“Exemplifies the intensity without the weight that distinguishes the Domaine’s best wines.” – Wine Advocate

No, you’re not seeing things.

DRC!

Our first offering from the most venerable name in wine on Earth. Not arguably either, definitively.

If you’re a true wine connoisseur and have yet to experience one before leaving the planet, no matter the cost. It’s WORTH it.

To that aim, one lucky Op walks away with this very first bottle of DRC to adorn our domain. And no, as we did with the Pétrus last Cyber Monday, NOT threatening to, and following through with, opening it.

In true Wine Spies fashion, this is the best price you’ll ever see this wine at. Anywhere else, it will cost you in the $3-4k range. Next year, it will cost more, a lot more. That’s how DRC goes. Trust me, people continue hitting their heads on a wall every day for not investing in DRC back when they cost this much for a case, not a bottle. With appreciation, the finest asset of the wine world moves only one way, UP.

Oh, and should you be willing to pull the cork on this puppy ASAP, do not. The more you wait, the bigger the smile on your face will be. Agent Noir still talks about his first DRC, a 1970 Échezeaux…

So, if you swore (to yourself or to someone else) that you’ll be walking away with just one bottle from this marathon, THIS IS IT!

97 Points – Decanter “Romanée-St-Vivant went through malolactic later than the other DRC Grands Crus and was a little more backward and reductive when I tasted it from barrel. Fermented with 90% whole clusters and aged in new wood, it’s paler than its stablemates, with refined red berry fruits, focused, mineral-edged acidity and a racy, chalky finish. Transparent winemaking from a site that often produces the Domaine’s most elegant wine. Drink 2026-2038.”

97 Points – Tim Atkin MW “The Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru is super, bursting from the glass with a kaleidoscopic bouquet of potpourri, red berries, cassis, peony and rose petal. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and fine-boned, with tangy acids, superb concentration and an ample chassis of powdery structuring tannins, concluding with a long, fragrant finish.”

94-96 Points – Vinous “The 2018 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru has a detailed bouquet of dark cherries, blueberry and pressed iris, an undertow of sea spray and petrichor emerging with time. Less floral than previous vintages, it is nevertheless extremely well focused. The palate is medium-bodied and you are immediately struck by the harmony of this wine. Elegant and discreetly spiced toward the finish. I would just like to see more persistence manifest during the remainder of its élevage. Drink 2024-2048.”

95 Points – Burghound “Here the nose is brooding to the point of being almost mute and requires aggressive swirling to gradually reveal plum liqueur, purple fruit and a variety of subtle spice and floral wisps. There is terrific punch and detail to the middle-weight flavors that aren’t quite as concentrated or muscular as those of the Grands Echézeaux, yet there is still impressive power on the wonderfully long finish. This is somewhat less refined than it usually is, and not quite as spicy either, though by contrast, it is more tannic and a wine that also should develop slowly over the next 25 to 30 years. I found the 2018 to be almost atypical in the sense that it’s much more powerful and imposing than usual and it doesn’t have the refinement either though that may well come with time in bottle. Patience strongly advised.”