Domaine Emmanuel Rouget’s 2022 Échezeaux Grand Cru is a Pinot Noir from Flagey-Échezeaux in the Côte de Nuits, made in a house style shaped by Emmanuel Rouget’s close connection to his uncle and mentor, Henri Jayer. Rouget founded the domaine in 1985 and later took on Jayer’s vineyards; in Échezeaux, the estate farms about 1.4 hectares across three parcels within the Grand Cru. The wine is matured “entirely in new oak,” a longstanding signature of the Jayer/Rouget approach, with élevage commonly cited at roughly 15–18 months in 100% new French barrels.

The 2022 Burgundy growing season was notably hot and dry, yet broadly successful, delivering ripe fruit with enough freshness in many sites. In this bottling, both major critics point to a wine that combines the vintage’s generosity with a more polished shape than Échezeaux sometimes delivers.

Vinous (Neal Martin) highlights a reserved start—“surprisingly closed on the nose, needing a bit of coaxing”—before it opens to “dark berry fruit, truffle and light violet scents.” On the palate, Martin finds “sapid black fruit, blood orange, blueberry and crushed stone,” adding that it “fans out towards the finish” and concluding, “this is a lovely Echézeaux.” His barrel assessment of 93–95 points is an excellent early review.

Burghound (Allen Meadows) is similarly positive at 93–95 points, noting “moderate wood influence” alongside “elegant and pure” aromatics of “jasmine tea, red currant and poached plum.” Meadows describes “caressing and seductively textured” flavors that are “rich and generous,” finishing with “fine length” on a “dusty and youthfully austere finish.” He calls it “excellent” and emphasizes that it is “more refined than it usually is,” a particularly strong endorsement for this appellation.

Overall, the early picture is of a structured, new-oak-framed Échezeaux with dark fruit depth, floral lift, and the kind of finish and refinement that suggest clear upside with cellaring.