2014 Echézeaux Grand Cru

“Two thousand fourteen is a brother of 2013,” according to Mounir Saouma, “with both sets of wines coming from typically fresh Burgundian summers. But the 2014s are more crystalline wines than the ‘13s and their tannins were riper. Both vintages show their site character clearly, especially 2014, where you see the purity of every terroir rather than the vintage itself. The ‘14s will show very well early and then they may sleep a bit. But they will age very well as yields were very low and dry extract levels are high.”

“Two thousand fourteen is a brother of 2013,” according to Mounir Saouma, “with both sets of wines coming from typically fresh Burgundian summers But the 2014s are more crystalline wines than the ‘13s and their tannins were riper Both vintages show their site character clearly, especially 2014, where you see the purity of every terroir rather than the vintage itself The ‘14s will show very well early and then they may sleep a bit But they will age very well as yields were very low and dry extract levels are high”

"Two thousand fourteen is turning into a kind of 2013 bis [again]," said Mounir Saouma in December."Both vintages made crystalline wines in an old Burgundy style. They show crunchy fruit and they're not high in alcohol. You feel the skins, not the fruit. Both sets of wines were lost for their first year; they had beauty and flavor at the beginning but no deepness. With the 2014s, we are only now seeing the purity of every cru, the nudity of the terroir."

The 2014s are old-fashioned wines with great detail, Saouma added, "like the vintages we used to love: you want to drink more." The grapes were a bit more mature than in 2013 but most of the wines were still at least lightly chaptalized, he told me."We had a nice crop, but not heavy. It was necessary to do late malolactic fermentations and not to rack, but in a lot of cellars this was not possible." As is routinely the case in this cellar, the best 2014s here are among the highlights of this very sexy vintage.