2014 Grands Echezeaux

Bright medium red. At once more somber and higher-pitched on the nose than the Echézeaux, offering aromas of black cherry, dark berries, violet and bitter chocolate. A step up in texture and richness but densely packed and imploded today. At once powerful and cool, conveying terrific energy to its flavors of dark fruits, salty minerality, licorice and violet. This very long, powerful wine displays a downright chewy texture and yet there's noteworthy finesse to its tannins. Really glistens on the very long, rising finish. Forget about this beauty for a decade.

The 2014 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru was picked on 23 and 24 September at 32.5 hectoliters per hectare. Slightly deeper in color compared to the 2014 Echézeaux, it is undeniably a tangible step up in intensity and complexity, offering disarming raspberry, crushed strawberry, and crushed limestone that almost verges on flintiness. It has beguiling purity and focus. The palate is medium-bodied with a noticeably grippy entry. It has a strong saline seam, structured but not a dense Grands Echézeaux. It gently fans out on the finish with pretty, mineral-soaked red fruit, although the aftertaste is not as prolonged as some of the greatest vintages I have tasted from this esteemed vineyard. Nevertheless, it remains a supremely gifted wine that will bestow two, possibly three decades of drinking pleasure. Tasted February 2017.

The same hue – garnet – as the Échezeaux but less dense. This seems to have a broader range of aromas than the Échezeaux. There’s still the dark-red fruit and a light note of spice but also something more like cedar and the freshness of a forest, even minty. Even more savoury and less open than the Échezeaux, with a tight grip on itself, tightly constrained and all waiting to open but needs a lot more time to do so. Very mineral on the palate, as if the fruit is locked in a steel box. The tannins are paper-fine in texture but so closely packed that they keep everything closed. Long, dry, savoury, mineral finish. (JH)