Wine Advisor
d'Eugenie, Echezeaux Grand Cru 2020
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Echézeaux Grand Cru includes 70% whole bunch and matured in 80% new oak. This is very refined on the nose with brambly red berry fruit, crushed stone, wilted rose petal and a touch of spice. The palate is tensile on the entry with a slightly granular texture, fine depth, real precision and poise on the finish. This really is a top-notch Echézeaux.
About the Producer
The team have about 2.8 hectares of Villages Vosne-Romanée, a little over one hectare of Vosne 1er Les Brûlées, half a hectare each of Echézeaux and Grands-Echézeaux, and probably their best sited parcel, 1.4 hectares of Clos de Vougeot that has a commanding view from the top of the Clos. From the team with ‘responsible technique’, Michel Mallard at the end of November 2008. Michel is a burgundian from a family domaine in Ladoix with experience in the Medoc and Australia, Michel is also a (Decanter 2006) gold medal winning wine-maker. I would say that Michel is a pretty straight-talking guy; when I visited at the end of November 2008 I asked him what advances in the cuverie would be coming from from Bordeaux he started in the expected way, by saying that “both parties are sharing knowledge and can learn something from each other”, but then said with a smile ‘perhaps they (Bordeaux) might first learn to make wine with less rackings’ – he is first and foremost a Burgundian! Apparently (sorry for not knowing!) the Bordelais rack almost every 3 months… Michel described the 2006 vintage as ‘difficult’ from the perspective that they were virtually given the vines at harvest-time, so had no influence on the base raw materials, so we should consider 2007 as the first vintage really delivered by the new team. Clearly their 2007’s are much deeper in colour than the average, Michel says that they certainly stepped up the cold maceration from about 3-5 days in 2006 to around 9-10 days in 2007 – I expect many will point to this as a Bordeaux influence, but taste the wines blind and they are very different from each other, they are clearly pinot and very good pinot. Despite the villages wines of Engel typically being much lighter coloured, I well remember the 1999 Grands-Echézeaux which was as black as night, so let’s have the right perspective! Because the cellar at Lupé-Cholet is quite cold, the malos were quite late and prolonged for both the 2006’s and 2007’s. The 2007 wines will only be racked once – in about 2 weeks – before being bottled in mid January.
