DOMAINE DE LA ROMANEE-CONTI Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru 2019 Bottle

Description

The 2019 Grands Échézeaux Grand Cru has garnered significant acclaim, earning 98 points from Decanter and 96 points from both Vinous and The Wine Advocate. This wine, sourced from the domaine's 3.53ha holding, reveals a spicy and open nose, presenting voluptuous dark fruit aromas intertwined with a powerful yet supple structure. Bertrand de Villaine describes it as embodying "savoury, sappy power," culminating in a majestically long finish. Vinous highlights its freshness amid vintage richness, seamlessly blending blood orange, menthol, coffee, and red-fruit layers, making it a standout and somewhat hidden gem of the range. With its harmonious bouquet and vibrant complexity, this Grands Échézeaux is expected to mature beautifully, with a drinking window from 2029 to 2065, offering ample pleasure for years to come.

*****

DECANTER 98 points
Tasted by: Charles Curtis MW (at Burgundy, 24 Oct 2020) Part of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2019: in-bottle tasting comparison
Drinking Window: 2029 - 2059
From the domaine’s 3.53ha holding, just down-slope from their vines in Echézeaux. Spicy and open on the nose, this shows a voluptuous, lush dark fruit scent and a seductively supple yet powerful structure that Bertrand de Villaine refers to as 'the savoury, sappy power of the wine'. With a majestically long finish, this is a superb example from this vineyard.

VINOUS 96 points
The 2019 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru is absolutely stunning. It is also the first wine in this tasting that feels less marked by the vintage, where there is a good deal of freshness to play off all the natural richness of the vintage. There is plenty of power and volume, and yet all the elements are so well-balanced. Blood orange, menthol, coffee and layers of red/purplish-toned fruit all meld together seamlessly. In richer years the Grands Echézeaux is often one of my favorite wines in the range, as is the case once again with the 2019. Of course, all of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines are frightfully expensive today, but if there is one hidden gem in the range in 2019, it is without question the Grands Echézeaux. It’s the wine I would personally go after most given its quality, personality and relatively – and I do mean relatively – modest price next to the other wines here. - Antonio Galloni

THE WINE ADVOCATE 96 points
Drink Date 2029 - 2065
Reviewed by William Kelley - Issue Date 20th Jan 2022
The 2019 Grands Échézeaux Grand Cru is more reserved than the Échézeaux, even if it's far from forbidding. Mingling aromas of blackberries and raspberries with notions of exotic spices, orange rind, smoked duck and forest floor, it's full-bodied, rich and concentrated, with broad structural shoulders supplied by ripe, powdery tannins. Layered and muscular, it's remarkably seamless and integrated at this early stage, concluding with a long, sapid finish.

JASPER MORRIS - Inside Burgundy - 95-97 points
Rich flowing purple with a really harmonious bouquet. Equally opulent when tasted after the Echezeaux, but fresher in bouquet, offering a superbly hedonistic sweetness with a lush darkness of fruit. Perhaps the 2019 does not quite have the grip of the 2018, but this is a lovely wine nonetheless. Fine length, but a little on the softer, lusher side for perfection. Tasted Nov 2020.

JANCIS RBOINSON 18+ points
Yield of 28 hl/ha from 30-year-old vines picked 15 and 16 September. 884 cases produced.
Much more communicative and nuanced than the Échezeaux on the nose. High-toned with a suggestion of ripe elderberries. Beautifully textured with crisp crunchy fruit distracting from an impressive charge of tannins. Real crunch on the end. But before then there is Vosne energy and impressive length. Lovely balance and intrigue. Peacock’s tail of unfurling ripe treasures on the end. A real success and relatively accessible. (JR)