The appellation was created on 31 July 1937, the same day as Échezeaux, its neighbour of 36.27 hectares. Where Échezeaux spreads over ten climats and a range of soils, Grands-Échezeaux is one compact parcel: clay-limestone over Bajocian limestone, on a gentle slope of 3 to 4 percent at about 250 metres, facing east. Both vineyards, like the Clos de Vougeot next door, were planted by the monks of the abbey of Cîteaux in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The name comes from chesaux, a Gallo-Roman word for a group of dwellings.

The Bourgogne wine board describes the wines of the two Échezeaux as ruby shading to magenta and purple, with spice, underbrush and prune, then musk, leather and mushroom with age, dense and tight-grained, opening fully after four or five years in the cellar. The two appellations were created the same day and share the same monastic origin, but Grands-Échezeaux is the smaller and the more homogeneous of the two.

Among the estates with a page here, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, based in Vosne-Romanée, holds vines in Grands-Échezeaux alongside its other grands crus of the slope.

The wines above are the Grands-Échezeaux wines in the cellar. See also Vosne-Romanée, the other grands crus of Burgundy or the full range of Burgundy wines.