2018 Domaine d'Eugenie, Echezeaux Grand Cru

The 2018 Echézeaux Grand Cru has a clean, pure bouquet, a mélange of red and blue fruit, quite floral in style. It opens up with time and reveals hidden sous-bois and mineral elements. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy red fruit, fine depth, an underlying graphite element that becomes more prominent towards what, at least for this vintage, comes across as structured on the finish. There is satisfying freshness and tension and it should age well in bottle. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 red tasting.

Combe d’Orveau. Six new barrels out of nine. 60% whole bunch. Barrel sample. Deep cherry red. Dark-red almost savoury fruit with a dry finesse and ripeness of fruit tied to the most subtle of tannins. Light spice. The freshness is all in the minerally aroma. All dark dry finesse. Precise and toned. Sinewy. No fat but it warms to a richness on the palate. (JH)