Domaine Jean-Marc Millot, Echezeaux du Dessus “Cuvee 1949”
The Echezeaux du Dessus parcel of Domaine Jean-Marc Millot belongs to the Millot family since 8 generations. Its current vines were planted in 1949 by Jean-Marc’s grand-grandfather, but as he got old and had nobody to assist him in the vineyard works, it was leased to Domaine Mungeard Mugneret on fermages basis. When Jean-Marc’s parents got married in 1982 they wanted to take over the vineyard back, but were dragged to court by the lease holder, and it wasn’t before 1986 till the court case ended and the Millot family got the land back to their possession (the lawyer who represented and won the case for the Millot family was Hubert de Montille).
Echezeaux du Dessus vineyard is known for years as superior to all other plots being part of the Echezeaux appellation. Both its location and the characteristics of this terroir are identical to the vineyard of Grands-Echezeaux. In 1990, owners of this unique 3.5 ha vineyard applied to the INAO, requesting to change its appellation from Echezeaux to Grands-Echezeaux. The application was finally declined due to objections mainly from land owners in Grands-Echezeaux, coming from greed and jealousy as the facts were clearly supporting the change.
Starting in the 2017 vintage, Jean-Marc and Alix Millot decided to make an experiment and they harvested, vinified and aged the wine coming from their Echezeaux du Desuss parcel separately from the other parcels of their own Echezeaux vineyards. The resulting wine proved to be unique, showing incredible depth and flavors, clearly different from both their Echezeaux and Grands-Echezeaux, and they decided to bottle the wine under its own label. Only 3 barrels were made.
This tradition will continue for future vintages.
