Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Romanée-Conti Vineyard Visit

Walk up Rue du Temps Perdu — the Street of Lost Time — and you'll understand the name. Every uninvited visitor who rings DRC's bell gets turned around and sent back down it. But you're not going to the gates. You're going to the stone cross at the edge of 1.81 hectares that produce 5,500 bottles a year at $10,000 each. The 1945 vintage — 600 bottles from the last ungrafted vines, some rooted since 1585 — fetched $558,000 at Sotheby's. A horse named Mickey still plows this soil. The Abbey of Saint Vivant planted here in 1232. DRC won't let you in. The vineyard itself will change you anyway.