FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 2
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti Grand Cru 2018
In a hot, chaotic year that began its harvest on the last day of August, the most famous 1.8 hectares in Burgundy produced a wine one critic thought might rank among the greatest Romanee-Conti ever made.
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- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
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- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy
- Vineyard
- Romanee-Conti, a grand cru monopole owned entirely by the domaine
- Vineyard size
- About 1.8 hectares; sources give 1.8, 1.81 and 1.88
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Vintage
- 2018; the domaine began picking on August 31
- Typical production
- About 5,000 to 6,000 bottles a year (around 450 cases); the 2018 count is not published in the sources found
- Alcohol
- 13.0%, per one retailer's listing
- Critic score
- Burghound 99+
- Grand cru appellation since
- 1936
- Co-director at the time
- Aubert de Villaine, co-director from 1974 to 2021
A vineyard with a price on its head since 1760
Romanee-Conti is a single vineyard of about 1.8 hectares in the village of Vosne-Romanee, in the Cote de Nuits of Burgundy. It is a monopole: the whole vineyard belongs to the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, and every bottle of the wine is made there, from Pinot Noir.
It has been prized for centuries. In 1760 the vineyard, then called La Romanee, was bought on behalf of Louis Francois de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, for 8,000 livres, apparently with an extra sum paid under the table, and his title has been attached to it ever since. In 1780 the Archbishop of Paris called its wine 'velvet and satin in bottles.' After the French Revolution the state seized it in 1793 and auctioned it in 1794. It changed hands again in 1819 for 78,000 francs, and in 1869 it was sold for the last time, to Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, ancestor of the de Villaine family who still co-own the domaine.
In 1855 the Burgundy classification by Jules Lavalle placed Romanee-Conti in its highest category, and the vineyard became a grand cru appellation in 1936. It was one of the last in Burgundy to be replanted with grafted vines after phylloxera. The 1945 vintage, from which only about 600 bottles were made, was the last from the old vines; the vineyard was replanted in 1947, and no Romanee-Conti was made again until 1952.
The domaine keeps its yields low, averaging about 25 hectoliters per hectare against the grand cru limit of 35, through hard pruning, summer green harvesting and sorting at harvest. In a normal year that adds up to roughly 5,000 to 6,000 bottles of Romanee-Conti.
2018: hot, early and chaotic
Across France, 2018 was a relief after the frost-ravaged 2017, which had been the country's smallest harvest since 1945. The national crop of 46.7 million hectoliters was 27 percent larger. A wet first half of the year gave way, by mid-July, to hot, dry, sunny weather that lasted the rest of the season; parts of northern France had their hottest summer since 2003. September was glorious, and many growers could wait for ideal ripeness.
At the domaine, Bertrand de Villaine described the year as complicated, 'chaotic even.' Picking began on August 31, against September 4 in 2017. Mildew struck the bottom of the neighboring La Tache vineyard, the first big disease attack since botrytis in 2008. The vines grew so fast and the grapes carried so much sugar that some wines finished their malolactic fermentation before their alcoholic one, and some finished fermenting their sugars in barrel. In a few spots the team even made modest green harvests. Overall, he said, 2018 resembled 2017 in ripeness and volume, with concentration in the grapes rather than overt maturity.
The domaine did not publish a bottle count for the 2018 Romanee-Conti in the sources found. Its 2008 vintage, by comparison, came to just under 3,500 bottles, while its 2003 to 2007 average was about 5,600.
What the critics found
One Burgundy specialist who tasted the 2018s from barrel on December 2, 2019, with Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine called it the single greatest tasting of 2018s he had made, and said he had never said that of any vintage before. That day the Romanee-Conti had been racked only a week earlier, and he found it 'really wide, spiced,' more mineral and with more direction than La Tache, though less demonstrative, with a long, spiced, herbal and 'haunting' finish.
Burghound scored the wine 99+ in a review published in January 2021, calling it 'arguably the most floral-inflected nose in the range,' compact, backward and tightly coiled, with 'a Zen-like sense of harmony.' The reviewer wrote: 'I was knocked out by just how marvelous this is,' adding that it was too early to call it one of the greatest ever but that the 2018 'could well be a candidate.'
