Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee St. Vivant Grand Cru 2021 750ml

Pinot Noir from Vosne-Romanee, Cote de Nuits, Cote d'Or, Burgundy,  France

Notes from the Winemaker

The 2021 Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru is intense and perfumed, soaring from the glass with scents of dark berries, rose petals, orange rind, aromatic bark and coniferous forest. Full-bodied, deep and unctuously textural, with a richly layered core of fruit, it's vibrant and penetrating, concluding with an intensely saline finish that marks it out as the closest relative in the range of the Romanée-Conti itself.

Reviews and Accolades

97 Points/Decanter
The Romanée-Saint-Vivant remains a significant step above the Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux in this portfolio, with a deeper colour and a richer, riper black plum fruit character. The floral elements noticed in barrel are still pronounced, along with a brambly note from the whole cluster ferment and a bit more liquorice spice than it showed earlier in its evolution. The texture on the palate has smoothed out now; there is more depth and richness and less grippy tannins than noted in the fall after the vintage. Picked 27 – 28 September; 9,064 bottles produced

96 Points/Wine Advocate
The 2021 Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru is intense and perfumed, soaring from the glass with scents of dark berries, rose petals, orange rind, aromatic bark and coniferous forest. Full-bodied, deep and unctuously textural, with a richly layered core of fruit, it's vibrant and penetrating, concluding with an intensely saline finish that marks it out as the closest relative in the range of the Romanée-Conti itself. The 2021 vintage has turned out brilliantly at the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, delivering wines of striking perfume and sensuality. Sadly, there just isn't very much of them to go around. The April frosts destroyed around half the crop in Vosne-Romanée and even more in the Côte de Beaune, indeed, fully 90% in Chardonnay. Harvest began on September 23, lasting until October 2, with Echézéaux and Corton-Charlemagne the last to be brought in. In the winery, Alex Bernier and his team retained all the bunches intact without destemming after sorting, and the wines matured in new barrels until bottling between December and May of 2023. The late harvest brought full physiological maturity without high alcoholic degrees, and the low yields express themselves in mid-palate unctuosity rather than any of the stigmata that can sometimes distinguish frost vintages, especially in Chardonnay. In style, they evoke the classics of yesteryear, but the evocation is surely a little deceptive, as these 2021s are already so suave and structurally polished that it's hard to resist them today

96 Points/Wine Spectator
Surprisingly rich, yet with a firm backbone, the Romanée St.-Vivant reveals core flavors of rose and cherry, with a spicy element on the finish, intensity and finesse

95 Points/Vinous
The 2021 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru was picked from September 27 to 29 at 14.5hL/ha and bottled a little earlier than other cuvées on January 12, 2023. It has an adorable bouquet, committing itself to the cranberry and raspberry fruit observed from barrel, perhaps not quite as "exotic" as I wrote then, though there is a hint of wild fennel and Provençal herbs. Outstanding delineation and focus, it opens with controlled fanfare towards the finish and contains an almost effervescent element on the aftertaste. Classy yet one of the Domaine's more sensual offerings. 755 cases produced

94 Points/Burghound
A kaleidoscopically spicy broad-ranging nose is both much more floral and more elegant with its notes of lavender, dried rose petal, jasmine tea, tangerine peel and cool red currant. The gorgeously textured and sublimely delicate yet quite punchy middleweight plus flavors possess the finest mouthfeel in the range, all wrapped in a superbly long, youthfully austere and delineated finale that seems just a bit skinny at present. This is at once understated and very classy and my rating offers the benefit of the doubt that it will eventually flesh out with time in bottle.