The wine is Romanee-Conti 1970, no. 006303. I bought a few bottles of
this in the early 1970s as well as some of the 1970 La Tache. It has
been stored properly be me since. Most red Burgundy from 1970 was a
bit lighter than the best years, and much is now too old.

I have tasted this 1970 Romanee-Conti about every 10 years since it
was 10 years old. It and the 1970 La Tache were not very good early on
(except when very young before they went into an extremely long dumb
phase). At about 20 years, both Romanee-Conti and La Tache started to
develop interest. La Tache was more full in body, but Romanee-Conti
developed much more complexity, especially in the bouquet as the wine
aged more at about 40 years. At present, the Romanee-Conti is still
holding well and has a bouquet of complexity that I have not found in
any other dry red wine.

If you read reviews of older Romanee-Conti and La Tache, you will find
many that are not so good. Of course cork failure sometimes lets
oxygen in that ruins the wine. It is asking much to expect a cork to
last and seal properly over 40 years, and storage should be nearly
perfect. Because of often non-ideal storage and possible fraud, I
would not buy any bottle of Romanee-Conti now unless I had a notarized
statement giving the history of all previous owners and how they
stored the wine.

Empty Romanee-Conti bottles with good labels are often bought and some
likely are filled again with who-knows-what. Making a new branded cork
should not be a great problem. Also it is possible to drill a small
hole in the base of the bottle and draw out the wine through it. Then
the bottle can have other wine injected through the hole, and the tiny
hole can be sealed with plastic so that it is very difficult to notice
unless someone examines the bottom of the bottle very carefully. The
1970 Romanee-Conti cost about US$ 50 in the early 1970s, if you could
find it. Today, even fairly recent better bottles can sell for several
1000 to over 10000 $US. In his 2013 Pocket Wine Book, Hugh Johnson
suggests cellaring Romanee-Conti for decades for best results.
Although the 1970 is not the most famous Romanee-Conti around, I have
to agree with Johnson's suggestion.

On Saturday, January 26, 2013 5:10:33 AM UTC-5, cwdjrxyz wrote:
> The wine is Romanee-Conti 1970, no. 006303. I bought a few bottles of
>
> this in the early 1970s as well as some of the 1970 La Tache. It has
>
> been stored properly be me since. Most red Burgundy from 1970 was a
>
> bit lighter than the best years, and much is now too old.
>
>
>
> I have tasted this 1970 Romanee-Conti about every 10 years since it
>
> was 10 years old. It and the 1970 La Tache were not very good early on
>
> (except when very young before they went into an extremely long dumb
>
> phase). At about 20 years, both Romanee-Conti and La Tache started to
>
> develop interest. La Tache was more full in body, but Romanee-Conti
>
> developed much more complexity, especially in the bouquet as the wine
>
> aged more at about 40 years. At present, the Romanee-Conti is still
>
> holding well and has a bouquet of complexity that I have not found in
>
> any other dry red wine.
>
>
>
> If you read reviews of older Romanee-Conti and La Tache, you will find
>
> many that are not so good. Of course cork failure sometimes lets
>
> oxygen in that ruins the wine. It is asking much to expect a cork to
>
> last and seal properly over 40 years, and storage should be nearly
>
> perfect. Because of often non-ideal storage and possible fraud, I
>
> would not buy any bottle of Romanee-Conti now unless I had a notarized
>
> statement giving the history of all previous owners and how they
>
> stored the wine.
>
>
>
> Empty Romanee-Conti bottles with good labels are often bought and some
>
> likely are filled again with who-knows-what. Making a new branded cork
>
> should not be a great problem. Also it is possible to drill a small
>
> hole in the base of the bottle and draw out the wine through it. Then
>
> the bottle can have other wine injected through the hole, and the tiny
>
> hole can be sealed with plastic so that it is very difficult to notice
>
> unless someone examines the bottom of the bottle very carefully. The
>
> 1970 Romanee-Conti cost about US$ 50 in the early 1970s, if you could
>
> find it. Today, even fairly recent better bottles can sell for several
>
> 1000 to over 10000 $US. In his 2013 Pocket Wine Book, Hugh Johnson
>
> suggests cellaring Romanee-Conti for decades for best results.
>
> Although the 1970 is not the most famous Romanee-Conti around, I have
>
> to agree with Johnson's suggestion.

Great notes, as always.
I've never bought a bottle of DRC, though I've enjoyed several (but not Romanee Conti or La Tache). As you say, even if I hit the lottery, I;d not be comfortable buying DRC on secondary market, too much potential for fraud.
Thanks for letting us live vicariously!