FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 11
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Richebourg Grand Cru 2018
From the muscular neighbor of Romanee-Conti, picked in a hot, early harvest that began on August 31 and likened by the domaine itself to the 1864, came a Richebourg that one veteran taster called electric.
- Maker
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
- By price in wine
- 25 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy
- Vineyard
- Richebourg, a grand cru in the Cote de Nuits; the domaine is its largest owner
- Domaine's holding
- 3.51 hectares (8.7 acres)
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Grand cru since
- 1936
- Vintage
- 2018; the domaine began its harvest on August 31
- Typical production
- About 1,000 cases (some 12,000 bottles) by one count; the domaine's own figures put the average nearer 848 dozen
- Co-directors
- Aubert de Villaine, with Perrine Fenal from January 2019
- Critics
- Burghound 97, Decanter 97, Jasper Morris 98, Vinous 96-98 from barrel
The vineyard next to the legend
Richebourg is a grand cru vineyard for red wine in the village of Vosne-Romanee, in the Cote de Nuits of Burgundy. It touches La Romanee and Romanee-Conti to the south and Romanee-Saint-Vivant to the east, with Vosne-Romanee premier cru vineyards to the north and west. Its appellation was created in 1936.
Unlike Romanee-Conti and La Tache, Richebourg is not a monopole. Several growers own parts of it, and in 2008 about 7.4 hectares were in production across the whole appellation. The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti holds 3.51 hectares, the most famous and the largest single holding.
The rules allow up to 35 hectoliters per hectare, at least 9,000 vines per hectare and grapes ripe enough for 11.5% potential alcohol. A small share of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris is technically permitted, but in practice grand cru Burgundy like this is Pinot Noir.
Its reputation is for size. One older description holds that 'Richebourg has more opulence than finesse... Richebourg is the more massive and La Romanee-Conti finer.' The domaine's American importer calls it the most muscular of the domaine's wines, with dark fruit, firm tannins, licorice and a touch of game.
The domaine and the people who ran it
The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti traces its roots to 1232, when the Abbey of Saint-Vivant in Vosne acquired the 1.8 hectares now called Romanee-Conti. In 1760 Louis Francois de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, outbid Madame de Pompadour for that vineyard with 8,000 livres. In 1869 Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet bought it and built the modern estate, adding holdings in Echezeaux, Grands-Echezeaux and Richebourg.
The domaine farms organically, with vines on iron-rich limestone around 240 meters up. Its yields average about 25 hectoliters per hectare against a grand cru allowance of 35, which works out to roughly three vines for each bottle.
Ownership is split between two families. Aubert de Villaine became co-director for the de Villaine side in 1974. Henry-Frederic Roch had been co-director for the Leroy family since 1992, and he died in November 2018, weeks after the 2018 harvest. On January 23, 2019, his cousin Perrine Fenal, daughter of Lalou Bize-Leroy, was named to replace him. Aubert de Villaine, who played a central role in getting Burgundy's vineyards inscribed on UNESCO's list of protected sites in 2015, has since stepped back to an advisory role.
2018: a hot, early and chaotic year
The year began very wet. January was mild, and January and March were so rainy that mildew pressure was heavy through spring, more in the Cote de Nuits than the Cote de Beaune. From May the weather turned warm, dry and sunny; flowering in June was ideal and set a large crop. The summer was hot, with rain every ten days or so in the Cote d'Or, and there was almost no rot.
The domaine started picking on August 31, 2018, against September 4 the year before. Bertrand de Villaine later described the year as 'complicated, chaotic even.' Mildew struck the bottom of La Tache, the domaine's first big attack of anything since botrytis in 2008. Sugars ran so high that some wines finished fermenting in barrel, and some malolactic fermentations began before the wine went into barrel.
When the domaine compared the vintage with its records, it reported that 2018 was a near twin of 1864. At least one grand cru estate measured phenolic levels it had never seen before, and red grapes arrived so clean that some estates left their optical sorting machines unused.
What the 2018 Richebourg tastes like
In December 2019 a longtime Burgundy taster sampled the 2018s from barrel at the domaine with Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine and called it the greatest tasting of 2018s he made. Of the Richebourg he wrote that it had the spice of Romanee-Saint-Vivant with more mineral precision, and that it was 'dynamic wine, it is electric wine, it is a great wine in 2018.' He added that for years he had found the domaine's Richebourg its least accessible wine, but no longer.
