Nuits Saint-Georges 1cru Clos de la Marechale 2005, Jacquès-Frederic Mugnier

Mørk purpur strålende brilliant Pinot farge. Modne kirsebær i nesa, en antydning til litt kokt kompakt stil, litt "overdone", men roer seg i glasset. Mye konsentrasjon her, et lett saltpreg og i starten på smakskurven var jeg redd det ble litt mye og for lite eleganse. Men vinen får et syreløft halvveis i munnen og bærer den pent i land. Medium fylde og med den voldsomme entrèen, tynner den litt ut i ettersmak. En meget god Marechale, men fruktdrivet og årgangens karakter overskygger nok endel terroir. Og såklart betydelig bedre enn 2004. Tross manglende stedlighet; den beste Marechale smakt ! 92 poeng.

Fra princeofpinot: Frederic Mugnier’s philsophy is summarized very simply: let the message in the vineyard come through. Mugnier’s background is engineering and he was a commercial pilot who came to wine as a second career. He started crafting wine while still a pilot and released his first vintage in 1985 from 4 hectares of Chambolle Musigny vineyards (including.53 hectare of Les Amoureuses, .36 hectare of Bonne Mares, and a little over 1 hectare of Musigny - second only to Comte de Vogue) that had been in his family for generations and mostly leased to others. By his own admission, he didn’t know anything about winemaking initially. He attended viticulture school in Beaune and experimented a lot. Over time his experience has served him better than formal winemaking education. He continued to work as a pilot until 2000. In 2004 his Domaine changed dramatically when Faiveley’s lease of the Mugnier family’s 9.55-hectare Nuits St. George 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale expired. This more than tripled the size of Mugnier’s vineyard holdings to 13.5 hectares. With the assumption of the largest monopole in Burgundy, his Domaine became quite large, and he was forced to build a winery and hire several workers to assist him.
Mugnier’s wines are among the purest in Burgundy and Alan Meadows can think of only one other domaine that is in the same classs and that is D’Angerville. The wines are unadorned and unadultered. They do not overwhelm - the drinker must listen. Most people want volume turned up in wine, but Mugnier’s wines are more subtle and the drinker must make an effort to really appreciate them. The wines require plenty of bottle age. Meadows quoted Matt Kramer, who said the distinguishing signature of Mugnier’s wines was “the absence of a signature.” As noted in the first sentence on this page, its not about the winemaker, its about the vineyards and “it is what it is.” Meadows emphasized his admiration for Mugnier’s ability to keep his hands off and let the vineyard and vintage speak.