Echézeaux, Domaine de la Romanée Conti 2019

An overtly spicy and agreeably cool nose combines notes of soy, star anise, clove and sandalwood with those of plum, violet and a hint of jasmine tea. Here too there is excellent intensity to the attractively textured medium-bodied flavors that flash seriously good length on the ever-so-mildly warm finale. This compact, dusty and moderately austere bitter pit fruit-inflected effort is going to need extended cellaring to arrive at its full apogee. As I noted last year, I don't ever recall seeing a better vintage from barrel and all of that potential appears to have made it into bottle. In sum, the 2019 Ech is as good as any vintage in recent memory from the domaine.