Terroir Insight: Domaine d’Eugenie Grands Echezeaux

Grands Echzeaux is one of the most prominent grand crus just below the top tire – meaning Romanee-Conti, La Romanée, La Tâche, Richebourg, Romanée Saint-Vivant, Richebourg and Musigny.

Grands Echezeaux is a brilliant terroir, and is perhaps even a bit overlooked, although new producer names on this vineyard have increased the focus on Grands Echezeaux.

Domaine d’Eugenie in Vosne-Romanée is one of the “new” names – taking over the position and vineyards from Rene Engell in 2006.

So lets take a closer look at the Grands Echezeaux of d’Eugenie.

Creating Domaine d’Eugenie

Domaine d’Eugenie was created by Francois Pinault in 2006, when he acquired the Rene Engel vineyards. Pinault, who also own Chateau Latour in Bordeaux, wanted to create a top Burgundy domaine, and the vineyards from Rene Engel was a beautiful start. The Domaine is as far as I know named after the grandmother of Francois Pinault.

Pinault was however in need of an estate where he could make the wine, and after producing the wines in a rented facility in Nuits-Saint-Georges he acquired the old and historic Frantin estate from Bichot. The village vineyard Clos Frantin was included in the deal, and in 2011 this vineyard was officially renamed to Clos d’Eugenie when the 2009 vintage was released from Domaine d’Eugenie.

Pinault has invested a lot in the Frantin estate, and the buildings have been renovated to the highest standards, and a new chai has been build behind the estate buildings – see photo below.

Photo: Clos d’Eugenie with the estate in the upper right corner – the long building is the new Chai

The history – Domaine Rene Engel

Founded by René Engel in 1919, the Domaine is located in Vosne-Romanée at the very heart of the Bourgogne viticole. René Engell was born in 1892 and twelve years later, his mother, also Eugenie, was widowed and then married Paul-Francois Faiveley .. presumably a distant relative to the Faiveleys in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

The couple pooled their vineyards and these vineyards were included in the formation of Domaine René Engel. These vineyards included some of the terroirs today know from Domaine d’Eugenie, while others were added by René Engel along the way.

Between 1919 and 2004, three men – René, Pierre and Philippe – succeeded each other, from father to son, to run the family’s vineyard, which includes some of the most prestigious Burgundian crus.

Sadly Philippe Engel died at a relatively young age in 2005 … and the vineyards including the Grands Echezeaux were then sold to Francois Pinault.

The Grands Echezeaux climate and location

The Grands-Echezeaux vineyard is located just above Clos des Vougeot, and below the core climates of Echezeaux – Les Poulailleres and Echezeaux du Dessus.

Photo: The DRC Grands-Echezeaux seen from the bottom of the vineyard overlooking Echezeaux – source Google.

The total area of Grands Echezeaux is 9.14 ha, and Domaine de la Romanee-Conti owns 3.53 ha equivalent to almost 40% of the vineyard.

The other owners today are the following estates:

• Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – 3.5263 ha
• Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret – 1.4440 ha
• Domaine Thenard – 0.54 ha
• Domaine d’Eugenie – 0.50 ha
• Maison Joseph Drouhin – 0.47 ha
• Maison Henri de Villamont
• Domaine Gros Frère et Soeur – 0.3662 ha
• Domaine Desaunay-Bissey- 0.34 ha
• Domaine Lamarche – 0.3007 ha
• Domaine Georges Noëllat – 0.30 ha
• Domaine Clos Frantin – 0.25 ha
• Domaine Jean-Marc-Millot – 0.2015 ha
• Domaine Coquard-Loison-Fleurot – 0.1755 ha
• Domaine Robert Sirugue – 0.12 ha

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