Andrew Jefford: Appearance: Clear scarlet-red. Aroma: Ah, yes: the violets, the lift, the brightness. Very much a flower wine at this early stage: poised, fragrant, elegant, seamless, and complete. The fruits are fine cherry and raspberry but sketched with such style that they disdain to be named. After a while, it has a Maghreb turn: tangerines, even oranges. There is a creaminess, but not too much: That would hold the flowers back. Aromatically, it keeps opening and opening: a bottle to spend hours with. Flavor: In pure tape-measure terms, La Tâche and Richebourg are bigger. But who dares take a tape measure to Romanée-Conti? This is the most taut, the most seamless: pure liquefaction of flowers and fruit. The tannins are a little lighter than those of Grands Echézeaux and Richebourg, but they are more gathered and, in conjuction with the fruits, convey a sense of creaminess. Other wines in the family may be spicier or more glycerous, but none can match this one as a motor of fruited perfume. It’s fresh to the final drop, and fresh afterward, too, as that drop melts away into your body. 19

Michael Schuster: Exquisite delicacy of minerals, exotic spice, and game, to smell; “fruit” as such simply doesn’t come to mind, the glass just brims with bouquet. Here there is less absolute “ripeness of fruit” opulence than on the La Tâche, but a much more layered and subtle impression; this almost doesn’t smell like wine at all, more like the soil, the soul of Burgundy expressed as perfume. Consumately graceful, with perfectly integrated freshness of acidity, fine, dry tannins, and medium weight in terms of “fruit,” this is a unique expression of the locale. Rather than a mouthful of wine, here is a film-like delicacy, utterly tenacious, a frame infusing fragrance of extraordinarily lingering intensity. Extraordinary in the literal sense of the word, for it is just alive with scent. Leave for 15 years at least. 2020–45+. 19.5/20