Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Echezeaux Grand Cru 2017

robert_parker93

Reviewed by: William Kelley

Notes of raw cocoa, espresso roast, sweet berries and smoked meats introduce the 2017 Échézeaux Grand Cru, a medium to full-bodied, satiny and open-knit wine with a succulent core of fruit and a gentle structural framing of stem tannin. It's an open-knit, delicately flamboyant vintage of the Domaine's Échézeaux.

robert_parker94

Reviewed by: William Kelley

The flamboyant 2017 Échézeaux Grand Cru is especially good this year, bursting from the glass with an extravagant bouquet of wild berries, rose petals, cinnamon, smoked duck and Asian spices. On the palate, it's full-bodied, supple and velvety, with an expansive attack and superb depth and amplitude, its fleshy core of fruit framed by fine, melting tannins. Reminiscent of a modern-day version of the Domaine's 1985 Échézeaux, this is another 2017 that has gained appreciably with its final months of élevage. Picked on the 18th, this was where the estate's harvest concluded.

vinous94

Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni

The 2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru is similarly lifted, with a bit darker fruit and more structure than the Corton. A deceptive, beguiling Burgundy, the 2017 shows the mid-weight structure of the year. Here too, time in the glass brings out the wine’s vertical feel and overall intensity. The 2017 needs time to soften, but it is incredibly persistent and impeccable in its balance. Readers should expect an especially austere Echézeaux that is going to require cellaring. The fruit was brought in on September 13 and 15, with a day’s break in between because of rain.

vinous91

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru was cropped at 30hl/ha, picked September 13 and 15, and bottled over several days in January and February 2019. It has a pale, clear hue. The expressive bouquet, featuring red cherries, cranberry and a touch of bergamot, is well defined, open and shares the tertiary characteristic of the Corton. The palate is medium-bodied and open-knit, with fine-boned tannins, and underpinned by a fine bead of acidity, although not an intense Grand Cru for sure. Slightly grainy in texture, it shows a fine sense of tension and grip. This is a persistent Echézeaux with darker fruit than the Corton, and very saline toward the finish, with good persistency. You could almost broach it now, but that would be sacrilege – wouldn’t it? 1,289 cases produced. Tasted at Corney & Barrow’s annual in-bottle tasting in London.

vinous93

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru, picked a day after the Grands-Echézeaux on September 13 with a few stragglers picked two days later, has a finely detailed bouquet of black cherry, mulberry, crushed stone and light sous-bois aromas. The palate is lightly spiced on the entry with a dash of white pepper, and offers fine tannin and crunchy black fruit. The structured finish is quite masculine but fresh and vibrant. Cerebral, more so than I think people will give it credit for.

vinous93

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru is similarly lifted, with a bit darker fruit and more structure than the Corton. A deceptive, beguiling Burgundy, the 2017 shows the mid-weight structure of the year. Here too, time in the glass brings out the wine’s vertical feel and overall intensity. The 2017 needs time to soften, but it is incredibly persistent and impeccable in its balance. Readers should expect an especially austere Echézeaux that is going to require cellaring. The fruit was brought in on September 13 and 15, with a day’s break in between because of rain.