Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Echezeaux is a noticeable step up in quality from the Vosne-Romanee. This is a decidedly rich, powerful Echezeaux endowed with considerable muscle. The aromas and flavors build beautifully towards a dazzling, harmonious finish. The 2008 is a big Echezeaux that could use further time in the cellar. There is plenty of underlying structure to support a long life in the cellar. The 2008 is seriously impressive. If any wine can be said to represent ‘value’ among the Domaine’s 2008s, the Echezeaux is it. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2038.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Claiming the two famous Grand Crus, Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux, the identity of this village, Flagey-Echezeaux, rides predominantly on the glory of those two crus. All of the village or Premier Cru status vineyards in Flagey-Echezeaux market themselves under the name of their neighbor, Vosne-Romanée.
Echezeaux Pinot noir tends be light, bright and full of finesse, whereas those of Grands Echezeaux typically have more heft and complexity.