Neal Martin, tasting from barrel in January 2020, scored it 96-98 and called it 'a brilliant Richebourg in the making,' with dark berries, crushed limestone and pressed flowers, filigreed tannins and an 'arching, cathedral-like structure.' Jasper Morris gave it 98 in November 2020, noting a very rich deep purple color, a bouquet of peonies and touches of grenadine and blood orange, and judged it 'well ahead of Romanee St-Vivant in 2018.'
Allen Meadows of Burghound first gave it 94-97 and in January 2021 settled on 97, describing liqueur-like black cherry, raspberry and cassis, a sappy mid-palate and a 'massively long finish,' and calling it 'a stunningly good young Richebourg with simply amazing potential.' Decanter scored it 97 in October 2019, noting the whole-cluster fermentation typical of the domaine and calling it 'rich, textured, almost Baroque.'
The pandemic kept the wine from its usual debut. The usual January tasting of the new release in London did not take place in 2021 because of Covid-19, so the 2018s were not shown there.
France in 2018
France spent the summer of the vintage celebrating: on July 15, 2018, its national team won the FIFA World Cup. Two weeks later, on July 30, a shooting wounded seven people in Beaune, in the heart of the Burgundy wine country.
By the time the wines were in barrel the mood had changed. Floods driven by the remnants of Hurricane Leslie killed 15 people in the Aude on October 15, and on November 17 the yellow vest protests began, in the same week that Henry-Frederic Roch died.
Rarity and price
One count puts the domaine's average Richebourg production at 1,000 cases a year. Figures the domaine gave for the 2016 put the average at 848 dozen bottles, with 868 dozen made that year, from vines averaging 46 years old; another source gives the average vine age as 42.
A single 750ml bottle of the 2018 sold at an online auction in the United States for $2,850 in October 2025. A California retailer last listed the wine at $2,499.99, though it was out of stock when checked in October 2026.
The numbers
- Domaine's holding
- 3.51 ha (8.7 acres)
- Appellation in production
- 7.40 ha (2008)
- Typical production
- About 1,000 cases by one count; average of 848 dozen per the domaine's 2016 figures
- 2018 harvest start
- August 31, 2018 (domaine-wide)
- Burghound
- 97 (January 2021)
- Jasper Morris
- 98 (November 2020)
- Decanter
- 97 (October 2019)
- Vinous
- 96-98 from barrel (January 2020)
Timeline
The Abbey of Saint-Vivant acquires the vineyard that becomes Romanee-Conti.
The Prince of Conti outbids Madame de Pompadour for La Romanee with 8,000 livres.
A vintage the domaine later compared directly to 2018.
Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet buys Romanee-Conti and builds the estate, adding Richebourg.
Richebourg becomes a grand cru appellation.
Aubert de Villaine becomes co-director of the domaine.
Henry-Frederic Roch becomes co-director for the Leroy family.
Burgundy's vineyards are inscribed on UNESCO's list of protected sites, with de Villaine central to the effort.
The domaine begins its 2018 harvest, four days earlier than in 2017.
Henry-Frederic Roch dies.
Perrine Fenal is named co-director in his place.
Decanter scores the 2018 Richebourg 97.
The 2018s are tasted from barrel at the domaine with Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine.
Neal Martin scores it 96-98 from barrel.
Jasper Morris scores it 98.
Burghound scores it 97; the London release tasting is canceled because of Covid-19.
A bottle sells at an online auction in the United States for $2,850.
The world in 2018
A rising Seine puts Paris on flood alert.
Terrorist attacks strike Carcassonne and Trebes; France later pays national homage to Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame.
Simone Veil is buried in the Pantheon.
France wins the FIFA World Cup.
A shooting in Beaune wounds seven people.
Flash floods in the Aude kill 15 people.
The yellow vest protests begin.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 19, 2025 | $2,850 | Sold at auctionLatest reported sale of a single 750ml bottle at an online wine auction in the United States. |
| Oct 2026 | $2,500 | Asking price, not a saleRetail list price of $2,499.99 for a 750ml bottle in California; out of stock when checked. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Richebourg Grand Cru 2018 is number 25 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 (11 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The domaine compared its 2018 vintage to 1864, and its 2019 to 1865.
- Richebourg is mentioned in the film Sideways.
- At the domaine's average yields, it takes the fruit of about three vines to fill one bottle.
- Grand cru rules technically let Richebourg include a little Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris, but in practice it is all Pinot Noir.
- Mildew hit the bottom of La Tache in 2018, the domaine's first big disease attack since botrytis in 2008.
- The 2018 grapes were so clean that some Burgundy estates did not bother switching on their optical sorting machines.
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