France · Burgundy

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti — universally abbreviated to DRC — is the most consequential wine estate on earth. Founded in the 13th century by Saint-Vivant monastery and later owned by the Prince de Conti (who outbid Madame de Pompadour for it in 1760), the domaine has been jointly managed by the de Villaine and Leroy families since 1869, and today by Aubert de Villaine and his nephew Bertrand. DRC farms eight Grand Cru appellations in Vosne-Romanée — Romanée-Conti (1.8 ha monopole), La Tâche (6.06 ha monopole), Richebourg, Romanée-St-Vivant, Grands Échézeaux, Échézeaux, and, since 1988, Montrachet — plus a small holding in Corton. Every vine is tended by horse ploughing; yields are absurdly low; no destemming for the top wines; and bottling without filtration. Total annual production is around 60,000 bottles across all wines. At auction, DRC commands prices that exist entirely outside normal wine economics: a single bottle of Romanée-Conti regularly exceeds $20,000 and has sold as high as $558,000. The 2015, 2019, and 2023 vintages are the current auction benchmarks — all three achieving Parker and Burghound scores of 97–100 across the range.