F. Lamarche La Grande Rue 1983 Monopole

La Grande Rue is a monopole Grand Cru in Vosne-Romanée. Often overlooked in favor of more famous wines in the limelight like La Romanée, La Romanée-Conti, and La Tâche, it nevertheless makes wine of an extremely high quality, that has only improved since the wine’s elevation from Premier Cru in the 1980s. And due to its underrated status, this wine often offers much lower prices than neighboring Grands Crus.

Owned by Domaine Francois Lamarche, which has a number of other small Premier Cru holdings (no monopoles) in Vosne-Romanée, La Grande Rue is about 4.1 acres, only slightly larger than Romanée-Conti. Slightly less than 600 cases a year, translating to around 7,000 bottles, make it into the Grand Cru wine here. As a result, La Grande Rue is just as exclusive, in terms of production, as Romanée-Conti, but for whatever reason it has never equalled that vineyard in fame or pedigree.

Many of Vosne-Romanée’s biggest hounds believe that La Grande Rue is undeserving of the Grand Cru title, but this is largely untrue. Since the early 1990s, this vineyard has hugely improved its reputation and it now makes wine just as good as many Richebourgs. The wine style is elegant and smooth, with flavors of red fruit that evoke without replicating the neighboring La Tâche.

And for those who can get past its late promotion, La Grande Rue may well be the best priced Grand Cru wine in all of Vosne-Romanée (although in comparison with other villages’ Grands Crus, it still seems overpriced). When you take into account the very high pedigree of recent years, it’s not too surprising that this is recognized as one of the top vineyards of Burgundy, with a style all its own.