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The term "grand cru" literally meaning "great vineyard" carries a deep resonance in French wine culture. But just how great a small plot of vines may be — and thus whether the wine produced from them is likely to stand out — really depends on which part of France you're talking about. In Burgundy, the designation of grand cru is everything – after all only a handful of pinot noir plots and even fewer of chardonnay carry the distinction of grand cru.
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) is an estate in Burgundy that produces wine such as Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Romanée-St-Vivant, Grand Echézeaux, Echézeaux and Montrachet. All of the wines are Grand Crus with Romanée-Conti and La Tâche being 'monopoles', meaning they belong in entirety to the Domaine.
In the 13th Century, the Abbey of Saint Vivant in Vosne acquired 1.8 hectares of vineyard and 400 years later sold it to the de Croonembourg family, who renamed it Romanée. At the same time they acquired the adjacent vineyard of La Tâche.
In 1760, André de Croonembourg decided to sell the domaine and it became the subject of a bidding war between Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV of France, and her bitter enemy Louis François I de Bourbon, Prince de Conti. The prince won, paying a massive sum of 8000 livres, and the vineyard became known as Romanée-Conti. But then came the Revolution, and the prince's land was seized and auctioned off.
The vineyards of the domaine were bought and sold many times until 1815, when one of Napoleon's generals, Louis Liger-Belair and his son Louis-Charles, amassed 40 hectares of prime land, including all of La Tâche. Family squabbles over an inheritance law led to the Liger-Belair's sale of La Tâche to the domaine.
Today, La Tâche consists of 6.06 hectares of Pinot Noir in Vosne-Romanée, producing 1,870 cases of wine per year. La Tâche is prized as it always produces good wine, even in years when other producers make mediocre burgundy.
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