1995 Dominique Laurent Echezeaux

Dominique Laurent is a former pastry chef who started a small negociant business in Nuits-Saint-Georges, in Burgundy’s Cote d’Or, in the late 1980s. He produced his first vintages a few years later, and quickly developed a reputation for making very small quantities of excellent wine sourced from old vineyards. In 2006 Laurent made the leap from negociant to grower with the purchase of a few acres of vineyards. Today Domaine Laurent Pere et Fils owns 23 acres in Nuits-Saint-Georges. He is known for his extreme approach to “hands-off” winemaking, and for his habit of sometimes using “200% new oak,” meaning that one cuvee is sometimes transferred twice to new oak barrels. About 30,000 bottles are produced annually and his wines have earned cult status with some Burgundy collectors.

Echezeaux is a 93-acre Grand Cru vineyard on the southern edge of the Cote de Nuits. It up the slope from Clos de Vougeot and Grands Echezeaux and is one of the largest grand crus in Burgundy. The vineyard varies in elevation from 250 to 300 meters, and the terroir includes significant clay as well as thin, rocky soil. The largest proprietors are Domaine de la Romanee Conti, with 11.68 acres; Mongeard-Mugneret with 6.25 acres, and Emmanuel-Rouget, with 3.58 acres. Echezeaux produces red wine.

This red wine is relatively light and can pair with a wide variety of foods. The grape prefers cooler climates and the wine is most often associated with Burgundy, Champagne and the U.S. west coast. Regional differences make it nearly as fickle as it is flexible.