Winemaker Notes
The wine shows aromas and flavors of red berries, herbs, and purple flowers. The palate is rich with ripe fruit and medium weight with bright acidity and fine tannins. Aging in 40-70% new Burgundian pièce brings notes of vanilla, toast, and baking spices.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Most of the domaine's Echézeaux hails from Les Rouges du Bas, with 30% from a second parcel in Les Vignes Blanches. Made with grapes described as 'caviar' by Mathilde Grivot, this old-vine cuvée is indeed superb in 2018, with plenty of structure and depth, sappy acidity, graceful, caressing tannins, subtle wild strawberry fruit and a lingering palate.
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Jasper Morris
A vivid dark magenta nose with some power. There is an element of reduction with some banana notes which are awkward. Opulent ripe fruit too. Then what feels like some stems but is more likely the minerality of the vineyard expressing itself, while the reduction becomes less evident on the palate. An overall sucrosity though which fights with the ethereal side of Echezeaux. In a difficult phase but with upside potential.
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.