Domaine de la Romanee-Conti - Corton 2009

During my visit to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, I wondered whether I had witnessed a subtle changing of the guard? For while Aubert de Villaine greeted me at their refurbished offices overlooking the square and accompanied us through the tasting, it was his nephew Bertrand de Villaine who remained after Aubert had to leave for an appointment. I like both gentlemen, although they certainly have different personalities, Aubert's gravitas and solemnity in contrast to Bertrand's jocularity and openness. While Aubert has countless vintages behind him, essentially the spirit of the historic domaine made corporeal, Bertrand told me how he had pursued a successful career with his optician business before heeding his call to return to Burgundy. Since joining the team in 2008, and becoming full-time in 2011, he is essentially learning the ropes from his uncle. There is no textbook for learning about a domaine like this, rather something that you ease into, learning on the job. Whether Bertrand eventually takes over from Aubert and what responsibilities he will undertake was not made clear, though I came away with the impression that I will be seeing more of Bertrand in the future and that's something I look forward to. His candor and straight-forwardness serves as a reminder that the spirit of the domaine does not lie in auction houses or at the expensive end of restaurant wine lists, but as a team farming propitious vines and turning grapes into some of the finest wine you might drink. On this visit I tasted the 2013s from barrel, which to be honest is an academic exercise because I put far more emphasis upon the in-bottle tasting when the wines are released. So, while Aubert gave me his verse on the growing season hot of the press, I will save detailed analysis for January 2016. However, it is interesting to plot their wines' progress from their prenatal state to their "birth" and of course, tasting from barrel does allow you to formulate comparisons with other growers' 2013s that on this day included Mugneret-Gibourg and Comte Liger-Belair. Suffice to say, that these were exemplary wines in the making and quite surprising on occasion, the Echézeaux 2013 richer than I expected, the Romanée-Saint-Vivant 2013 more structured and potentially one of the standouts, La Tâche 2013 suggesting more complexity than the Romanée-Conti 2013. Perhaps they will not possess the profundity of more benevolent vintages, such as 2009 or 2011, perhaps even 2012 when I eventually taste them. Picked between 6 and 12 October, they certainly are wines that benefited from low yields, the unusually last to be picked Echézeaux at just 16 hectoliter per hectare, so there is an unexpected "richesse" that may be extant by bottling. I look forward to finding out!