Vintus

Grands Échézeaux, Grand Cru

Grands Échézeaux is a 23 acre vineyard, one that only recently Lucien Le Moine has started working with to produce wines that show unusual subtlety and harmony.  Mounir describes Grands Échézeaux as the "Les Amoureuses" of of Vosne.  It sits between Échézeaux and Clos de Vougeot, whichi are big and tannic, but Grands Échézeaux is very balanced and straight - nothing is exaggerated.

• 2009 Vintage

   There is more talk and interest about 2009 in Burgundy than in any vintage since 2005.  Mounir Saouma has warned us to be careful, however.  He loves this vintage, and in fact believes it is the greatest he has seen in his two decades in Burgundy.   He believes the fruit had everything from the start, and the wines from the beginning were healthy and beautifully balanced.  The major issue was to understand and respect the wines, and avoid working them, since they already had everything they needed in superb balance.  Overly working the wines, he believes, resulted in a loss of freshness and delicacy.

    2009 is the first vintage at Lucien Le Moine that Mounir did not do any lees stirring whatsoever, and as usual he never racked the wines in their nearly two years in barrel.  He didn’t add sulfur until a few months before bottling, and yet his wines are still completely fresh; some whites he describes as even having a tint of green.  The Lucien Le Moine 2009s across the board are beautifully pure and focused, with the exquisite harmony of truly great wines.

  •  "A highly floral and equally spicy nose speaks of earth, red currant and plum aromas that complement the rich, intense and lightly mineral-inflected broad-scaled flavors that possess plenty of overt muscularity on the powerful, driving and palate staining finish. The tannins are quite evident and it will require upwards of 20 years for this to completely resolve the extremely firm tannic spine but it should be well worth the wait." 92-95 Points Burghound

  •  "Good full red. Wild, slightly reduced aromas of redcurrant, blackberry, violet and pepper. Very ripe, dense and powerful but youthfully closed, even aggressive, today. Boasts impressive tannic force, a saline nuance and a superripe chocolatey quality on the back end, but currently comes across as less perfumed and refined than the Echezeaux." 92-94 Points International Wine Cellar

• 2007 Vintage

  As Mounir Saouma says, “2007 saw a fresh summer – when we say fresh summer, we mean well-balanced rain and sunny days.   There were cool but not cold days, days with some rain and sun, but not exaggerated either way.  And you see in the wines there is beautiful acidity, but not as much as 2008, and nice sweetness, but not as much as 2006.” 

   

  This character of mid-way but not extreme in many areas resulted in wines that took a long time to reveal their nature.  “The wines started fruity and the tannins were firm, and slowly we started seeing a kind of melding between sweetness and acidity after the malolactic a year later; we started seeing the real character of the wines after 14 months.  

   

  This development of the vintage is the reason that 2007 was the latest bottling Lucien Le Moine has ever done, and why they were the last producer in all of Burgundy to bottle.  Typically Lucien Le Moine starts bottling in January or February; in 2007 they started in February, but the majority of bottling took place from May to September.  Mounir aged all his 2007 wines on their lees, without sulfur, and never racked.   

   

  Mounir compares 2007 and 2006 a lot; they will both be vintages that are approachable and will last, and their technical numbers are similar, but they are physically and aromatically in completely different worlds.  “2006 is more about sweetness and for some people a heavier character; 2007 is more about freshness.  We will enjoy 2007, but it doesn’t take anything from the aging. 

   

  Some general commentaries on the Crus in 2007:  for people who love freshness and silkiness, with tannins that melt away, the Vosne-Romanées, Volnays, Chambolle-Musignys, and Morey-Saint-Denis show ethereal balance and almost transparent tannins.  For those that think 2007 is a light and easy year, the Gevrey-Chambertins, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommards and Cortons will show them depth and power.  
  • "This is notably more reserved than the Échézeaux and also a good deal more elegant if perhaps just a touch less ripe with airy, cool and ultra pure floral red and blue pinot fruit, spice notes and a soupçon of warm earth that leads to powerful, focused and solidly structured big-bodied flavors that have a borderline chewy quality to the supporting tannins, all wrapped in finish that manages to come across as refined despite the chewiness. Terrific and one of the stars of the range in 2007 but note that patience will be required." 93-95 Points Burghound, “Don’t Miss”

  • "Good deep red. Red fruits, dried rose, graphite and spicy oak on the nose. Wonderfully fine-grained, seamless and sweet, combining outstanding fullness with an uncanny weightlessness. Extremely fine-grained and subtle, with some apparent oak spice in the middle palate. Best today on the explosive, broad aftertaste, which saturates the palate with perfume and leaves the salivary glands quivering." 93-95 Points International Wine Cellar