2000 Grivot Echezeaux with Braised Rabbit Legs - YUM

After two days of tasting and judging many wines with the occasional stars (2007 Chablis 1er Crus were gorgeous, I must admit, and the 2007 Cotes du Rhone were absolutely stunning, we had a hard time finding any single one that surpassed the other), I needed something delicious. So I obviously turned to Burgundy, where I found a bottle of 2000 Jean Grivot Echezeaux.

We made fresh rabbit legs braised in white wine with some steamed potatoes, and the wine matched the food perfectly.

Figuring this would be really tight, I opened it about 2 hours before dinner and let it sit on the table while dinner was prepped. At first, I was right, this showed almost nothing but a thin appearance and feel with hints of fresh mushrooms, sous-bois and some cherries. But you really had to sniff hard to get these elements. What I found fascinating was that everytime I visited it, it seemed to be gaining weight and depth of color, even as the flavors remained hidden. Eventually I had a wine with a lovely presence on the palate and very little taste. Intellectually, this was really interesting. But the rabbit was coming along and I was worried the wine wouldn’t show when we plated.

However, as soon as we sat down, it was like the wine came to the table with us. All of a sudden, the flavors appeared, griotte cherry-covered mushrooms, with hints of licorice and earth, and that lovely haunting character that good Burgundy gets. The finish went on and on and on, the tannins soft and melting. Lovely on its own, it really exploded with the rabbit, two great dance partners moving in tune to each other. It kept developping in the glass, with a sudden appearance of cherry sweetness that glided over the palate, dissipating on the long finish.

Aaaah, Burgundy. After tasting horrid Anjou reds (there, I said it, they were for the most part VILE ) and some really insultingly bad Beaujolais Nouveau and Brouillys, it was nice to be comforted in the bosom of Pinot Noir from Heaven.
Cheers!

Good to know it met (or even exceeded) your expectations, since it sounds like you deserved it!

Indeed, the crap coming out of Beaujolais Villages and Brouilly barely merited a 5/20 score (we were scoring French points). When I gave a few 0/20 for some of these wines, my tablemates said, “You’re slapping the winemaker in the face.” I responded that he probably deserved a slap upside the head for having the balls to send such crap to a prestigious competition. Same thing for the Anjou reds. Awful, awful stuff. [suicide.gif]

The 07 Chablis 1ers and 07 Cotes du Rhones, however, were real standouts. We had a hard time spitting those out. Petit Chablis wasn’t bad either, not great but not bad.

Thanks for the note. Sounds very nice.

Jason