Another published note describes a limpid ruby wine with crystalline scents of wild strawberry and cranberry, crushed limestone, oyster shell and pressed rose petal, medium-bodied with super-fine tannins and a finish that 'seems to go on forever.' Another Burgundy specialist who retasted the domaine's 2018s in bottle in November 2020 reported that Aubert de Villaine considered 2018 a great vintage for the domaine and that the wines were living up to it.
A changing of the guard
The 2018 was made at the end of Aubert de Villaine's long tenure. He co-directed the domaine from 1974 to 2021 and stepped down to an advisory role in 2022. He was a judge at the 1976 Paris tasting that pitted California wines against French ones, and with his wife Pamela he runs a domaine in Bouzeron, in the Cote Chalonnaise, where they helped win a separate appellation for Bouzeron's Aligote in 1998.
By the time the 2018s were shown from barrel in late 2019, visitors were being received by Perrine Fenal and Bertrand de Villaine. The same visit noted the domaine opening up to guests more than in the past, with barrels of new projects, such as its first Corton-Charlemagne, in plain view.
The bottle and its market
Romanee-Conti is among the most expensive wines in the world. In the same year this vintage was harvested, a single bottle of Romanee-Conti 1945 from the cellar of Robert Drouhin sold at auction in New York for $558,000 in October 2018, then a record for a bottle of wine. On March 28, 2026, the same bottle sold again at auction in New York, for $812,500, breaking its own record.
The 2018 itself trades in a thin market. In October 2026 one New York retailer listed a bottle at $25,524.88, and a price-comparison service showed an average asking price, before tax, of $24,824 per 750 ml bottle. These are asking prices, not sales.
The numbers
- Vineyard
- About 1.8 ha (sources give 1.8, 1.81 and 1.88)
- Typical production
- About 5,000 to 6,000 bottles (around 450 cases) a year
- 2018 production
- Not published in the sources found
- Domaine average yield
- About 25 hl/ha, against a grand cru limit of 35 hl/ha
- 2018 harvest start
- August 31, 2018
- Alcohol
- 13.0% (retailer listing)
- Burghound
- 99+
Timeline
The vineyard is bought on behalf of the Prince of Conti for 8,000 livres and takes his name.
Seized during the Revolution, the vineyard is auctioned off.
Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet buys Romanee-Conti; his descendants still co-own it.
Romanee-Conti becomes a grand cru appellation.
About 600 bottles are made from the last pre-phylloxera vines.
The vineyard is replanted; no Romanee-Conti is released again until the 1952 vintage.
Aubert de Villaine becomes co-director of the domaine.
The domaine begins its 2018 harvest, four days earlier than in 2017.
A 1945 Romanee-Conti sells for $558,000 at auction in New York, a record for a bottle of wine.
The 2018s are shown from barrel; the Romanee-Conti had been racked a week before.
The domaine's 2018s are retasted in bottle.
Burghound publishes a 99+ review of the 2018 Romanee-Conti.
Aubert de Villaine steps down to an advisory role.
The same 1945 bottle sells again for $812,500 at auction in New York, a new record.
Retail asking prices for the 2018 stand around $25,000 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.
Twelve boys and their soccer coach are rescued from the flooded Tham Luang cave in Thailand.
France wins the FIFA World Cup in Russia, beating Croatia 4-2 in the final.
NASA's InSight probe lands on Mars.
France sees its worst civil unrest since 1968 as yellow vest protests turn to riots in Paris.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $25,525 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle ($25,524.88) at a New York 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 Romanee-Conti Grand Cru 2018 is number 3 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 (2 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The domaine started picking its 2018s on August 31, before the end of summer.
- Some 2018 wines at the domaine finished their malolactic fermentation before they had finished fermenting their sugar.
- A bottle of the 1945 Romanee-Conti set a world auction record in October 2018, six weeks after the domaine began picking its 2018s.
- In 1780 the Archbishop of Paris called Romanee-Conti 'velvet and satin in bottles.'
- The vineyard has not changed hands by sale since 1869.
- At the domaine's average yields, it takes the fruit of about three vines to make one bottle.
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