1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-St-Vivant

For those of you who have ever tasted a bottling from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, you'll be able to attest to the greatness and fabulous complexity of their wines. Do they merit the price tag?($500 and up) Maybe not if you're comparing them to the kind of quality Pinot Noir you can obtain from both California and Oregon. However, what is unique to the tasting experience of a wine like this, is the incredibly history and exhilarating nostalgia involved in drinking something that only a small percentage of the world's population will ever have the chance of experiencing. That being said, this wine was great regardless of reputation and the awe that surrounds drinking a famous bottle of wine.

I'm not going to get into the history and story of this wine but if you're interested in the vineyard then check out the wiki on it here.

Important to note is the color of this wine which appears to be slightly fading and has a rusty and slightly brick red/orange hue. The core is still red though and the wine appears to be holding it's own after twenty years.

The bouquet of this wine is extremely complex and perplexing. I truly must have studied it for around 15 minutes before even taking a sip. It's an aroma profile that is constantly evolving throughout the tasting experience and one that is haunting and completely unique to the terroir of the vineyard. Some of the descriptors I wrote down to explain this phenomenon were: stew, earth, mushroom, red apple skin, cherry tomato, boiled potatoes, hint of mint, plum, and beef stew.

On the palate this wine showed flavors reminiscent of red apple skin, savory cherry sauce, mineral, stewy beef, and earth. It reminded me of blood for some reason! Maybe I was half in a coma by then, but I wrote the word "blood" like three times in my notes!!

What's strange is that I've certainly had wines that tasted better than this, but oddly enough I haven't had many that I have enjoyed or thought about more.....I guess that's really what these great Burgundies are all about....Mind-blowing Complexity. 95 points

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