2008 Grands Echezeaux

Exhibiting the low 12’s in percent of alcohol that is inexplicably characteristic for wines from these vines (for more about which see my notes on the 2006 in issue 186), Laurent’s three barrels of 2008 Grands Echezeaux Vieilles Vignes display an almost ethereal sense of high-toned, distilled berry and pit fruit esters allied to uncanny delicacy and transparency. What one perceives through the pure refined window of juicy berries and clear consomme of marrow-rich meat bones are seductive perfume of heliotrope and lily; smoky peat and tobacco; confectionary cocoa and nutmeg; rosewood; chalk and saliva-inducing mineral salts. This finishes with exhilarating lift and refreshment allied to kaleidoscopic complexity. One is put in mind of Musigny (to which these vines are neighbors) and I expect this will be worth following for at least two decades, though I would not want to completely miss out on it young. Incredibly, Laurent calls the vinificatory method here “peasant,” because the fruit was destemmed and the pressing high-efficiency. Surely, I say, he doesn’t want to convince its grower to change anything? No, he says. “A wine like this offers beautiful purity and respect for the terroir. It just hasn’t the same aging potential as one rendered the old way and with vendange entier.” Dominique Laurent – for more on whose methodology consult my report on his 2005s in issue 171 – purchased very cautiously from 2008 just as he had in 2007, and even then rather radically declassified barrels or relegated them to the second label he sells inside France (as opposed to those labeled “Vieilles Vignes”). Hail, he noted, put his sources in Volnay out of contention. “It is a nugatory vintage that leaves me discontent; one that had to be solely for the sake of cash flow – and, of course, to get access to 2009s” he said, in ludicrous exaggeration and unfairness to himself and the wines he was about to show me. Ripeness was not the issue, he insists (though some wines were chaptalized by as much as a degree – typically a matter on which Laurent doesn’t call the shots) but rather the fact that the vintage did not conduce to the long elevage that is Laurent’s trademark, or at least, the trademark of those wines that have been vinified and are then raised by Laurent in keeping with his notion of methode ancienne (as opposed to those he considers representative of “peasant” or “naive” practice – which could arguably be more accurately termed “do-no-harm” vinification and elevage). “The two things that most differentiate a wine of mine from the same wine raised in the grower’s cellar,” volunteers Laurent, “are more lees and less sulfur. The barrels are secondary.” But he adds that he’s not about to back-off significantly on the share of new wood he uses, seeing its hygienic aspects as critical to precisely his ability to maintain those regimens of long lees contact and low sulfur. The scents and flavors of new wood are sometimes more prominent in Laurent’s 2008s – whether simply due to the contrast they present with the fresh, often tart-edged fruit character this vintage’s wines, or perhaps due to high tartaric acidity literally serving somehow for greater extraction from barrel – yet in most instances I found productive tension and synergy to prevail. While he deemed 2007 to be – like its successor – inferior to 2006 not to mention 2005, and declassified many lots, Laurent also scored impressive results (of which I tasted only a modest subset). In these 2007s, new wood was less noticeable, which Laurent suggests is in part – but probably only small part – to his having utilized a bit less. Having noted Laurent’s skepticism as to the suitability of most 2008 material for long elevage, he still acquired numerous wines that had been fermented with a high percentage of stems and whole clusters; furthermore, save for his two Domaine Laurent Pere & Fils wines, none of the 2008 reds were bottled before last spring when I caught them all in barrel. (Volumes being as small as they are chez Laurent, one misses scarcely a barrel of most lots; thus, a highly reliable impression can be obtained via pipette – although, this years declassification has resulted in some larger-than-usual batches.) Speaking of the domaine that Laurent started a few years ago with his son, and with only modest generic and village acreage, it will blossom with the acquisition (which took place in time for vintage 2010) of the 10-acre estate of retiring Alfred Haegelen (Domaine Haegelen-Jayer, which includes Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot). Imported by Martin Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY Tel. (516) 327-0808

(from vines planted in 1928 and 1926 on rocky soil, adjacent to Musigny) Good deep red. Discreet aromas of musky raspberry, crushed stone and complex earth tones. Intensely flavored, soil-driven wine with terrific grip and energy to the flavors of wild rose, spices, minerals and porcini mushroom. This creamy, seamless wine hints at an almost chocolatey sweetness and finishes with noble tannins and excellent length. Like the Echezeaux, the fruit was completely destemmed. This will probably need a decade to reach its plane of peak drinkability.