Romanée Saint Vivant
Grand Cru
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It is always a privilege to taste a Romanée Saint Vivant. It is a rare emotion born from being close to a masterpiece of nature and man. It has a sumptuous, imposing appearance and is a bright ruby colour. The bouquet has a radiant richness passing from black cherries to raspberry jelly and blackberry cordial with violets. With age it develops notes of undergrowth and leather. This immense wine has expressive intensity and depth. It is smooth but not flabby, silky but structured, dense but elegant. Everything mingles and links together to create sublime complexity.
Vintage conditions
After a mild and rainy winter, the spring warmth encouraged an early resumption of the vegetative cycle. In April, temperatures fluctuated around seasonal averages, though the final ten days were particularly cool. Flowering began slowly around 10th June. Despite cool and damp conditions causing some cluster loss, the remaining clusters turned out to be well-aerated - a major advantage in reducing the risk of disease spread due to improved air circulation. Temperature fluctuations continued until harvest. The warm, relatively dry weather that set in during August improved the situation, providing good conditions for veraison and ripening.
Harvest
The optimal start date for the harvest was determined at the last moment. A compromise had to be struck between ripening, which was slow in some plots, and the health of the grapes, which was likely to deteriorate with the expected weather.
The harvest began on 18th September in fine weather and finished on 21st September.Location
A long history: founded in 1098, the abbey of Citeaux has made a lengthy contribution to the extension of vines in Burgundy. The monks of Saint-Vivant de Vergy were very much involved in this, so much so that a vineyard in the Côte de Nuits was named after them.
The Terroir
The vineyard of Romanée Saint Vivant is wonderfully located, with only a road separating it from the Romanée-Conti. It has fabulously generous earth on sublime ground whose mixture of clay and limestone makes one of the greatest reds in the world.
Up until 1990, this vineyard was in the hands of a single winemaker from of the village of Aloxe-Corton. The first vintage of this wine to be produced by Domaine de l'Arlot was 1991.Vinification
- 100% destemming,
- Spontaneous fermentation in wooden vats for 20 days with indigenous yeasts and daily pumping over.Grape varieties
Pinot Noir 100%
Ageing
- 15 months of ageing in French oak barrels (228L), 50% of which are new,
- One month and a half in vats,
- Bottled on February 25th 2026,
- Yield = 18 hl/ha.Tasting Note
This Grand Cru displays lovely concentration on the nose, with its characteristic notes of violet and peony. Subtle and silky on the palate, it is well-balanced, with good structure and firm tannins enveloped in flavours of black cherry and blackcurrant. Very harmonious and balanced on the finish, which proves to be very long, this is a sophisticated and elegant wine that might even surpass the previous vintage.
Géraldine Godot, Directrice Technique (April 2026)Food pairings
With a wine like this, you should not hesitate to set your sights high: fillet of beef with truffle sauce, pressed duck or chicken with ceps. And in autumn, hare "à la royale" would make a perfect match for this legendary red.
These suggestions are offered as a guide, to spark your imagination for flavour pairings.
