FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 5
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache Grand Cru 2015
A vineyard named for a day laborer's task, won at a 1933 auction after a court fight over its name, gave the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti about 16,600 bottles of 2015, picked over two September days in the summer Burgundy's vineyards joined UNESCO's list.
- Maker
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
- By price in wine
- 10 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy
- Vineyard
- La Tache, a grand cru monopole owned entirely by the domaine
- Size
- 6.06 hectares, the domaine's largest holding (5.03 ha were reported in production in 2008)
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Owned by the domaine since
- 1933
- Grand cru since
- 1936
- 2015 harvest
- September 7 and 8, 2015
- 2015 yield
- About 25 hectoliters per hectare (one source gives 25.6)
- 2015 production
- 1,387 cases of 12, about 16,600 bottles
- Bottled
- March 15, 16, 17 and 21, 2017
Joly de Bevy's vineyard
La Tache lies in the heart of Vosne-Romanee in the Cote de Nuits, on the same slope as Romanee-Conti and La Romanee and south of them, rising to about 300 meters above sea level. 'Tache' with its accent means 'task' in French; the French still call a hired seasonal farmhand a 'tacheron.'
Its early history is partly lost, but in the 18th century the vineyard belonged to Joseph Joly de Bevy, president of the Burgundian Parliament, and was known as La Tache Joly de Bevy. After the Revolution it was auctioned to Jacques Jacquinot, mayor of Nuits-Saint-Georges, acting for a Dijon wine merchant. It passed to Guillaume Bazire in 1800 and in 1815 to his son-in-law Louis Liger-Belair, whose family kept it for 118 years.
The original La Tache covered only about 1.4 hectares. Next door lay Les Gaudichots, and the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which had assembled 4.63 hectares there, sold its wine under the La Tache name. When the domaine sought in 1932 to have Gaudichots merged into La Tache, the Liger-Belair family opposed it and lost. After the Comtesse Liger-Belair died in 1931 the family's vineyards had to be auctioned, and in 1933 Edmond Gaudin de Villaine of the domaine bought La Tache Joly de Bevy and merged it with the Gaudichots holding into a single monopole of 6.062 hectares. Both parts were classified grand cru when the appellation was created in 1936; a few Gaudichots plots outside the merger remain premier cru.
The domaine and its healthiest vineyard
Aubert de Villaine, grandson of the man who bought La Tache and the domaine's co-director from 1974 to the end of 2021, has described it as a vineyard of unusually varied soils: limestone, red clay, pebbles, marble and fossil-bearing marine limestone, changing in mix from the bottom of the slope to the top. He considers it the healthiest of the domaine's vineyards, with old vines averaging 50 to 60 years and unusual resistance to bad weather, pests and disease. The domaine has farmed it organically since 1985.
De Villaine once compared the wine to Philippe de Champaigne's portrait of Cardinal Richelieu: authority and tension, hands resting on a scabbard, wrapped in ermine and velvet. He also served as a judge at the 1976 Paris tasting that pitted California wines against French ones. Leadership changed in 1991, when disagreements over the estate's direction led to co-director Lalou Bize-Leroy's expulsion from management. At the end of 2021 de Villaine handed the co-directorship to his nephew Bertrand de Villaine.
Even the spelling has a history. The domaine has printed 'La Tache' with the circumflex accent only since the 1978 vintage; older labels carried the name without it.
2015: two days in September
The domaine picked La Tache on September 7 and 8, 2015, at about 25 hectoliters per hectare (one detailed record gives 25.6). It made 1,387 cases of 12, essentially its average of 1,386 by that same record; other sources give a higher long-run average of 1,870 cases or about 18,000 bottles a year. The wine was bottled over four days in March 2017.
Critics placed it near the top of a celebrated year. The Wine Advocate's William Kelley gave it 98, finding dark berries, plums, hoisin, smoked duck, dark chocolate, licorice and Chinese five spice, a wine 'full-bodied, multidimensional and authoritative' with 'fine grained but firm' tannins and a 'long and scintillating' finish. Decanter scored it 99 and called it 'simply sublime'; Burghound gave 98 and wrote of 'an utterly kaleidoscopic nose.' The writer Matthew Jukes rated it 19.5++ out of 20 and called it 'flamboyant and superbly fleshy and decadent,' notable for showing red fruit rather than black, with a drinking window of 2035 to 2060.
