Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, La Tâche 1969
Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits
Levels: one 6.0cm, one 7.5cm; lightly corroded capsule, one torn at top, one slight signs of old seepage, bin soiled and nicked labels
2 bottles per lot

Type: Red Wine
Grape Varietal: Pinot Noir
Country: France
Region: Burgundy

ABOUT THE WINE
So often, La Tâche plays second fiddle to Romanée-Conti. It's true, La Tâche is bigger than Romanée-Conti (6.06hc versus Romanéee-Conti's 1.8hc) and it produces more wine on average than all of the rest of DRC's vineyards (owing to the fact that it is a monopole, and DRC's other vineyards are shared). The vineyard's history is storied. The original La Tâche vineyard owned by Louis-Philibert Joly de Bevy at the beginning of the revolution passed, by forced sale after the revolution, through Jacques Jacquinot to Claude-Franois Vinot, a négociant in Dijon. At the turn of the 19th century, Viénot, to settle debts, sold his vines to Guillaume Basire which passed to General Liger Belair by marriage and remained in his family until 1933. For most of the 19th century, a large part of Les Gaudichots, a lieu-dit adjoining La Tâche, was known in title deeds as Tâche Gaudichots or Tâche Gaudichottée. Indeed the issue remained confused until court proceedings in 1932 and the eventual establishment of the appellation contrôllée of La Tâche in September 1936. The Duvault-Blochet family, the ancestors of the de Villaines who currently co-own the property, acquired parcels of Les Gaudichots throughout the 19th Century including in 1862 a large parcel from M. Morellet and in 1866 a southern portion from M. Lausseure. Each of these vineyards was also referred to as Tâche Gaudichots. In 1932 the Liger-Belair family sought to limit the rights to the La Tâche designation to the original Joly de Bevy vineyard, but lost after an extensive tasting and an official visit to the vineyard by the judge. Thus, the Gaudichots vineyards of de Villaine and Chambon (descendants of Duvault-Blochet) were able to be designated as La Tâche. When in the following year the Liger-Belair heirs sold by auction the original La Tâche vineyard, Edmond Gaudin de Villaine and Jacques Chambon became the sole owners of the present boundaries of La Tâche as eventually defined by the appellation laws in September 1936.