1988 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg Grand Cru

The Richebourg was an explosive wine with an earthy, cinnamon, gingery, soy sauce aroma backed up with the intense smell of plums and toasty new oak. Extremely rich, full bodied, and awesomely proportioned, this heroic wine should be drunk from the late nineties through the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It seems bigger, fuller, and more powerful than even the celestial 1985. The prices for the wines of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti may be exorbitant but the quality of the wines produced in the eighties is truly remarkable. The 1988s are celestial wines selling at stratospheric prices. The 1988 production was twice what it was in 1987, but the same as in 1985. The 1988s are fuller-bodied, deeper, more concentrated wines than the superb 1987s, and will need some time in the cellar to shed their generous amounts of tannin. The only vintage they can be favorably compared with is the 1985 vintage, and the 1985s were a great deal more forward and flattering to taste when young. There is more depth in the 1988s than in the 1986s or even the superb 1980s (which turned out to be the finest wines made in that underrated vintage).

Luxuriantly powerful and now fully mature fruit aromas of jam| spice and violets with essence of pinot extract aromas lead to amazingly powerful yet velvety medium bodied flavors that are supported by firm but softenting tannins where the extract more than buffers them on the delicious| long and mouth coating finish. This has now reached full maturity and is drinking perfectly now though some may wish to wait even longer to allow the still moderately firm tannins to soften further. That said| I do not believe the overall quality will improve materially from its present level. Tasted multiple times. Allen Meadows, Burghound.com

The Richebourg was an explosive wine with an earthy, cinnamon, gingery, soy sauce aroma backed up with the intense smell of plums and toasty new oak. Extremely rich, full bodied, and awesomely proportioned, this heroic wine should be drunk from the late nineties through the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It seems bigger, fuller, and more powerful than even the celestial 1985. Jan 1990, www.robertparker.com