Terroir Insight: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Bâtard-Montrachet

A legendary, yet somehow unknown, wine; a wine not sold, but served on occasion; a wine above commercial interest; and a hedonistic blessing for a lucky few.

I am of course talking about the Bâtard-Montrachet from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a wine served only – or should I say mainly – at tastings held by this legendary estate. It is an extremely rare bottle, with a limited production of two casks or so, equivalent to around 600 bottles.

The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti plot in Batard-Montrachet

Outside knowledge of Romanée-Conti’s Bâtard is very limited, and precise information regarding this cuvee is scarce.

I found the first detailed information in Gert Crum’s book about DRC: the Bâtard plot is in the Chassagne-Montrachet end of the vineyard.

Crum’s 2012 work reveals the size of the plot, and also that DRC has made the Bâtard since at least 1987. But perhaps we can dig a bit deeper, and find some valuable additions to the scant knowledge of the estate’s Bâtard-Montrachet.

The size of the parcel is equal to that of cadastre no. 46 in the southern, lower end of Bâtard-Montrachet (see maps below). The plot is, as mentioned, 0.1746 ha, and contains 75-year-old vines, as Crum’s work is some years old now.

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