The world in 2015
The year began in France with the January 7 attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed. In April a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. In early July Greeks voted in a referendum to reject the terms of a new bailout, and on July 14 Iran agreed to long-term limits on its nuclear program on the same day NASA's New Horizons became the first spacecraft to visit Pluto.
In Burgundy the summer brought recognition two months before the harvest: on July 4, 2015, the Climats of Burgundy, a patchwork of more than 1,000 precisely delimited vineyard plots, were inscribed on UNESCO's list of protected world sites.
The domaine's 'best value'
La Tache is the domaine's largest vineyard, so it makes several times as much wine as Romanee-Conti, and by one writer's count Romanee-Conti has sold for a bit more than four times the price of La Tache from the same vintage. Collectors joke that this makes La Tache the domaine's best-value wine.
Value is relative. In January 2024 a US retailer offered the 2015 at $6,395 a bottle, and in 2026 asking prices ran about $8,600 a bottle, with one trading desk showing a market value of $83,320 for a 12-bottle case. None of these is a sale.
Large formats of old La Tache now sell like trophies. At a March 2026 auction in the United States, a Methuselah of 1971 La Tache sold for $325,000 and a Methuselah of 1999 La Tache for $187,500, in the same sale where a bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti set a record at $812,500.
The numbers
- Vineyard
- 6.06 ha monopole (5.03 ha reported in production in 2008)
- Average vine age
- About 50 years (Aubert de Villaine: 50 to 60)
- 2015 production
- 1,387 cases, about 16,600 bottles
- Typical production
- Sources differ: about 1,386 cases, 1,870 cases, or 18,000 bottles a year
- 2015 yield
- About 25 hl/ha (25.6 in one record)
- Wine Advocate (William Kelley)
- 98
- Decanter
- 99
- Burghound
- 98
Timeline
Guillaume Bazire acquires La Tache after its sale following the Revolution.
The vineyard passes to Louis Liger-Belair; his family keeps it for 118 years.
Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet buys Romanee-Conti and begins building the domaine that will later own La Tache.
The Comtesse Liger-Belair dies, forcing the sale of the family's vineyards.
A court rules the domaine may sell its Gaudichots wine as La Tache, against the Liger-Belair family's challenge.
Edmond Gaudin de Villaine buys La Tache at auction and merges it with 4.63 ha of Gaudichots into a 6.062 ha monopole.
The La Tache appellation is created as a grand cru.
Aubert de Villaine becomes co-director of the domaine.
The circumflex in 'La Tache' first appears on the domaine's label with this vintage.
The domaine begins organic farming in La Tache.
The Climats of Burgundy are inscribed on UNESCO's list of protected world sites.
The domaine begins picking La Tache 2015, finishing the next day.
La Tache 2015 is bottled on March 15, 16, 17 and 21.
The Wine Advocate publishes a 98-point review of the 2015.
Aubert de Villaine steps down; his nephew Bertrand de Villaine succeeds him.
A Methuselah of 1971 La Tache sells for $325,000 at auction in the United States.
The world in 2015
Gunmen attack the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal.
UNESCO inscribes the Climats of Burgundy on its list of protected world sites.
Greek voters reject the terms of a new bailout in a referendum.
Iran agrees to long-term limits on its nuclear program.
NASA's New Horizons becomes the first spacecraft to visit Pluto.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 9, 2024 | $6,395 | Asking price, not a saleUS retailer asking price for one 750 ml bottle. Not a sale. |
| 2026 | $8,600 | Asking price, not a saleUS retailer asking price for one 750 ml bottle. Not a sale. |
| 2026 | $8,663 | Asking price, not a saleListed price for one bottle held in bond ($8,663.35, including a trading fee). 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 La Tache Grand Cru 2015 is number 10 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 (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Most of today's La Tache was originally a different vineyard, Les Gaudichots; the original La Tache was only about 1.4 hectares.
- The Liger-Belair family opposed the domaine's 1932 bid to sell its Gaudichots wine as La Tache, and lost.
- The domaine added the circumflex to 'La Tache' on its labels only from the 1978 vintage.
- With the accent, 'tache' means 'task'; without it, it means 'stain.'
- La Tache is one of only five monopole grand crus in Burgundy, and four of them, La Tache among them, sit side by side on the Vosne-Romanee slope.
- Aubert de Villaine likens the wine to a 17th-century portrait of Cardinal Richelieu.
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 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026