The 2017 Echezeaux Grand Cru is also showing very well, having gained in depth and precision in the year since I last tasted it. Opening in the glass with aromas of red berries, cherries, orange rind, sweet soil tones, spices and peonies, it's medium to full-bodied, with a broader, more textural attack than the Malconsorts, underpinned by similarly powdery tannins and lively acids. This looks to be a longer-haul proposition than I had imagined, and at least a modicum of patience will be in order. Jeremy Seysses opted to pick early in 2018, beginning with the white wines on August 27 and started the reds on the 30th. "The 'usual' picking order was disrupted," related Seysses, explaining that sites with deeper soils experienced less hydric stress and ripened faster. "Without the large crop"—which here ranged between 42 and 48 hectoliters per hectare, with even the old-vine Gruenchers giving 35 hectoliters versus a normal 25 per hectare—"I think it would have turned out like 2003," he added. This is clearly a very successful vintage chez Dujac, and it's a very consistent portfolio in what is more generally a somewhat heterogeneous vintage. This is a deep and youthfully muscular set of wines, and I visited just after the first few cold days and nights of winter 2019. Seysses commented that the range was in a comparatively closed phase, with their structure a bit more prominent than had been the case a month earlier—but such are the vagaries of barrel tasting. What is clear is that this is a serious vintage, built for the long haul despite its abundance of fruit, and the Dujac 2018s have the makings of very age-worthy wines. Meanwhile, the Dujac 2017s, which I revisited from bottle, have gone from strength to strength, having gained in depth and dimension with a second winter in barrel. They all more than met the high expectations I formed of them last year.

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