Echezeaux Grand Cru "la Grande Complication"

Jean-Baptiste Mongeard identified a low-yielding, serrated-leaf Pinot Noir mutation in the 19th century — the 'Pinot Mongeard' — preserved at the Beaune Viticultural School since 1884 and still propagated across the domaine's Grand Cru parcels today, giving this wine a direct genetic lineage unavailable to any producer who sources from commercial nurseries. The ~1.82 ha Échezeaux parcel sits mid-slope on the Côte de Nuits, its clay-over-Bajocian-limestone soils delivering both mineral density and sufficient drainage to concentrate the Pinot Mongeard clone's already-restricted yields into deeply pigmented must. Whole-cluster retention of 40–100% is applied at Grand Cru level, followed by 4–5 days cold pre-fermentation maceration, native yeast fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless at ~30°C for 12–15 days, and gravity transfer to barrel. Élevage runs 18–22 months in French oak from Allier, Nièvre, and Vosges, with new-oak proportion reaching up to ~60% (some sources cite 75% for Échezeaux) — a level Vincent Mongeard calibrates personally by palate at pressing rather than by formula. The wine is bottled unfiltered as standard practice, preserving textural complexity that filtration would strip. Unlike many Côte de Nuits Grand Crus built for austerity in youth, Mongeard's house emphasis on ripe, supple tannins makes the 2022 unusually approachable early while retaining the structural architecture for a decade-plus of development.