97pts Decanter

The Romanée-Saint-Vivant remains a significant step above the Echézeaux and Grands Echézeaux in this portfolio, with a deeper colour and a richer, riper black plum fruit character. The floral elements noticed in barrel are still pronounced, along with a brambly note from the whole cluster ferment and a bit more liquorice spice than it showed earlier in its evolution. The texture on the palate has smoothed out now; there is more depth and richness and less grippy tannins than noted in the fall after the vintage. Picked 27 – 28 September; 9,064 bottles produced.

96pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru is intense and perfumed, soaring from the glass with scents of dark berries, rose petals, orange rind, aromatic bark and coniferous forest. Full-bodied, deep and unctuously textural, with a richly layered core of fruit, it's vibrant and penetrating, concluding with an intensely saline finish that marks it out as the closest relative in the range of the Romanée-Conti itself.

96pts Wine Spectator

Surprisingly rich, yet with a firm backbone, the Romanée St.-Vivant reveals core flavors of rose and cherry, with a spicy element on the finish, intensity and finesse.

95pts Vinous

The 2021 Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru is a big step up in this tasting. Unlike the Echézeaux and the Grands Echézeaux, the RSV possesses notable textural depth and resonance, albeit in the smaller-scaled style of the year. Bright red-toned fruit, chalk, mint, white pepper, citrus and cedar fill out the layers effortlessly. The stems are evident, but beautifully woven into the wine's fabric. Traditionally, La Tâche and Romanée-Conti garner the most attention here, but in 2021 Romanée St. Vivant is clearly the most expressive wine, at least today. I would be thrilled to own it.

94pts Burghound

A kaleidoscopically spicy broad-ranging nose is both much more floral and more elegant with its notes of lavender, dried rose petal, jasmine tea, tangerine peel and cool red currant. The gorgeously textured and sublimely delicate yet quite punchy middleweight plus flavors possess the finest mouthfeel in the range, all wrapped in a superbly long, youthfully austere and delineated finale that seems just a bit skinny at present. This is at once understated and very classy and my rating offers the benefit of the doubt that it will eventually flesh out with time in bottle.

Winemaker Notes

Romanée-St-Vivant is flirtatious; one cannot help loving it. Behind this grace resides a strength in such perfect balance that, at first, it is imperceptible. Surface area: 5.2858 hectares