2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Amélie Berthaut is single-handedly showing what the overlooked appellation of Fixin can achieve. We first met soon after she was handed the running of the domaine by her father Denis Berthaut. She changed the entire modus operandi, not without resistance from some of the long-serving employees. However, the improvement in the quality of wine is incontrovertible and that is all down to Berthaut’s fortitude and talent. I have praised these wines since the first vintage that she took full responsibility for. Since then, there has been investment in a new cuverie, an expansion of holdings (thanks to inheriting parcels mainly around Vosne-Romanée from her mother’s side of the family) and a contemporaneous change of domaine name to “Berthaut-Gerbet.” Not everything has worked. The two-man winch that she was using to plough the steep Les Petit Monts was found impractical and therefore this is now completely farmed by horse. But generally, everything has been hunky-dory apart from the run of challenging growing seasons that tested the mettle of experienced winemakers, let alone brand-new ones. And so 2017 marks the first time that she can really show her talents with decent volumes.

“For me, the vintage was great news because I started in 2013 and subsequent vintages have been difficult,” Berthaut told me down in the barrel cellar in the heart of Fixin. “In 2017, the grapes had good phenolic maturity and there was good but not huge quantity, since we have old vines. We started the harvest on September 6, though we picked the Fixin Blanc at the beginning of the month. The alcohol levels are around 13.0° and just a few cuvées were chaptalised. The malolactic passed quickly this year. Maybe that is because our cellar is new and so in the beginning there were insufficient [indigenous] bacteria to make the conversion. Now there is more. And also the malic acid was quite low in 2017. We will do two more rackings, which will make the wines more open, and then we will bottle in spring. I think the wines will be earlier-drinking.”

Berthaut’s 2017s have much to offer the Burgundy-lover – quantity, for a start. Just check out the wonderful Fixin Les Crais, a modest Village Cru punching at Premier Cru weight, in no small part due to the mixture of vine ages, from 10 to 90 years. In fact, there is one new cuvée in the form of her Fixin Les Hervelets, one of the appellation’s finest Premier Crus, and though there is just one barrel to start of with, there will be more in 2018. Alongside the Fixin Les Arvelets, these two cuvées evince the quality that Fixin can reach. The vineyards might be similar-sounding, yet their styles are noticeably different. The generous volumes did have one drawback, such as running out of space in the vat to add more than 20% whole clusters to her Vosne-Romanée Petit Monts, although that still looks very promising. The Clos Vougeot is one of the best I encountered during my tastings, just pipping the Echézeaux. But to repeat, it is the wines from Fixin that really form the core of the range, and they come highly recommended. It is heartening to see how Amélie Berthaut instigated changes at the domaine and now, five or six years down the line, seems to have settled in. Perhaps being the focus of attention in Fixin is a mantle she could do without, since she is not one who seeks the limelight. She is less outgoing and does not possess the showmanship or gift of the gab of her friend Sylvain Pataille. She lets the wines speak for themselves and, as I have written before, we await more Fixin-based winemakers to follow her lead and give this appellation a higher profile.