2022 Echézeaux Grand Cru

“It was a weird season for me because it was warm in July,” Berthaut tells me, safely distanced as she has the sniffles, “but we had lots of rain in June, mostly in Gevrey and Fixin, less than in Côte de Beaune [see Brian Sieve’s theory on why this might be in the Domaine de Montille profile]. It was dry and hot. The Fixin Les Arvelets and Gevrey Lavaut suffered some hail damage on June 22 and necessitated sorting of damaged berries. We thought we would have a harvest in mid-August, but it was so warm that it blocked maturity. There was some rain, which was good. The harvest started on August 26 and finished on September 10 in the Hautes-Côtes. The alcohol is not so high, 13.2% maximum. The wines were fermented in concrete without so many stems because of the space, not because of the volume of stems but because of the new cuvées from my mother’s side from the 2013 vintage.” I adored this range from Berthaut: pure fruit, fine extract, and nascent wines that brim with energy. Head for her unimpeachable range of Fixin cuvées, especially her over-performing En Combe Roy and Les Crais, which match the Premier Cru of Les Arvelets pound-for-pound. Best in show? A stunning Vosne-Romanée Les Petits-Monts, which, inexplicably, Berthaut expressed dissatisfaction towards, at least in terms of the viticulture. I told her that what counts is in the glass, and even if there are improvements to be made out in the vine, that doesn’t color my arguably more objective judgments that it’s a wine I would love to have in my cellar. In fact, I preferred this to the Echézeaux, as good as that is too.