Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche Grand Cru Monopole 2020

“La Tâche was the most open and accessible of the 2020 vintage wines tasted at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, showing extra layers of depth and complexity that lifted this wine to an even higher plane than usual. There is a beautiful fruit, a silky texture that is dense but not heavy. It is tannic but not hard; strict and straight, yet producing ‘fireworks’ (to use Bertrand de Villaine’s phrase) on the palate. Simply superb, this is one of the best young wines I tasted all year.”

“The 2020 La Tâche Grand Cru is magical, mingling notions of mulberries, cherries and cassis with scents of bergamot, black tea, licorice, exotic spices and peonies. Full-bodied, rich and resonant, with a broad attack, huge mid-palate amplitude and a supple, seamless, elegantly muscular profile, this is a remarkably powerful but also profoundly complex, intellectually and sensually thrilling young wine.”

“Note: a monopole of 6.06 ha Much like the Romanée St. Vivant, here the equally reserved nose is overtly floral in character with a beautifully layered array of hoisin, soy, clove, anise, black cherry coulis, sandalwood and exotic jasmine and pekoe tea scents. Once again, the texture of the rich and impressively concentrated broad-shouldered flavors is super-sleek, and they too exude an almost pungent minerality on the clean, bright and exceptionally persistent finale where the only nit is a touch of backend warmth. Despite being very firmly structured, the mid-palate density is such that this could probably be approached after only 12 to 15 years. With that said, the 2020 LT should be capable of at least 25 years of improvement and 30 would not surprise me unduly. This is quite simply exquisite.”