1985 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Two terroirs, across four vintages in four different decades. Those were the parameters for this fascinating tasting held at the World Wine Symposium a few weeks ago. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Co-Manager Aubert de Villaine supplied all of the bottles from the estate’s cellars, which accounts for the brilliant performance of some of the wines in this tasting, the 1985s and 1979s in particular. Although the purpose of the tasting was to analyze the role of terroir, I actually found the wines to be just as marked by the personalities of their respective vintages.

A harsh winter and a delayed flowering are two of the characteristics of the 1985 growing season. Harvest started on October 2nd and wrapped up on the 8th, very late by today’s standards, but typical of the era, which shows just how much things have changed over the last few decades. These two 1985s are quite pretty, but they are also at or near maturity. I expect the wines will hold for at least another handful of years although there is little, if any, upside to be gained from extended cellaring.