Is Échezeaux ‘one thing’ – a single terroir expression? It’s quite big, at 36.29ha, and it appears, even at first glance to be a rather odd shape for this to really be the case. 

If you are walking south on the little service road above the Château de Clos Vougeot, you have the château itself, and the vast Clos Vougeot grand cru appellation vineyard below you in Vougeot to the east. To your right, and behind you is Musigny grand cru, belonging to Chambolle-Musigny. Right in front of you on the same right side, that same slope elevation takes a little dip at the bottom of the Combe d’Orveau, and now you are in Échezeaux. From here we begin Échezeaux’s eleven climats – lieux-dits, or named sub-plots of the appellation, beginning with ‘En Orveau’. As we continue south that same section of the slope continues with ‘Les Poulaillières’, ‘Les Champs Traversins’, then ‘Échezeaux du dessus’ and ‘Les Rouges du Bas’, while the grand cru vineyard Grands Échezeaux fans out below, on our left. We finish our walk south with ‘Les Loächausses’ and ‘Les Cruots ou Vignes Blanches’ in the same section of slope, the vineyards of Vosne-Romanée now in view ahead of us. Here the appellation of Échezeaux grand cru does a bit of an odd thing: it turns abruptly left, south, and continues downslope with ‘Les Treux’, ‘Le Clos Saint-Denis’, and finally ‘Les Quartiers de Nuits’. The soils here, at the bottom, are deeper, richer than those up at the very top, which are thinner, sandier, and in between vary with Premeaux limestone, Bajocian marls, silt and gravel. In other words, the terroirs show some diversity within “Échezeaux”.
















©Les Grands Crus de Bourgogne Vus du Ciel 
 CORRET GERARD

So then, from that, can we pick out the best wines, or single out some differences at least? My first attempt at this question (which of course always involves tasting) came in London in 2009 when I organized and hosted The Fine Wine Experience DRC v Jayer Êchezeaux vertical, six vintages and in each one, these two producers paired side by side.

The gentle, fragrant, open style of the examples from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was night and day from Jayer’s deep-coloured, intense, rich, densely-fruited expression. The DRCs were comparatively just a touch rustic, while the Jayers seemed tightly sculptured. From the mid-80s on, Échezeaux was Jayer’s top appellation, while for DRC it was always the lowest-ranked of their six grand crus, so – one could say cheekily – their entry level wine. Does that make a difference? It’s important to note here that Jayer was aiming for low yields, and always 100% de-stemmed his fruit. DRC, on the other hand used mostly whole bunches, giving a contrasting, more floral style in the glass. In the end, the 1993 and 1990 from Jayer got almost all the tasting participants’ votes for ‘wine of the night’, but the ‘wine to take to dinner’ went to the 1985 from DRC. It was irresistible. The DRCs were also all much more ready to drink than their Jayer counterparts, which seemed relatively youthful, and more stuffed with sweet fruit, and oak.

Échezeaux – DRC vs Jayer, 2009

If the idea was to pinpoint the influence of individual climats here in the wines, the waters were muddied. It was easy to see the two contrasting house styles, but I wouldn’t have guessed from this tasting that DRC’s plots were in the arguably “better located” ‘Les Poulaillières’ and ‘Clos Saint-Denis’, compared to Jayer’s ‘Les Cruots’ and ‘Les Treux’. (The vertical used bottles labelled for Georges Jayer, made by Henri). We’d have to have seen both producers each make two cuvées from one another’s plots to see that, but I’m not sure it would have shed more light on the question. Throughout each year, vignerons make thousands of decisions and actions in the vineyard and winery that greatly influence the final wine, and these decisions accumulate in their effect well beyond one growing season. 

Perhaps then its best to park for the moment this splitting of hairs, and instead ask ourselves what “Échezeaux” offers us as a style of wine. Here I’ll stick with Henri Jayer for a moment, along with his nephew Emmanuel Rouget (who continued his work), and compare their Échezeaux to their famed Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru ‘Cros Parantoux’. My notes for Cros Parantoux often mention a tightly-wound energy and intensity, lots of minerality, and fine but firm tannins, while notes for Échezeaux mention an easier texture by comparison, with lush, mouthcoating fruit and sap. It’s the friendlier of the two wines, and it's also ready earlier from the cellar, though it does keep well. 

In the end these are things we must decide for ourselves, trying the wines. Échezeaux may have 11 climats, bit perhaps more importantly, it has around 60 producers. A bit then like Clos Vougeot, the grand cru appellation offers a way to get to know a producer – their style, the quality of their work. Open a bottle of their Échezeaux, and it should be good. It’s not to your taste or up to your expectation? Cross the producer off your list, and try another. Better still, get some friends together and try some Échezeaux from different producers side by side! We have plenty here to get to started. Then, having found the one you love, explore that producer’s other wines ‘down range’ (or, in the case of DRC, ‘up range’!).