Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru

From 2010 to today, Maxime Cheurlin — blood relative of Henri Jayer and cousin to Emmanuel Rouget's sons — built this domaine's entire reputation from scratch, having inherited parcels whose fruit was sold in bulk to Jadot and Drouhin for the preceding two decades. That context matters: every technical decision here is deliberate and recent, not inherited habit. Grands Échézeaux sits in Flagey-Échézeaux on classic Côte de Nuits argilo-calcaire (clay-limestone), where the limestone fraction drives drainage and aromatic precision while clay contributes structural depth — conditions that reward the low-intervention approach Cheurlin has staked his reputation on. In the cellar, 100% destemmed fruit undergoes cold pre-fermentation maceration before native-yeast fermentation with rare, gentle punch-downs — an infusion philosophy that preserves aromatic filigree over extracted mass. Aging runs 14–20 months in French oak at up to 100% new barrique for Grand Cru, while the cellar is actively chilled to delay and slow malolactic fermentation, a technique adopted from 2017 onward that Allen Meadows/Burghound credits with adding measurable precision. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. What no peer does at this level: Cheurlin deliberately suppresses extraction where most Côte de Nuits producers amplify it, making Grands Échézeaux here a study in translucency rather than density. 2022 shows fine intensity and refinement; drink from 2027 onward.