Echézeaux, Grand Cru,

A 10 ha domaine in Vosne whose jewel in the crown is the monopole La Grande Rue, which was elevated to Grand Cru status in 1992. After years of neglect by previous generations François oversaw a steady improvement in quality throughout the 1990s and in the last few years his daughters have helped raise the qualitative bar further still. As of the 2007 vintage the François' daughter Nicole has taken total control of the winemaking. The approach is fairly hands off in the winery and hands on in the vineyard. Grapes are feremented with a large proportion of whole bunches, depending in the vintage this could be up to 40-50%, and extractions is super gentle, more of an infusion. For élévage very little new oak is used - 20% for the Villages rising to 40% for La Grande Rue. These are delicate, high-toned and resplendent Burgundies of great caliber.