FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 83
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru 2018
From a flat patch of ground beside the walls of Clos de Vougeot, the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti made a 2018 one critic called a 'fruit bomb' and another called 'easily great.'
- Maker
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
- By price in wine
- 21 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy
- Vineyard
- Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru, in the commune of Flagey-Echezeaux
- Domaine's holding
- 3.52 hectares (one guide says 3.53), the largest in the vineyard
- Whole vineyard
- 7.53 hectares in production in 2008, with 21 owners in the early 2000s
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Typical production
- About 14,000 bottles a year (about 1,150 cases by another count); the 2018 figure is not published in the sources found
- Vintage
- 2018; the domaine began picking on August 31
- Critic scores
- Burghound 95, Wine Advocate 94
- Grand cru appellation since
- 1936
The smaller, richer neighbor
Grands Echezeaux is a grand cru in the Cote de Nuits, in the commune of Flagey-Echezeaux. It touches Clos de Vougeot to the east and north and Echezeaux to the west and south, and one collector's guide places it just southwest of Clos de Vougeot on relatively flat ground. Its grand cru appellation was created in 1936.
It is far smaller than Echezeaux. In 2008, 7.53 hectares were in production and made 240 hectoliters, about 32,000 bottles. In the early 2000s it had 21 owners, against about 80 in Echezeaux, and its best-known owner is the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
The domaine owns 3.52 hectares (one guide gives 3.53), making it the largest landowner in the vineyard. The holding came to the estate through the family of Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, who bought Romanee-Conti in 1869 and built the domaine around it. In an average year the domaine makes about 14,000 bottles of Grands Echezeaux; another count puts average production at about 1,150 cases.
Darker, earthier, more textured
The domaine's U.S. importer describes Grands Echezeaux as more textured and intense than Echezeaux, with dark fruit, gamey nuances and bramble, and a structured but velvety texture. It also calls the wine 'monastic' and sums it up as 'a country gentleman, aristocrat and dreamer.'
A collector's guide describes it as often darker-fruited and earthier than the domaine's other reds, making broader and richer wines than its much larger neighbor.
2018 at the domaine
The domaine began picking its 2018 crop on August 31, compared with September 4 in 2017. Bertrand de Villaine described a complicated year: mildew struck part of La Tache, sugar levels ran so high that some fermentations had to finish in barrel, and the grapes carried concentration, with ripeness similar to 2017.
In 1988 the domaine bought Romanee-Saint-Vivant and paid for it partly through a sale and leaseback of its Echezeaux holdings and some of its Grands Echezeaux. By 2018 the leadership was changing again: Perrine Fenal, daughter of the former co-director Lalou Bize-Leroy, joined the management that year, and Aubert de Villaine, co-director since 1974, stepped down at the end of 2021 in favor of his nephew Bertrand.
Tasted from barrel in December 2019, the Grands Echezeaux was described by one Burgundy specialist as 'wide, vibrant, spiced,' with a rose-petal perfume, growing vibrancy and a 'more haunting purity of fruit in the finish.' He judged it 'easily great.'
What the critics scored
Burghound gave the 2018 95 points in January 2021, describing rich, full-bodied, muscular flavors that 'brim with sappy dry extract' and a hugely long finish, and calling it 'a big, bold and robust effort' that should develop gradually over the next 25 to 30 years.
Wine Advocate gave it 94 in November 2022. The reviewer found it 'full-bodied, fleshy and broad-shouldered' and wrote that the 2018 'is something of a fruit bomb, but with time it should metabolize that puppy fat to become something special.'
The bottle and its market
Before release, a California warehouse club offered the 2018 Grands Echezeaux as part of a pre-sale four-bottle set with La Tache, Romanee-Saint-Vivant and Echezeaux, available only by contacting staff and picking up in person.
In October 2026 one U.S. merchant listed a bottle at $3,499.97, and a price-comparison service showed an average asking price, before tax, of $3,444 per 750 ml bottle. These are asking prices, not sales.
The numbers
- Domaine's holding
- 3.52 ha (one guide: 3.53 ha)
- Whole vineyard
- 7.53 ha in production (2008)
- Typical production
- About 14,000 bottles a year
- 2018 production
- Not published in the sources found
- Alcohol
- 13.8% (importer's listing, vintage not stated)
- 2018 harvest start
- August 31, 2018
- Burghound
- 95 (January 2021)
- Wine Advocate
- 94 (November 2022)
Timeline
Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet buys Romanee-Conti; his family adds Grands Echezeaux to the estate.
Grands Echezeaux becomes a grand cru appellation.
Aubert de Villaine becomes co-director of the domaine.
A sale and leaseback of Echezeaux and some Grands Echezeaux helps the domaine buy Romanee-Saint-Vivant.
Perrine Fenal joins the domaine's management.
The domaine begins its 2018 harvest.
The 2018s are shown from barrel at the domaine.
Burghound publishes a 95-point review of the 2018 Grands Echezeaux.
Aubert de Villaine steps down as co-director at year's end; Bertrand de Villaine succeeds him.
Wine Advocate publishes a 94-point review.
Retail asking prices for the 2018 stand around $3,450 to $3,500 a bottle.
The world in 2018
SpaceX flies its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time.
The Winter Olympics open in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Kim Jong Un crosses into South Korea, the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.
NASA launches its InSight probe; it lands on Mars on November 26.
France wins the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $3,500 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle at a U.S. merchant. Not a sale. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru 2018 is number 21 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (83 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Grands Echezeaux is less than a quarter the size of Echezeaux, yet the domaine makes nearly as much of it.
- The domaine's own importer calls the wine 'a country gentleman, aristocrat and dreamer.'
- In 1988 the domaine sold and leased back part of its Grands Echezeaux to help pay for Romanee-Saint-Vivant.
- One critic called the young 2018 'something of a fruit bomb' and predicted it would lose its 'puppy fat.'
- Another reviewer expects the 2018 to keep developing for 25 to 30 years.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026