1999 Echezeaux

Full red with virtually no amber. Inviting aromas of strawberry, woodsmoke, tobacco and earth, plus a cedary balsamic note. Large-scaled, thick wine with sappy pungency to its flavors of redcurrant, tobacco and saline minerality. The wine's fatness is perfectly cut by brisk acidity. Shows sexy notes of evolution but this grand cru finishes with remarkable energy--in fact even a bit clenched. Fans of fully mature Burgundies might want to wait another six to eight years before pulling the cork. Incidentally, Marie-Christine Mugneret singled out 1999 as the year when the estate's wines began to change, as their vineyard work through the '90s bore fruit. The year also witnessed the estate's longest fermentations to that point, due mostly to very high grape sugars. This wine was de-cuved with ten grams of sugar, and the fermentation finished slowly in barrels.

It had been a few years (2009) since I last tried this but it remains quite youthful as the color is is still deep ruby. A highly expressive nose of highly spiced dark Vosne-style spice is amply laced with earth, tar, leather and tea while displaying the initial hint of secondary nuances. There is lovely richness to the powerful and still quite firm flavors that still carry a hint of rusticity onto the otherwise velvety finish that lasts and lasts. I have upgraded my rating slightly as well as extended the initial drinking window as this is evolving glacially though I underscore that with an hour of air this could be enjoyed now. Note that two bottles were opened by the domaine and had not been moved and a third was tasted in NYC and seemed relatively advanced; I do not know how this bottle had been stored.

Very dark, very dense smoky Vosne fruit laced through and through with Vosne spice, tar, leather and tea. There is unusually good density with a flavor profile that defines Echézeaux with the barest hint of rusticity and a suggestion of the robust yet wrapped in lace and velvet. Certainly bigger and denser than the Feusselottes though not quite as fine. Quality Echézeaux.