The 2008 growing season scared the heck out of everyone: it was cold and wet throughout the summer, right through mid-September, in fact. Only in the second half of September did sun, heat, and some drying winds blow in to help push the Pinot Noir to ripeness. Here’s an account from Burgundy guru Clive Coates, MW:

The Thenard family boasts a line of Burgundian vignerons reaching back to 1760. Baron Paul Thenard founded the current estate in the village of Givry back in 1842 and expanded it to include one of the finest stretches of the famed Le Montrachet in the 1870s. The twentieth century brought today’s celebrated Grand Cru holding of Grands-Echézeaux, among others, into the fold, which thrust the family Domaine into the upper echelon of Burgundy estates. A favorite of Charles de Gaulle as well as Popes past, the domaine’s wines were often bottled by the négociant Maison Roland Remoissenet for the American market; in 2005, the family started bottling under the Domaine Thenard label. Baron Jean-Baptiste Bordeaux-Montrieux has overseen winemaking since the early ‘80s and continues to craft traditionally styled wines in family’s charming 18th-century cellar.

The Grand Cru vineyard of Grands-Echézeaux is just over 9 hectares and rests within the Côte de Nuits village of Flagey-Echézeaux. Although Romanée-Conti heads the list, there are some 20 different owners of Grands-Echézeaux. Clive Coates has called it “a seriously first division Grand Cru,” and remarks that Domaine Thenard has “long been one of the most important landowners in the Côte d’Or.”

The 2008 Grands-Echézeaux exhibits a near opaque, dark ruby core with light garnet and orange on the rim. The dense and concentrated nose offers brooding aromas of salted dried black cherry and wild raspberry liqueur over forest floor, wet bark, crushed stones, exotic spices and that all-encompassing Burgundian perfume that endears us to the region’s greatest examples. The palate is near full-bodied, rich and dense with weight and texture; the palate echoes the nose, with additional notes of bilberry and wet rose petals. This wine is enchanting right now, but I expect it to peak somewhere around 2025. No need to decant, this is a wine to pull the cork two hours prior in your cellar to slowly open up and serve alongside a serious main course. It could easily stand up to steak, lamb, or roast chicken, but my personal favorite with rich red Burgundy is a classic duck confit with roasted potatoes. For a pairing that marries this concentrated beauty with the ideal amount of fat and savor, try this recipe from the James Beard Foundation.