The score for 2007 DRC Romanee St Vivant Marey Monge Grand Cru is 93 from Robert Parker and the tasting note - The Domaine’s 2007 Romanee-St.-Vivant predictably inhabits a different world – not to mention being in a different league of complexity and intrigue – from their Echezeaux, Grands Echezeaux, or Richebourg of that vintage. Peat, leather, humus, forest floor, and decadent floral perfume are joined by an oceanic saline, alkaline, kelp-tinged aspect, and these surf-and-turf aspects follow on a polished palate that – despite only the slightest nod in the direction of overt fruitiness by way of dark berries – nevertheless displays a mouth-watering juiciness to accompany its myriad mineral and organic complexities. A persistently satisfying and thought-provoking finish points to the likelihood of 12-15 years continuance. Domaine de La Romanee-Conti director Aubert de Villaine perceives both the estate’s 2008 and 2007 collections as vins de garde, and I can’t argue with that assessment, even though when I first tasted the 2007s – soon after they had come out of malo – I harbored reservations, wondering whether to interpret de Villaine’s description of them as “ethereal” to read “ephemeral.” He says holding back the usual 5% share of production for the Domaine’s own cellar was difficult in the greatly reduced 2008 vintage, and that he is already regretting not having arranged to bottle a larger share in magnum. He still had time when I visited in April to reconsider the bottle format for three appellations, which were the only ones I was able to taste, since De Villaine is loathe to show wines in the first 9-12 months after bottling. (I’ll report on the full 2008 collection from bottle at a later date.) If the 2007s here were unusual for that vintage in the degree to which they gained stature in the course of elevage, such behavior was normal when it came to 2008, so that I was not surprised to hear de Villaine remark on a new-found degree of confidence in the stature of that collection. To an even greater degree than in most vintages, success in 2007 and 2008 came down to meticulousness at every stage