The David Duband Echezeaux 2023 is a grand cru Pinot Noir from Echezeaux Grand Cru in Burgundy, built on perfumed red fruit and black pepper spice rather than sheer power. Duband works this parcel organically with a high proportion of whole bunches, and the result is a wine of lift and detail that still carries grand cru weight.

Red cherry, wild strawberry and violets lead the aromatics, with the peppery, spicy edge that whole-bunch fermentation brings and a savoury, forest-floor undertone beneath. The palate follows in the same register: sweet-fruited and bright rather than heavy, with exotic tea, sandalwood and a thread of red currant running through.

Duband's Echezeaux carries fine, powdery tannin and a firm acid spine, and 2023's generous crop shows as fruit depth rather than richness. The mid-palate is broad without losing shape, and the finish returns to black pepper and stony grip, long and faintly cool. There is a coiled quality here that suggests the wine is still holding plenty back.

Serve with duck breast, roasted quail, veal sweetbreads, mushroom risotto or aged comté. Decant an hour ahead if opening young, and keep the glass a touch below room temperature so the perfume stays intact.

Approachable from around 2028 and likely at its best between 2030 and 2040.