Wine
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Old World
France
Burgandy
Cote d'Or
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Vosne-Romaneé (DRC wines)

Nearest the village is Romanee-St-Vivant. The soil is deep, rich in clay and lime. The mid slope is Romanee-Conti; poorer, shallower soil. Higher up, La Romance tilts steeper; it seems drier and less clayey. On the right the big vineyard of Le Richebourg curves round to face east-northeast. Up the left flank runs the narrow strip of La Grande Rue, and beside it the long slope of La Tache. All are among the most highly-prized of all burgundies. Romanee-Conti, La Tache, Richebourg and Romanee St-Vivant are all owned or managed wholly or in part by the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC). For the finesse, the velvety warmth combined with a suggestion of spice, the almost oriental opulence of their wines the market will seemingly stand any price. Romanee-Conti is considered the most perfect, but the whole group has a family likeness.

Clearly one can look among their neighbors for wines of similar character at less stupendous prices. All the other named vineyards of Vosne Romanee are superb. The big 79 acres climate of Echezeaux and the smaller Grands Echezeax are really in the commune of Flagey, a village over the railway, to the south, but they can use the name Vosne Romanee for their wine if it does not reach the statutory standards for a Grand Cru. Some very fine growers have property here and make beautiful, sometimes rather light wines. They are often a bargain-people say because the name It woks hard to pronounce. Grands Echezeaux has perhaps more regularity, more of the lingering intensity which marks the very great burgundies with higher prices.

One high stone wall surrounds the 125 acres of the Clos de Vougeot; the sure sign of a monastic vineyard. Today it is so subdivided that it is anything but a reliable label on a bottle. But it is the climate us a whole which is a Grand Cru. The monks used to blend wine of top, middle and sometimes bottom, to make what we must believe was one of the best burgundies of all . . . and one of the most consistent, since in dry years the wine from lower down would have an advantage, in wet years the top slopes. There are wines from near the top - La Perriere in particular (just outside the Clos) which can be as great as Musigny. The name of the grower must be your guide.