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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
The wine-growing village of Flagey-Échezeaux lies in the " Plain ", so-called, between Vougeot and Vosne-Romanée in the Côte de Nuits. Facing east, the Grands-Échezeaux vines are a prolongation of Musigny following the North-South axis of the Côte, but more regular and less broken in their layout. At the bottom end, the " Climat " known as La Combe d'Orveau separates them from Musigny. The Échezeaux vineyards, for their part, divide the Clos de Vougeot from the Premier Cru vines of Vosne-Romanée.
Grands-Échezeaux and Échezeaux both date their Grands Crus AOCs from July 31, 1937. Like the Clos de Vougeot (from which they are separated only by a wall), they were founded by the monks of the abbey of Cîteaux and date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Their name derives from chesaux, a word of Gallo-Roman origin meaning a group of dwellings, presumably referring to an ancient hamlet.
Belonging geologically to the Jurassic (175 million years BC), the GrandsÉchezeaux vineyards are fairly homogeneous and lie close to the upper part of the Clos de Vougeot. Gradient: 3-4%. Soil: clay-limestone overlying Bajocien limestone. Altitudes: 250 metres. The Échezeaux Climats have more diverse soils (largely bajocien marls with pebbly overlay). Altitudes vary from 230 to a little over 300 metres (13% gradient at mid-slope). Up-slope, the soil is deep (70-80 cm). Gravels, red alluvium, yellowish marl, etc., make up quite a complex mosaic.
Red: its colour is ruby, shading towards the darker tones of magenta and purple. Its bouquet is redolent of animal, spice notes, underbrush, and prune, evolving with age towards musk, leather, fur and mushroom. When young, its aromas suggest rose, violet and fresh cherry. On the palate, there is a heightened attack and an agreeable balance between supple tannins and fully-rounded flavour. The dense texture and tight grain of these wines fully open after 4-5 years in the cellar.
Wines so powerful and full demand to be matched with dishes of the same calibre. Virile, four-sided tannins cry out for roast lamb, rib steak, or joints of game. Autumn and winter dishes in the right setting match the profound and meaty personality of these great wines : braised beef or pork, for example, or any other good red meat. Fine, whole-milk, soft-centred cheeses will also do them proud.
Serving temperature : 15 to 16 °C.
Wine Information
2008 Harvest
The weather sometimes makes it as hard and complicated to give birth to a new vintage as it must be to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. 2008 will remain a concentrated demonstration of how difficult, fascinating and also rewarding it is to be a vigneron in Burgundy.
We first became aware of these difficulties on Palm Sunday when a firm West wind blew for the whole week-end. The wind that blows on that day remains, practically every year, the dominant wind of the season. West wind brings rain. We knew then that we were heading for a challenging vintage. But at the same time, the cool spring weather helped the vines to produce grapes with small clusters and, most important, a lot of "millerand" berries: grapes ideally built to make a great vintage.
The flowering was late compared to most recent vintages. It began on June 1st and took three weeks to be completed. As a result, the veraison, two months later, also took three weeks. This was a setback, but the grapes still had their "great vintage" structure.
Unfortunately in June, July and August, the West winds brought frequent rain. This made the vines subject to attacks of all sorts: mildew, oidium and later botrytis. We managed to fight these victoriously while entirely keeping to our organic methods. This meant that we had to be ready to intervene every time the weather would offer us a "window". Any wrong step would have been severely punished.
Nature's last wicked attack was the severe rain it brought the second week of September. Botrytis was progressing and, if this weather had continued, we would have run the risk of losing the entire crop. It is at this time that, once more, what we call the "burgundian miracle" came to the rescue. From the morning of Sunday, September 14th, after the last day of rain on Saturday, the North wind set in, strong, cold, exhilarating for us as well as for the grapes. With it came a succession of cold nights and luminous days. This had a brutal effect on the botrytis causing it to dry up rapidly. The maturation slowly progressed and, under the action of the North wind, sugar and acidity were spectacularly concentrated. It is to be noted that these climatic conditions are quite similar to 1996 and had the same effect: a fast increase of the sugar content and a concentration of the acidity.
We waited until the end of September to pick, letting our grapes benefit for as long as possible from the wind and sun to heal their wounds. When we decided to pick on September 27th, the vines were at the end of their vegetative cycle. There was nothing more to gain. Botrytis was still there, but dry. It was up to our team of pickers to do the "haute couture" work of sorting that we have trained them to do.
It was hard work and a good part of the crop was left on the ground or discarded from the sorting table. The grapes that ended up in the vats were of the finest quality: small clusters and small black berries showing some of the highest sugar contents of these last years, as well as the high acidities that make long-ageing wines.
With a little more luck or help from the weather in July and August, 2008 could have been one of the greatest vintages ever. But with the help of the dry conditions in the 2nd part of September, we believe that we have saved the "heart" of the crop and that the grapes we have so carefully picked will show, if not all, at least a good part of their initial potential. Once more, in Burgundy 2008 is a "millésime de vigneron".
Here are the harvest dates and approximate yields:
Harvest dates Yields
Echezeaux ......................... Oct. 4th, 5th&6th ................ 18 hl/ha
Grands-Echezeaux ............ Oct. 4th ............................... 19 hl/ha
Romanée-St-Vivant .......... Sept. 30th, Oct. 1st&2nd ...... 18 hl/ha
Richebourg ....................... Sept. 29th&30th ................... 15 hl/ha
La Tâche ........................... Sept. 27th, 28th&29th .......... 16 hl/ha
Romanée-Conti ................. Sept. 30th ............................ 16 hl/ha
Montrachet was harvested on October 1st.
Contrary to the red wines where the yield, as shown above, is extremely reduced, the crop of Montrachet is normal (40 hl/ha). We had some noble botrytis, a lot of "millerand" berries and as a result, a high concentration of sugar. 2008 should produce very good white wines and a particularly great Montrachet. In the barrels the fermenting must shows already some penetrating aromas of sweet honey.
The vinifications have been oenological examples. The grapes being taken cold to the winery, the vats "simmered" for a good week before starting the fermentations. These lasted over three weeks and proceeded ideally: slow and regular increase of temperatures, good extraction of colour and tannins, winery full of penetrating aromas.
We have waited for the first "devattings" to be finished to send you this report. The colours are a bright and healthy red. Aromas are fine, delicate and noble. The first wines show a good minerality and a promising depth. It would be surprising if the North wind at the end of the season did not bring some firmness to the wines, but it is truly after the malolactic - which we shall certainly not hasten - that we shall be able to evaluate the real balance these wines have.
Vuosikerta 2008
An indifferent spring caused uneven flowering and mildew risk. At the end of June the weather changed for the better, continuing into July. Apart from local hail in the Côte de Beaune at the end of July, the summer began well. August arrived fairly cold and variable, but fortunately the last week of the month brought fine, warm weather. The lead-up to harvest saw sunny skies, apart from two days of rain in mid-September. A challenging vintage.
From day one the red wines have had a rich, pure fruit character with fine, silky tannins. The whites offer a good balance between ripe fruit and vibrant acidity. A vintage not to be overlooked because the wines deliver potential and pleasure.
