Grands Echézeaux, Domaine Engel 1999

Despite now being nine years old, this is just as primary, backward and serious as it was from cask and still displays the spicy and notably ripe red and black pinot fruit that is nuanced by noticeable earth and underbrush notes that merge into big, rich and well-muscled flavors that are borderline robust and brimming with buckets of dry extract, all wrapped in a sappy finish that deliver flat out phenomenal length. As I wrote in 2000, this is "textbook Grands-Echézeaux" and there nothing in here that would suggest otherwise. Note that plenty of patience will still be required as this will be close to 20 years of age before it has reached its full potential.

Deeper in color than the 2002, it is a testament to that younger vintage that side-by-side, the 1999 Grands Echezeaux is no match. It has an intense but paradoxically slightly introverted bouquet with blacker fruit than the 2002, perhaps a little sweeter and here, tinged with licorice. The palate is sweet and rounded on the entry and one is immediately taken by the impressive weight and girth, yet there is not the precision or the transparency that elevates the 2002 above anything else. Still, there are attractive, slightly viscous fruit on the seductive finish and I suspect that another two or three years in bottle will do this no harm. Yet I cannot envisage this wine approaching the 2002. Drink 2014-2030