If Les Grandes Ruchottes and La Grande Montagne are wines borne of the air (aérien, as the French might say), then La Romanée is a wine of the bedrock. According to local lore, this famous site is so named because it was the Romans who first planted vines here. Regardless, La Romanée is located high on the slope, and the Pillot parcel is at the very top. This is a rocky yet sunny site that sees little wind. It is widely considered the finest 1er Cru vineyard in Chassagne, and, as you can see from the pricing, the Pillots rightly consider this their greatest wine. Their 0.49-hectare plot was planted by Thierry’s grandfather more than 70 years ago. The combination of altitude, sunny aspect, old vines and rocky, limestone-rich soils (with next to no topsoil) delivers the holy grail of deep minerality and concentration—the kind of combination normally reserved for the Grands Crus. As you can see from the notes below, the 2022 delivers exactly that level of quality!