Not surprisingly, the very elegant style of the 2007 vintage plays more into the hands of a terroir such as Romanée- St.-Vivant more so than it does with Richebourg, as this is a vintage that glories in delicacy, lace-like complexity and profound soil tones, none of which are really quintessential aspects of the terroir of Richebourg. Nevertheless, the domaine has made a beautiful bottle of ’07 Richebourg, but be forewarned that this is one of the least powerful young vintages of this wine to emerge from DRC in many years. That of course is not to say that it is any less in terms of quality, but stylistically it is very much a creature of its vintage. The bouquet is deep and gorgeous, as it offers up notes of red berries, cherries, lovely minerality, coffee, roses and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is fullish, deep and tangy, with lovely length and focus, good mid-palate intensity, particularly fine transparency for young Richebourg, and fine-grained tannins on the long and tangy finish. This wine may well put on weight in the bottle, but I might prefer to say it always remain the lean and impressively complex thoroughbred that it is out of barrel. A lovely bottle.
John Gilman
