Domaine Romanée- Conti It all starts in the vineyard...

Bourgogne Aujourd'hui celebrated its 25th anniversary in October 2019 by publishing a special issue dedicated to this quarter-century that has changed everything in Burgundy. Aubert de Villaine, co-manager, with Perrine Fenal (photo attached), of the domaine Romanée- Conti was the very involved editor-in-chief of this issue 149 of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui; here is a new part of this dossier, and not just any part: the article devoted to Domaine Romanée- Conti which has long, if not always, practiced this "terroir viticulture" to which the Burgundians have massively adhered since the beginning of the 1990s.

We will post the tasting report of the various grand cru wines online next week. Domaine of La Romanée- Conti also published in our issue 149. As a reminder, issue 152 of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui has been available online for a few days.

The local produce!

Expressing the personality of a terroir, of a "climate," in a wine is the great winemaking philosophy of the moment in Burgundy and in many other French vineyards. In this domaine It seems generally accepted that Burgundy is the authority for many reasons, which we will discuss in this "special" issue. Those who are somewhat familiar with other wine regions know that the Domaine of La Romanée- Conti enjoys a special status, like a kind of sacred place that is not to be desecrated. We are hardly exaggerating. It owes this to those who have succeeded one another at its head, to this Romanée- Conti Before which, every year, enthusiasts come on pilgrimages, and sometimes simply curious visitors, from all over the world, and this is thanks to a policy where everything is done with a single goal: to reveal each unique wine-growing region. "Europe, Europe, Europe!" General de Gaulle once exclaimed, mocking those who lost touch with reality and believed that simply invoking the word "Europe" was enough to solve all problems. The same could be said of the word "terroir," so overused that it is often misused. The work leads to Domaine of La Romanée- Conti The phylloxera crisis at the end of the 19th century has demonstrated that allowing terroirs to express the full complexity of their climates in a wine is not an easy task.
At Domaine of La Romanée- Conti It all logically begins with the vine, or rather with the selection of vines planted in the ground. It's important to know that the La Romanée vine- Conti and one hectare of Richebourg were protected from phylloxera for as long as possible, until 1945 to be precise*, thanks to the use of carbon disulfide. This was the hope, no doubt, that a "cure" would be found to save this Romanée- Conti whose origins dated back to… 1584**. That year, it had indeed been bought, in a state of disrepair, from the monks; this Romanée- Conti The 1945 planting was therefore simply the direct descendant, by provine, of this replanting from the end of the 16th century.

Grafts from Romanée- Conti historical

Nevertheless, thanks to this "rescue" work, all the post-phylloxera replantings carried out at domaine Until 1945, they were propagated using grafts taken from La Romanée- Conti and the Richebourg "old grape varieties". "These grafts come from La Romanée- Conti Historical varieties are characterized by producing small bunches of small berries, and for the past thirty years or so, we have paid close attention to selecting and propagating these types of grafts for use in all our replantings. Over time, we have thus selected around thirty lines of fine-grained vines from our vineyards, and when a plot is replanted, it is replanted using the full diversity of these lines. In the future, we plan to expand this plant material. maison "along with that of the association for the preservation of grape variety diversity," explains Aubert de Villaine, the co-manager of domaine .

In the field of viticulture, the domaine It went through its "conventional" period for treatments in the 1960s and 1970s, but without ever ceasing to plow the vineyards, today with a horse on part of the domaine and according to the classic techniques of hilling and debudding, carried out with the aim of aerating the soil. A manure-based compost is sometimes added when the vine shows, by its appearance or by the previous year's harvest, that it needs it; a compost energized according to the rules of biodynamic farming, experimented with from 1990 to 2006 and adopted since (Biodyvin certification in 2016). The domaine He buys his preparations, but makes his own herbal teas from plants he harvests in his own garden. “The choice of biodynamics is consistent with what we want to do: express the nuances of the terroir as precisely as possible; it seems to us that it offers an additional finesse of approach compared to other options and even to organic farming. We practiced organic viticulture from 1985 onwards, and this made the transition to biodynamics easier later,” explains Aubert de Villaine, who continues: “Working the vines is also a question Adaptation is key, both for us and for the vines. There have been easy years and difficult years, but what experience has taught me, and what reinforces my choice of organic farming, is that in organic farming, and even more so in biodynamic farming, we certainly try to protect ourselves from the vine's enemies, but the products we use only partially succeed. We suffer attacks of downy mildew, powdery mildew, and botrytis, the consequence of which is a natural thinning, thus a concentration of the grapes' quality elements and a higher expression of the wine. Provided, of course, that the harvest is sorted properly.

The whole harvest is in the DNA of domaine

Sorting! An essential operation… “The bulk of the work is done on the vine by pickers, most of whom are regulars; we can therefore ask them for a precise type of sorting, adapted to each vintage, which can range from removing grapes affected by rot to leaving aside larger, unripe grapes for a second harvest.” Brought intact to the winery in small, flat crates, the grapes are sorted again on a sorting table. “Since we aim to vinify with as much whole bunch as possible, we cut off as many stem ends as we can at this stage,” explains Aubert de Villaine. vinification whole-cluster fermentation is truly in the DNA of domaine ; the proportion never falls below 60%, regardless of the vintage and/or the cuvée and it can even reach 100% in years like 2015 or 2018 when phenolic ripeness is at its peak. Fermentation lasts an average of three weeks, gently, with some punch-downs and regular pump-overs. All the wines of the domaine are then aged entirely in new oak barrels; since the early 1980s, the domaine buys its wood in the form of staves which dry at Saint-Romain (21) at François Frères, their main cooper for over twenty years, who then makes the barrels. The wines are bottled from February onwards, only under high atmospheric pressure, if possible during a waning moon, which explains why bottling a vintage can extend into May, or even beyond. The policy is just as demanding for the corks used, only "classic" cork. The domaine has enlisted the services of an expert who travels through Portuguese forests and visits cork producers to guarantee the domaine who are willing to pay the price (around €1.80 per bottle) for the best quality. "But one thing is crucial in all of this, and that's the human factor," says Aubert de Villaine: "A practice is only good if it's carried out by competent and dedicated men and women. Every member of the team is important; my role, as well as that of management, is to instill in everyone a love of a job well done, an attention to detail. Good know-how done hastily is worthless. What's important for us is to always be striving for improvement, within a philosophy that must never forget tradition."

Text : Christophe Tupinier

Photos: Thierry Gaudillère

*La Romanée- Conti was replanted in 1947, giving its "first" vintage in 1952.

**La Romanée- Conti was sold in 1584 under its name at the time, Cros des Cloux, by the Benedictine monks of Saint-Vivant to Master Claude Cousin, sergeant general of Dijon His heirs sold it in 1621 to Jacques Venot, an influential figure in the Burgundy Chamber of Accounts, whose son-in-law was Philippe de Croonembourg. In 1651, the Croonembourg family registered Cros des Cloux under the name La Romanée. The vineyard remained in this family until 1760 when it was sold to the Prince of Conti Reference points Domaine 28 hectares, including 26.30 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards. Co-managers: Perrine Fenal and Aubert de Villaine. Administrative Director: Bertrand de Villaine. Vineyard Manager: Nicolas Jacob. Cellar Master: Alexandre Bernier. 30 employees in the cellars, vineyards, and office, for a total of 33 full-time employees excluding the managers.

Christophe TUPINIER

Publishing Director