1995 La Romanee

Lunching with a couple of friends, we compared Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Romanée-Conti, La Romanée and Aux Reignots in the 1995 vintage, ascending the Vosne-Romanée hillside. It was a fascinating exercise, and Bouchard's 1995 La Romanée Grand Cru was the one wine that didn't really play by the rules. Still deep and saturated in hue, with a rich bouquet of cassis, wild berries, woodsmoke, black truffle and loamy soil, it's full-bodied, deep and muscular, with notable concentration and extract, framed by powdery tannins and concluding with a long, lusty finish. As it sat in the glass, it calmed down and showed more elegance, the site seeming to take over. It's certainly one of the more impressive vintages of La Romanée from the Bouchard era that I've tasted, and for a long time, this must have represented a sleeper grand cru Burgundy. Of course, that time has now passed.