Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's 2019s

Bertrad de Villaine, Perrine Fenal and Aubert de Villaine

A very special tasting. The current team at the Domaine – Bertrand de Villaine, Perrine Fenal and Aubert de Villaine – are pictured above by Laurent Darmon.

The UK wine trade is not especially religious, in my experience, but it submits willingly to one annual religious experience, the tasting of the latest vintage to be released by the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, in the east London offices of the Domaine’s exclusive UK agent Corney & Barrow.

This is the quietest, most solemn, most stately tasting in the whole wine-trade calendar and invitations are zealously guarded. We were told sternly that...