Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Romanee-Conti Grand Cru 2010

Full bright, deep red. More reticent and brooding on the nose than La Tache, offering aromas of raspberry, wild herbs, smoky minerality and underbrush lifted by pepper and light vegetal nuances. Sweet and dense but tight and penetrating, with terrific peppery, saline lift to the red berry and spice flavors. Displays the sexy early vegetility that's typical of this bottling. Finishes with outstanding building length and energy and utterly noble tannins. Really leaves the tongue tingling.

It’s fascinating to taste the 2010 Romanee-Conti. It is as if all of the preceding wines are subsets of the Romanee-Conti, but in the Romanee-Conti we find all of the qualities that make the other wines so distinctive in one marvelously complete Burgundy. Aromatics reminiscent of Romanee St. Vivant make an appearance, followed by the sweetness that can only be La Tache, then the structure of Richebourg, all wrapped into the total elusiveness of Romanee-Conti. I am reminded of my university studies in music. There are some compositions that are so profoundly moving because they only point out the futility in trying to truly understand them. Some things remain beyond the full grasp of the human intellect. Romanee-Conti is the vinous equivalent. Anticipated maturity: 2030-2060.