New vineyard for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is going to produce a new wine from 2019 .. a Corton-Charlemagne.

According to Wine Spectator – Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti has made an agreement with Domaine Bonneau du Martray to lease a part of the estates Corton-Charlemagne holdings. See the full article by Wine Spectator here – including comments from Aubert de Villaine and Armand de Maigret – who is the manager for the Stanley Kroenke wine activities including the Bonneau du Martray estate.

DRC will according to the article lease around 2.8 ha from November this year and the first harvest will be 2019. This is equivalent to roughly 25 to 30% of the Bonneau du Martray holdings of Corton-Charlamagne – they currently have 9.5 ha of Corton-Charlemagne and 1.59 ha of Corton – producing a red Corton.

Both estates are working after biodynamic principles, so it’s a great match in my view. The vineyards are in top condition – after decades of hard work by the venerable Jean-Charles Le Bault de la Morinière, who sold the main share of the estate in 2017 to US investor Stanley Kroenke.

Having had the pleasure of tasting whites from both producers I’m sure that this initiative will bring more glory to the Corton hill. The Batard Montrachet and the Montrachet from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are clearly some of the very best white wines made not only in Burgundy but in the world – and they will certainly bring a new expression to the Corton hill.

It will indeed be great to see the team of DRC take on the Corton-Charlemagne vineyard … as something new, 10 years after DRC began it’s Corton endeavour with the 2009 vintage.

A bit more here from the Le Bien Public (In French).