Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru is probably more expressive than the Echezeaux on the nose with heightened delineation. Here there is wonderful precision and penetration. A second barrel showed a more floral character, the fruit slightly redder than the first. The palate is medium-bodied with tensile tannins. This is just full of energy percolating through the dark berry, bergamot and bilberry fruit, yet there is a firm grip on the masculine finish, the second barrel a touch suppler and pastille-like. This is an aristocractic Grands Echezeaux in the making. Range: 92-94
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Decanter
Black cherry red, more complex variety of aromas than DRC Echézeaux 2013. It has more richness and masculinity with a briary vigour and firmness of fine-grained tannins that will need and repay keeping.
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.