So it’s 7:15pm on the 24th September, looking west past the cross on the corner of Romanée Saint-Vivant the sun is already gone. You need something against the chill – it’s about 12°C with a sneaky breeze.

Despite all the vineyards around being harvested many days ago, there are so many grapes in the DRC vineyards that are still hanging – but they are for the birds!

The grapes appear more homogenous than 12 days ago when still there were many green bunches. I’m sure there could be a decent cuvée made from this lot, but these days your not allowed to pick your own – though the grapes from Romanée-Conti did tast rather nice!

Speaking with Etienne de Montille yesterday (who spoke with Aubert de Villaine on Saturday) DRC left something like 20% of the fruit on the vine after taking only that which was perfectly ripe. Doing a quick calculation based on the size of La Tâche, a rough €500 estimate per bottle and an even rougher 35hl/ha average yield, that’s close to 1 million Euro left on the vines – now that’s what you call commitment to quality! Also gives a hint to why it costs what it does.