Grands-Échezeaux Grand Cru

Grands-Échezeaux is a red Grand Cru of Flagey-Echézeaux, recognized on July 31, 1937. The vines, just over 9 hectares, lie at the foot of the slope, on a gentle east-facing incline, in a recess of the wall of the Clos de Vougeot, with Échezeaux upslope and to the south; to the north the combe d'Orveau separates them from Musigny.

According to the appellation rules, the name comes from the Latin casellum or casalis, dwellings of which no trace remains. In the thirteenth century the monks of Cîteaux grew vines here, within the same estate as the Clos de Vougeot; in the abbey's atlas of 1718 the lieu-dit is still called “Echézeaux bas,” and before the Revolution it was already divided among several owners. The present name took hold in the nineteenth century: in 1855 Dr. Lavalle ranked it tête de cuvée; a court ruling of 1925 set its boundaries, confirmed by the AOC.

A fairly homogeneous terroir: thin clay-limestone soils, reddened by iron oxides, over a slab of Bajocian limestone covered by debris. The wine, ruby with purplish glints, has dense yet soft tannins; it smells of fresh cherry, rose, and violet, then spices, forest floor, and plum, and combines power and delicacy with long persistence; a few years in bottle help it open up. The available bottles, when there are any, appear further down.