LAURENS DELPECH The Prince of Conti (EN)

This combination does not exist.

• English-language hardback telling the story behind Romanée-Conti through the life of Prince Louis-François de Bourbon-Conti (cousin of Louis XV) and his purchase of the vineyard
• 208 pages, large-format illustrated “beaux livre” style
• Moves from biography into what makes the wine singular today, including the place of Romanée-Conti within the Climats de Bourgogne (UNESCO-listed in 2015)
• Includes substantial excerpts from Aubert de Villaine’s harvest reports (since 1996) to show how each vintage’s weather shapes the result
• Publisher: Flammarion (English edition listed for Oct/Nov 2020)

Laurens Delpech approaches the subject with the useful combination of proximity and restraint. He is not writing Burgundy as myth but as a chain of decisions—historical, viticultural, and human—starting with Conti’s ownership and ending in the lived reality of each growing season. That is why the book leans on primary, vintage-by-vintage material (notably de Villaine’s harvest accounts) and keeps returning to the Burgundian truth that “place” only becomes meaningful when filtered through “year”.