2016 Echezeaux
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Tasting notes
(100% vendange entier ; the estate has just a single once-used barrel of this juice--the equivalent of six hectoliters per hectare--due to the frost but harvested at 13.3% potential alcohol): Bright, dark red-ruby. Black fruits, licorice and a pronounced clove note (from the stems?) on the nose. Surprisingly thick and sweet but enlivened by strong acidity and saline minerality. A rather clenched, even disjointed, style for this cuvée , and less interesting than the 2016, showing the wine's typical spicy aspect but not its classic ripe red berry fruit. This will need long aging to open but will it ever be generous? No shortage of energy or purity but hard to warm to. And atypical for this wine, which is normally destemmed. Here's a frost wine that tastes like a frost wine.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Neal Martin, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Echézeaux Grand Cru comes from a parcel in the lower part of the vineyard and was reduced to a single barrel as a consequence. It is 100% whole bunch. It has a reticent bouquet with sultry black fruit, a little stemmy and lacking some vigor. The palate is medium-bodied with a candied, pastille-like quality, approachable in style but missing some backbone toward the finish. This is one for early drinking.