13-05-2025
Can You Build a Great Wine Cellar Using Only American Bottles?
A seductive taste of earth and ethereal red fruit makes Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's Romanée-Conti one of the most collectible pinot noirs in the world. As its satiny texture and complex flavors unroll across your tongue, you realize just how profound a wine can be. It comes from a tiny 1.8-hectare (4.5‑acre) grand cru vineyard on a limestone slope in Burgundy, with the name incised in the stone wall. Many wine lovers call the spot hallowed ground. Me too.
So sacrosanct is it that, 15 years ago, an extortionist threatened to poison the vines unless he received a €1 million ($1.3 million) ransom. Owner Aubert de Villaine and the Police Nationale set up a sting operation and caught the man, protecting an agricultural asset whose value has been estimated at more than €2 billion.
