Domaine de la Romanée Conti, La Tache Grand Cru 1983

robert_parker92

Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

This is a sensational wine with a rich yet youthful fragrance, long, deep flavor, and plenty of body. The 1983 vintage for Domaine de la Romanee-Conti was a very tough year. First there was hail, then the advent of rot in August thanks to the tropical heat and humidity. When the harvest occurred, the domaine instructed its pickers to pick the grapes, not the grape bunches, by hand and to discard all of the rotten grapes. The results are splendidly concentrated, rich wines, but wines that are extremely expensive and need at least a decade of cellaring.

robert_parker92

Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

PRODUCTION: 1,097 cases. The most controversial vintage over the last several decades, the 1983 reveals a dark ruby/garnet color with noticeable lightening at the edge. The intoxicatingly perfumed bouquet offers up intense aromas of earth, mushrooms, sweet, overripe black-raspberry fruit, prunes, smoke, and Asian spices. The complex aromatics are followed by a powerful, tannic, highly concentrated wine with immense body, some astringency, and a huge, alcoholic, rich, glycerin-dominated finish. While it is not the purest example of La Tache, it is one of the few great expressions of this vintage. It should drink well for another 10-15+ years, although the color will continue to become more degraded with aging.

robert_parker94

Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Last Tasted 1/92 This is a brilliant 1983 that should continue to evolve magnificently over the next two decades. Dark ruby, with a huge nose of smoky, exotic, ripe Pinot fruit, leather, and minerals. In the mouth, this is the most powerful La Tache of the last decade, with whoppingly high alcohol, hard tannins, and superb concentration and length. It should be at its apogee between 1996-2010.