2002 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Regis Forey has made a fat, tender set of 2003s, which he describes as "too charming now."He harvested a very small crop beginning on August 23.Potential alcohol levels were in the very high 13.5% to 14% range and all the fruit was destemmed.Forey used carbonic snow to get the temperature of the grapes down to 15oC, but not the normal 8o to 10o, and thus the cold maceration was shorter than usual.With one exception, he did not acidify his village wines or crus; he punched down the cap twice a day during the active portion of the fermentation and then once a day after that.He used less new oak than usual to age the 2003s, as he did not want to dry the wines.Still, Forey told me that the SO2 combined quickly with the wines, and that he's afraid the vintage will prove to be oxidative.I found several of the 2003s a bit flaccid in November; it was the 2002s that stood out on my latest visit.

One really sees the typicity of the villages in 2002," says Regis Forey. The wines from Nuits-Saint-Georges are velvety, while those from Vosne-Romanee are comparatively linear and severe.But there's less difference in quality than usual between the village wines and the crus.On the other hand, vintage 2002 is more opulent in general, while the 2001s are much tighter wines." The malos finished late, between July and October, and only the Morey-Saint-Denis had been racked and sulfured at the time of my visit.In November, Forey planned to rack only for the assemblage I'm old now, and I manage my efforts," explained this solidly built and still-youthful vigneron