2015 Philippe Pacalet Echezeaux

2015 Philippe Pacalet Echezeaux

2015 Philippe Pacalet Echezeaux Good fresh medium red color. Pungent spice and rose petal high notes to the aromas of redcurrant, plum, cranberry and licorice; lovely vendange entier perfume. Suave and fine-grained, conveying terrific inner-mouth floral lift and energy. A juicy, sappy, soil-driven bomb of red berries, flowers and spices; more savory than sweet, showing no hard edges. This 2015 vintage finishes with a serious dusting of fine-grained tannins and alluring floral lift. Sexy already but it would be a shame not to give this wine four or five years in the cellar to expand a bit and put on some weight.

Pinot Noir Wine

Pinot Noir is the dominant red wine grape of Burgundy, now adopted (and extensively studied) in wine regions all over the world. The variety’s elusive charm has carried it to all manner of vineyards.

These extend from western Germany (as Spätburgunder) and northern Italy to Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. California, Oregon and New Zealand are arguably the greatest centers for the grape outside its home territory. However great Pinot Noir is made in all of these territories.

The essence of Pinot Noir wine is its aroma of red berries and cherry (fresh red cherries in lighter wines and stewed black cherries in weightier examples). Many of the more complex examples show hints of forest floor. Well built Pinot Noirs, particularly from warmer harvests, suggest leather and violets, sometimes recalling Syrah.

There are two theories regarding the Pinot name. One is that it came about because their bunches are similar in shape to a pine cone (pinot in French).

It may derive, however, from a place name in France such as Pinos or Pignols from where cuttings were obtained. Pignols in the Auvergne, for example, has cultivated Pinot since the middle ages.

It was previously believed that Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Précoce (Frühburgunder) et al were members of a “Pinot Family” of distinct grape varieties. But DNA profiling has shown them to share the same genetic fingerprint. Thus they should properly be considered as mutations or clones of a common variety.