FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 84
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-St-Vivant Grand Cru 2018
Named for a medieval abbey, held by one family for nearly two centuries and paid for in part by selling off other grand cru land, Romanee-Saint-Vivant is usually the domaine's most ethereal wine, and in 2018 critics found it unusually powerful.
- Maker
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
- By price in wine
- 27 of 100
Create a free account to see every recorded price and every grade.
Create a free account- Producer
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy
- Vineyard
- Romanee-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, Vosne-Romanee
- Domaine's holding
- 5.28 hectares (one guide says 5.29), the largest in the vineyard
- Whole vineyard
- 9.30 hectares in 2008
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Typical production
- About 18,000 bottles a year (about 1,500 cases by another count); the 2018 figure is not published in the sources found
- 2018 winemaking
- 90% whole clusters, aged in new oak, per a Decanter note
- Critic scores
- Decanter 97, Vinous 96, Burghound 95
- Leased by the domaine
- 1966; bought outright in 1988
- Grand cru appellation since
- 1936
From monks to one family to the domaine
Romanee-Saint-Vivant is a grand cru in the village of Vosne-Romanee, in the Cote de Nuits. It takes its name from the Abbey of Saint Vivant, which in medieval times owned several of the vineyards that are now Vosne-Romanee's grands crus. In 2008 it covered 9.30 hectares and produced about 32,000 bottles. Its grand cru appellation dates from 1936.
After the French Revolution, Nicolas-Joseph Marey bought the whole vineyard in 1791. His family kept it as a monopole for more than a century before parts were sold off, to the Latour and Noellat families among others.
The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti began leasing the Marey-Monge family's remaining 5.28 hectares in 1966 and bought them in 1988. That purchase was financed by selling, and leasing back, the domaine's holdings in Echezeaux and part of its Grands Echezeaux. Today the domaine is by far the largest owner in the vineyard, making about 18,000 bottles in an average year (another count puts it at about 1,500 cases).
Usually the most ethereal
A collector's guide calls Romanee-Saint-Vivant the most ethereal wine in the domaine's lineup, with a delicacy and weightlessness on the palate and a deeply floral bouquet.
One near neighbor in the vineyard is Domaine Leroy, run by Lalou Bize-Leroy, who co-managed the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti from 1974 until she was pushed out in the early 1990s. Her domaine holds 0.99 hectares of Romanee-Saint-Vivant, the second-largest holding after the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. Her daughter, Perrine Fenal, joined the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti's management in 2018, the year this wine was made.
2018: a more powerful Saint-Vivant
The domaine began picking its 2018 crop on August 31, compared with September 4 in 2017. Bertrand de Villaine described a complicated year, with mildew in part of La Tache, sugars so high that some fermentations finished in barrel, and concentrated grapes with ripeness similar to 2017.
A Decanter note on the 2018 Romanee-Saint-Vivant says it was fermented with 90 percent whole clusters and aged in new wood, and that its malolactic fermentation came later than in the domaine's other grands crus.
Tasted from barrel in December 2019, it impressed one Burgundy specialist with its spice aromatics and a 'wider, more texturally structural' shape, 'mouth-watering, hyper-complex, herbed.' He also noted that one section of the vineyard, replanted in 2010, was still not being used for the grand vin.
What the critics scored
Decanter scored the 2018 at 97, describing refined red berry fruit, focused, mineral-edged acidity and a racy, chalky finish. Vinous gave 96, with dark cherries, blueberry and pressed iris and a discreetly spiced finish.
Burghound gave 95 but found a wine unlike the usual Saint-Vivant: a nose 'brooding to the point of being almost mute,' plum liqueur and purple fruit, 'terrific punch and detail,' and a wine 'much more powerful and imposing than usual' and somewhat less refined than it usually is. The reviewer advised patience, with 25 to 30 years of development ahead.
The bottle and its market
Before release, a California warehouse club offered the 2018 Romanee-Saint-Vivant in a pre-sale four-bottle set with La Tache, Grands Echezeaux and Echezeaux, available only by contacting staff and picking up in person.
In October 2026 a price-comparison service showed an average asking price, before tax, of $3,531 per 750 ml bottle. That is an asking price, not a sale. One U.S. merchant listed the wine at more than $4,500 a bottle, but sold it only by the case.
The numbers
- Domaine's holding
- 5.28 ha (one guide: 5.29 ha)
- Whole vineyard
- 9.30 ha (2008)
- Typical production
- About 18,000 bottles a year
- 2018 production
- Not published in the sources found
- Whole clusters (2018)
- 90%, per a Decanter note
- 2018 harvest start
- August 31, 2018
- Decanter
- 97
- Burghound
- 95
Timeline
Nicolas-Joseph Marey buys the entire vineyard after the Revolution.
Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet buys Romanee-Conti and begins building the modern domaine.
Romanee-Saint-Vivant becomes a grand cru appellation.
The domaine begins leasing the Marey-Monge family's 5.28 hectares.
Aubert de Villaine and Lalou Bize-Leroy begin co-managing the domaine.
The domaine buys the Marey-Monge holding, financed by a sale and leaseback of Echezeaux and some Grands Echezeaux.
A section of the domaine's Saint-Vivant is replanted; it is still not used in the grand vin in 2018.
Perrine Fenal joins the domaine's management.
The domaine begins its 2018 harvest.
The 2018s are shown from barrel at the domaine.
Aubert de Villaine steps down as co-director at year's end; Bertrand de Villaine succeeds him.
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
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-St-Vivant Grand Cru 2018 is number 27 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 (84 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- One family, the Mareys, owned the entire vineyard from 1791 for more than a century.
- The domaine rented its Saint-Vivant for 22 years before it owned it.
- To pay for Romanee-Saint-Vivant in 1988, the domaine sold and leased back other grand cru land.
- A part of the domaine's holding replanted in 2010 was still being kept out of the grand vin in 2018.
- Domaine Leroy, run by a former co-manager of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, is the second-largest owner of the same vineyard.
- Burghound found the usually delicate wine 'much more powerful and imposing than usual' in 2018.
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