Domaine Alain Hudelot-Noëllat is one of Vosne-Romanée’s most revered small estates, producing Grand Cru wines from some of the most celebrated plots in all of Burgundy. The domaine’s Romanée-Saint-Vivant comes from 0.48 hectares of century-old vines planted just north of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s own parcel within this storied nine-hectare Grand Cru. Today the wines are made by Charles van Canneyt, who has been responsible for a succession of wines that critics have described as the finest in the domaine’s modern history. The winery uses 45% new barrels, indigenous yeast fermentation and bottling without fining or filtration.

The 2018 Burgundy vintage was marked by warmth and richness, with low yields on some estates and a ripeness level that produced wines of considerable concentration. For the finest Grand Cru sites in Vosne-Romanée, where the combination of ancient vines, precise farming and deep limestone terroir naturally moderates even warm vintages, 2018 produced some exceptional results. The Romanée-Saint-Vivant is acknowledged as one of the top wines from this estate, with Decanter describing the 2018 as an “effortlessly concentrated, complex Grand Cru” with “engagingly sweet, nuanced and juicy” character and a “long, nuanced finish.”

Decanter awarded the 2018 Romanée-Saint-Vivant 96 points, with Vinous confirming 96 points as well, describing a wine of noble vineyard character that triumphed over the vintage’s potential for excess. The Wine Advocate assessed the wine at 95-97 points at barrel stage. This rare convergence of three leading publications at the top of their scoring ranges confirms the 2018 as one of the finest recent vintages of the Hudelot-Noëllat Romanée-Saint-Vivant. The magnum format amplifies what is already a deeply age-worthy wine, providing the ideal conditions for continued development over two to three decades.