2013 Echezeaux

Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting in Beaune, the 2013 Echézeaux Grand Cru has a pretty bouquet with red cherries and strawberry fruit, neatly disguised oak and impressive transparency. The palate is medium-bodied with strawberry and raspberry preserve on the entry, slightly grainy-textured tannin but with appealing salinity towards the modest finish. I feel this has more to give, hence the plus sign against my score. Tasted September 2016.

Bright, dark red. Complex, soil-driven scents of raspberry, dried flowers, mint, porcini and truffley underbrush. At once silky and taut, displaying superb inner-mouth perfume and salinity. Sensual and totally filled in, delivering a perfect balance of seductiveness and tension thanks to its resonant mineral energy. Made mostly from vines in Les Cruots, with a bit of higher-altitude Rouge du Dessus in the blend. Very demonstrative today, with dark raspberry and meat flavors sexed up by Oriental spices. Grivot describes Echézeaux as "a caress" but this wine also possesses terrific force.

Bright, dark red. Red and black fruit aromas are complicated by flinty minerality and a peppery element that reminded me of cabernet franc. Silky and voluptuous, with its sweet flavors of cherry, tobacco and underbrush nicely leavened by a deep spiciness. Boasts serious grand cru size and breadth. Finishes very long, with noble tannins and outstanding sucrosité . Great potential here.