There is one main element that is important to the perception of a vintage: the wind on Palm Sunday. It is usually the dominant wind of the year. In 2007, it was a north wind. Temperatures in April were equivalent to July’s, and we thought we were going toward another 2003, very early, very dry.
But, in fact, it was the contrary. South and west winds brought heat, rain, humidity—all friends of our enemies: mildew, oidium, botrytis. This weather lasted all spring. It created a very long flowering, with the consequences being millerandage and uneven flowering, which results in uneven maturation.
July was more or less the same. August was one of the worst we have had—quite a rainy month. We thought we would be in a difficult position to make wine.
Voilà: From the twentieth of August and continuing for a very long period, the north wind—the Palm Sunday wind—came back. Dry weather, not hot, but luminous. The wind took some water from the berries. Photosynthesis was working very well because of reserves of water in the soil. There was a very fast maturation: We saw rises in sugar content of 1 to 1.5 degrees [potential alcohol] per week. We waited as long as we could—110 days after flowering—and started harvesting the first of September. It was a long harvest, and sorting was essential.
With millerandage, botrytis and sorting, the size of the vintage was relatively small. The yield in 2007 is 26 to 27 hectoliters per hectare. In some vintages, like 2009, you can have a higher yield and still make a good wine. Not in 2007.
We chose to eliminate between twenty and forty percent of the stems, but we used some because I think they are essential. What I like, for instance, in Romanée-Conti is that you have this little touch of green. It prepares the very delicate smells and tastes of rose petal, especially with Romanée-Conti. Every year you have that character: what people call violet.
The result is completely contrary to the typical saying, “A difficult vintage should be drunk early.” Not this one. It was a vintage in which it was very important not to try to extract. The risk was to extract not-very-good things.
The malolactic was very early. And it is tumultuous when early, making itself very apparent. The wines suffered a little, but from that point, they never stopped going up. They are still going up in bottle. And they are very far from the real level they can reach. When tasting them, it is important to take time, because they evolve in the glass.
They are at the point where the wines understand they are in bottle—they always show anger at this moment. I know they will accept this constraint and have all the balance they need to have a good evolution.
The 2006 wines were hedonistic, the 2007s more monastic. This is the origin of these wines. Over the past ten years, Burgundy has had a climate that has been quite favorable. Here, we were very lucky with the weather in the end. But these wines have the Burgundian mark of wines grown at the limit.
1957, 1956, 1951—they were ten times more difficult. Those wines were ungrateful in the beginning, but have lifted themselves up in bottle unbelievably. It’s a talent of the grands crus if things have been done correctly. The plant has been married to the site for so long, you have the capacity for finding the maturation in bottle.
—Aubert de Villaine, February 12, 2010
Here are my notes on the 2007 Domaine de la Romanée Conti wines, tasted in New York City on February 12, 2010.
The Richebourg and Romanée-Conti both show exceptional inner strength, the sort that will sustain them for decades. These are wines that will reward collectors who are willing to wait. La Tâche is more difficult to grasp at the moment, for now the most elusive of the wines. Romanée St-Vivant and Grands Echézeaux are also wines that will reward long cellaring. De Villaine described 2007 as an awkward vintage, though he also expressed a certainty about the future development of the wines. Their subtlety and remarkable evolution in the glass bodes well for their future in bottle.
Echézeaux
Light in color and red fruit scents of fraises des bois. Browner notes in the tannin. Troubled in the middle of the end, with something not quite clean, then graceful at the final end.
Grands Echézeaux
Closed off. Earthy tones predominate until shades of light take over, shifting, sometimes an intense beam of cool light, more often dark and shadowed, always transparent. Focused on subtle earthiness, stemmy greenness. Fine future ahead.
Romanée St-Vivant
Beautiful fragrant rose, springtime warmth, bee pollen. The pink cast of cherry blossoms. Silken, elegant, untroubled. Brightness comes out of the earthiness, a reflection of the sun. Warm, earthiness becoming sweeter with air.
Richebourg
Dark, brooding aroma. Earthbound. Develops a flowery note of bee pollen and honey. Austere. Ambrosial. Continues to open, expand, contract, expand. A kaleidoscopic finish. Tough certainty. Formidable and generous. Essential Richebourg.
La Tâche
Transparent and powerful. The structure is apparent in the aroma. The flavors are cramped into the wood, hiding in barrel. Moonstruck. More lunar than solar. Laden with gravity. Earthy, tart berry flavor. Becomes mouthwatering with an hour and a half in the glass. Will take years to evolve.
Romanée-Conti
Mysterious. Covered in a black scrim. Sweet cherry candy without the corporeal sugar. Lunar candy. It tumbles out of itself and becomes a different wine in the finish. Tart raspberry not quite ripe but finely ripe. Remarkably long.
A difficult youth. Spits in your face from its shackles. Beautiful completion. Endless finish. Takes off in the end. Sparks off the soil. The tannins have elasticity, casual elegance. A scarf off the back in the wind.
—Joshua Greene
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