From 375
Clearly a baby.
Lick of new oak on the nose, with some vanilla and allspice as well as some beautiful black cherry.
Lovely palate with some crisp acidity.
Nice finish.
This has great potential but needs some time for the oak to integrate. I wouldn’t call it rustic at all, if not quite as finessed as the very top producers from this site.
Thanks. I tried this in April and was much more impressed with other offerings. Stocked up on the GE and Rich (with a touch of the Grande Complication), but didn’t bother to buy more of the Ech.
I think the ech in 17-18 is a bit of a sweet spot given the relative pricing. The rich is a bit of fool’s gold. I’d much rather have af gros, HN, or drc even at 3-4x. The GE is great but needs much more time.
Why no love for the Rich?
The richebourg lacks the finesse of other offerings. It definitely has classic richebourg power and density but is a bit clunky. Not a fan at the price point, which is low and likely it’s only real redeeming quality. I’d rather have half as many bottles of AF gros or Hudelot or 1/4 as many bottles of DRC.
I like the different ech offerings a lot and the base ech is a bit underrated and underpriced given the myriad choices. Had 09 and 12 lately which were delightful.
Is it as good as a top vosne/flagey grand cru? Certainly not, but neither is anything else from MM. at 150 it’s more than acceptable.
MM is a huge estate with vast holdings in some of the best vineyards in Burgundy. If they had a total redesign of their viticulture and vilification they could be somewhat of a sleeping giant. In that way they’re sort of like Drouhin-Laroze. My general thoughts though are that while most of their wines are good values, the richebourg isn’t my favorite simply because I think you have a certain expectation from the vineyard and it doesn’t reach it. I think the ech is at least above average if not quite good for the site.
Are you thinking of any vintages of the Richebourg in particular?
Sounds great!
MM was our first ever tasting visit in Burgundy so we have a “first love” feeling about them. I presented Madame Anne with a small gift and she ran to the cellar to reciprocate with a much nicer gift. We always try to have some on hand.
I’ve had 07, 09, and 12, which I was all underwhelmed by. Perhaps they’d be better in 15-20 years but the DRC versions were all spectacular. The 10 HN was fantastic as well.
I haven’t had the 16 which I heard is very nice, but I have had the 16 AF gros, which I thought was phenomenal, and only slightly more expensive than the MM.
I get it, the 09 MM richebourg is $500 and the DRC version is 3k. That said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compare the wines, and $500 is still a lot of money for a bottle.
I think they do indeed need quite a bit of time, though that depends on the vintage: the 2018, which I tasted last week, is very dramatic and fleshy out of the gates. The 1993 is quite brilliant today. Equally, DRC’s example being accessible somewhat depends on the vintage, too: I don’t need to tell you that if you’d picked say 2011, 2008 and 2006 instead of 2012, 2009 and 2007, the wines would have been a lot more introverted…
I think the richebourg is fine, I just think there are better wines to buy, especially from mm and ppl are buying it bc it’s the last “cheap” richebourg. I’d rather spend $500 somewhere else like 2.5 bottles of MM GE.
I guess one reason I like the base ech bottling is it’s somewhat accessible earlier. I’d certainly try opening 09 mm ech,
Thanks for the tip. Just picked up 3 bottles of 2018 Anne Gros Rich for less than I paid for the 2017 MM or 2017 TLB.
Will have to crack one of the 2017 MM Rich open next year before the 2018s come out and see if I agree that my $500 is better spent elsewhere.
Agree on MM Echezeaux, going to open a 2018 split sometime soon.
I was referring to AF gros, not Anne gros, although I think the Anne gros is good too. Neal Martin recently called the 15 af gros riche one of his fav of the entire vintage in his burgfest reviewZ
Gotcha. I knew AF and Anne were different but I thought it was one of those different vineyard owners, same winemaker situation. Now I see they are completely different Annes.
The singular wine that (adopting my best Michael Caine accent) “blew my bloody doors off” came from an unexpected source. The 2015 Richebourg from Domaine A.F. Gros is an astonishing wine, probably overlooked by label hunters flogging their children’s toys on eBay to pay for a bottle of DRC or Leroy. It was astonishing. More fool me for not predicting how this would blossom when I originally tasted it in barrel, when this cru sometimes comes across as excessively oaked. I confess that I mistook it for Etienne Grivot’s Richebourg due to the new oak and purity. Perhaps caught up in the euphoria, I suggested that it was a perfect wine, but on reflection, upholding my rule that a perfect score must be given without a scintilla of doubt, Caroline and Mathias Parent will have to settle for the 99 points that I originally wrote down, and take solace that it was my joint highest score of the entire tasting. And the other? The other is the sublime Musigny from Domaine J-F Mugnier. It may well be the greatest wine that Frédéric Mugnier has ever made, and it comes within a whisker of perfection. All he has to do now is put it on the market. Any takers?