2017 Georges Noellat, Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru

The 2017 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru has a very pure, intense bouquet of dark cherries, blackberry, crushed stone and violet aromas, actually more understated but more sophisticated than the Echézeaux. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannin, a fine bead of acidity, sorbet-fresh black fruit and a vivacious, tensile finish. This is a superb Grands-Echézeaux from winemaker Maxime Cheurlin.

An extravagant bouquet of blackberries, plums, incense, rose petals and wood smoke introduces the 2017 Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru, a full-bodied, ample and multidimensional wine that's nicely concentrated and complete, its structuring tannins generously cloaked in juicy fruit, its finish long and precise. This year, Cheurlin vinified the two parts of his Grands Echezeaux separately but concluded—predictably, we agreed—that the whole was more interesting than the sum of the parts.