- CRITICAL REVIEWS
- WINEMAKER NOTES
RP
96
Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2014 La Tâche Grand Cru was picked on 17, 18 and 20 September at 32 hectoliters per hectare, bottled between 1 and 25 April 2016. It has a quite startling bouquet: dark berry fruit, bay leaf, hints of jasmine tea and autumn leaves. It delivers multi-faceted aromatics, a mercurial bouquet, brown spices emerging with continued aeration in the glass. It is a tad more forward than I expected. The palate is medium-bodied with great structure and fine grip. This is a slightly more masculine La Tâche and replicating its performance in barrel, the fruit spectrum shimmies from red to black (incidentally, exactly as I observed when I tasted it in barrel). There is a lovely lift on the finish that leaves you with a piquant kiss on the cheek. This is wonderful. 1,929 cases produced. Reviewed by Neal Martin. Tasted February 2017. Drinking window: 2020-2050.
V
96
Vinous
(Rating 96+) Bright medium red. Ineffably complex, pure scents of fresh raspberry, cherry, rose petal, peppery spices, crushed herbs and mint. Almost surprisingly silky on entry, then sweet but very restrained, even a bit ungiving, in the middle palate, with pungent red berry and mineral flavors conveying an impression of electric energy. This wine builds slowly and inexorably with air, opening out into a peacock's talk of a finish that's lifted by a pungent hint of green pepper. This youthfully austere wine will need a good 15 years to display its inherent flesh and richness but even today it stands out for its finesse. Reviewed by Stephen Tanzer. Tasting date: December 2016. Drinking window: 2030-2044.
2014 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti LA TÂCHE Grand Cru Monopole, Cote de Nuits, France
Nothing evokes La Tâche so much as the wonderful portrait of Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne, which expresses the Cardinal’s fiery and angular authority, a nervous hand posed on the hilt of his sword, while the sword itself is drowned in a luxurious cascade of ermine and velvet. La Tâche is elegance and rigor. Beneath the frequent firmness of its tannins, passion is aflame, restrained by an implacable, courtly elegance.