (a contributor to Jancisrobinson.com) are also clear fans. Will the rest of the critics echo their enthusiasm?
Sources: Burghound.com, Timatkin.com, Jancisrobinson.com.
With production down significantly on 2007, release prices for the latest vintage are up around 20 per cent on last year. Of course, those without allocations will have to chase stock on the secondary market, where prices are likely to rise rapidly.
