Cote de Nuits Wines

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ean-Nicolas Méo’s 2020 Clos Vougeot is really, really refined this year. The wine delivers a complex and very pure aromatic constellation of red and black cherries, plums, dark chocolate, gamebird, violets, a touch of fresh nutmeg, complex soil tones and a nice foundation of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of sappy fruit, excellent mineral undertow and grip, ripe, buried tannins and impeccable balance on the long, suave and classy finish. Fine, fine juice. (Drink between 2035 - 2095)John Gilman | 94+ JGApart from 2017, Jean-Nicolas Méo only makes one commercially available cuvée of his substantial holding of Clos de Vougeot. Even purple throughout. This is a sturdy, weighty, richly dark fruited, multi-layered wine, with great potential for the long term. Ripe but not exaggerated. Tasted: December 2021.Jasper Morris | 94-97 JMThe 2020 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru is very promising, unfurling in the glass with aromas of wild berries, cherries, orange rind, potpourri and loamy soil. Full-bodied, velvety and concentrated, it’s seamless and complete, with superb depth at the core and a long, resonant finish. It will be fascinating to compare with the 2019 rendition in two decades’ time.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93-95 RPThe 2020 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru had to shake off a little reduction before revealing its minerally blackberry, raspberry and cassis fruit. Wilted rose petal emerge with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, nicely focused yet surprisingly strict and linear at the moment. This will gain "shoulders" once in bottle.Vinous Media | 92-95 VMDiscreet but still perceptible wood-suffuses the ripe aromas of black cherry, currant, newly turned earth and a floral top note. There is a lovely sense of underlying tension to the palate coating and nicely detailed medium weight plus flavors that offers excellent depth and persistence on the relatively refined if youthfully austere finale. This is more structured than it usually is and is a wine that is going to require at least a decade of aging first.Burghound | 92-94 BH

The 2020 Grands Échézeaux Grand Cru is a striking young wine, offering up aromas of mulberries and cassis mingled with orange zest, exotic spices and rose petals. Full-bodied, seamless and complete, with an immensely layered, fleshy palate, it concludes with a long, penetrating, saline finish. Such is its fruit concentration that its rich, powdery tannins are almost imperceptible. Over the last decade, the Grands-Échézeaux has tended to take a back seat to the Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Richebourg, but that certainly isn’t the case in 2020.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RPAn exceptionally dense purple. The bouquet suggests an exceptional wine. It has enormously more intensity than the preceding three wines, yet no sign of whole bunches, and just a light patina of oak. Rich mature fruit throughout. Dark strawberries with a suggestion of chocolate. Plump fruit backed by just enough acidity, long and graceful. Will these wines tighten up? Will tannins start to show beneath? For the moment they are smothered by the fruit. The longer in the glass, though, and the structure does appear. In terms of quality delivered in proportion to the fame of each appellation, the Echezeaux is the stand out wine from the Domaine this year. Drink from 2030-2045. Tasted Oct 2022.Jasper Morris | 97 JMThe 2020 Echézeaux Grand Cru is one of the standouts in this tasting. Opulent and sumptuous to the core, the Echézeaux is a real head-turner. I suppose it is not as complex as some of the other wines in this range, but as Aubert de Villaine once said to me about his Montrachet "You don’t always want complex, do you?" A rush of dark blue/purplish fruit, spice, chocolate, spice and lavender races across the palate. Readers will find a racy, hedonistic Burgundy that will drink well with minimal cellaring. What a wine!Vinous Media | 96 VMThe 2020 Echézeaux has a deep colour and a noticeably dark fruit character, with aromas of ripe blackberry, earth, and spice complemented by floral rose petal notes. The texture is supple and rich, and the wine is a noticeable step in intensity and concentration, underlaid with velvety tannins that linger on the palate. The grapes come from the domaine’s 4.67-hectare holdings, largely in the lieu-dit of Poulaillères, and were picked on 30 August and 1 September with a short break for rain; 15,361 bottles were made.Decanter Magazine | 96 DECAn exuberantly spicy and wonderfully floral nose exhibits additional aromas of poached plum, mocha, jasmine tea and an interesting hint of tangerine peel. The rich, concentrated and powerful bigger-bodied flavors possess an absolutely gorgeous mouthfeel thanks to the abundance of sappy dry extract that also buffers the firm core of ripe tannins shaping the stunningly long finish. This actually isn’t quite as refined as the Petits Monts, but it is definitely more powerful and imposing, as well as slightly more structured.Burghound | 95 BH

The Grivot family owns 0.84ha of Echézeaux, mainly in Les Cruots. The grapes are entirely destemmed and given a cold soak before gentle fermentation on native yeasts. The wine is pressed and aged in cask (40% new). The result shows impressive elegance yet is in no way lacking fruit, with a lovely, expressive black cherry and pomegranate quality. The texture is delicate, yet there is impressive concentration, and the red fruit and floral notes linger on the finish. Drinking Window: 2027 - 2050Decanter | 96 DECTouches of bitter chocolate and kirsch are present on the spicy aromas of plum, violet and soft wood. The finer if not denser flavors possess a velvety texture while also coating the palate with dry extract on the dusty and chalky finish that is likewise youthfully austere. I very much like the depth and persistence and this beauty should also age gracefully for as long as most anyone would like.Burghound | 93-96 BHThe 2020 Echézeaux Grand Cru offers mulberry, sous-bois and very subtle star anis aromas on the nose. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, quite taut and fresh, linear at the moment with touches of blood orange and Clementine towards the finish. Give this several years in bottle.Vinous Media | 92-94 VM