2008 Echezeaux Les Loachausses

The 2008 Echezeaux Les Loachausses represents Anne Gros’s second vintage from family vines leased for a quarter-century (since before the birth of Domaine Anne Gros) to Domaine Gros Frere et Soeur. (Actually, she has had a few rows of Echezeaux all along, but not enough to fill a standard barrique, let alone commercialize.) This evokes perfume and pungency of hibiscus, cooked ginger, and smoky Latakia tobacco. Persistent inner-mouth florality and smokiness are accompanied on a palate of delicacy and textural refinement by tart, vintage-typical fresh red berry fruit subtly tinged with barrel-reinforced vanilla cream and caramel that contribute lovely finishing counterpoint. This veritable alter-ego of Gros’s Clos Vougeot should be fascinating to follow, but watchfully, for at least half a dozen years. Anne Gros always tends to prefer a light touch with extraction. This applies to a set of 2008s that she bottled already in December and agrees will probably be best enjoyed on the early side (though I suspect she might find my suggestions a tad too conservative). She picked until quite late, though, and – relative to most of her colleagues – even later in 2007, from which unfortunately I did not get opportunity to taste her collection. “The past three vintages,” she notes – including 2009 in her comment – “I’ve taken three weeks to harvest six and a half hectares, and I now regret that in the previous years I started too late,” meaning it was impossible to take as much time as she prefers for her wide range of elevations and exposures with grapes both black and white. (In 2003, harvest took place the 25th through 28th of August, the earliest and fastest harvest in the history of the domaine, but one Gros says she hopes fervently never to have to relive.) In Clos Vougeot alone, Gros harvested for five full days in 2008. A Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93

(just the second vintage of this wine chez Gros, from 20-year-old vines in the lieu-dit Les Loachausses) Medium red, not as dark as the Barreaux. Aromas of redcurrant and plum show less lift than the village wines from Gros. Fat and sweet, with good redcurrant intensity, but lacking the ineffable floral and mineral qualities I normally find in the grand crus at this address. A lower-toned wine that finishes with slightly drying tannins.