Wine Advisor
Jacques Frederic Mugnier, Musigny Grand Cru 1999
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Mugnier's 1999 Musigny Grand Cru is still a very youthful wine, but a few hours' decant gives a more than adequate sense of its immense quality. A beautiful bouquet of raspberries, black cherry, cocoa powder, violets, peony and incipient notes of rich soil and cedar introduce a pure, full-bodied wine with pitch-perfect balance and a deep, spherical core of ripe tannin, juicy acidity and reserved concentration. This is not an especially flamboyant wine, but it's incredibly authoritative and sophisticated; and in another decade, it will be just irresistible.
Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani
The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Musigny has a demure, raspberry, cherry, and gravel-scented nose. It offers layers of black cherry, sweet blackberry, stone, and violet-imbued fruits. Its concentrated personality reveals loads of beautifully ripened tannin as well as an impressively long, delineated finish. Projected maturity: 2004-2011. A Becky Wasserman Selection / Le Serbet; French Fax: 011-33-3-80-24-29-70, various American importers.
Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani
Mugnier's 1999 Musigny Grand Cru is still a very youthful wine, but a few hours' decant gives a more than adequate sense of its immense quality. A beautiful bouquet of raspberries, black cherry, cocoa powder, violets, peony and incipient notes of rich soil and cedar introduce a pure, full-bodied wine with pitch-perfect balance and a deep, spherical core of ripe tannin, juicy acidity and reserved concentration. This is not an especially flamboyant wine, but it's incredibly authoritative and sophisticated; and in another decade, it will be just irresistible.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
A spellbinding bottle of Mugnier’s 1999 Musigny Grand Cru rounds out the evening. So complex and beguiling, the 1999 is at once light on its feet and quite deep, with terrific freshness and breathtaking balance. Aeration brings out further layers of dimension. The 1999 is at times quite cerebral, while in other moments it is more overtly virile. Like all truly great wines, every taste reveal a different facet of its personality. What a thrill it is to drink this with a group of my closest friends.
About the Producer
Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier is a Burgundian wine producer based in Chambolle-Musigny. It is particularly well-known for its Musigny Grand Cru wine which is regarded as a benchmark for that vineyard. While the estate is most closely associated with Pinot Noir wines from Chambolle-Musigny, it has 10 hectares (25 acres) of vineyards in Nuits-Saint-Georges as well. The Château de Chambolle-Musigny has been owned by the Mugnier family since 1863. From 1950, as there was no winemaker in the family, the vineyards were contracted out to Faiveley and Bruno Clair, with the latter selling the wine in bulk. Between 1985 and 2004, Frédéric Mugnier was able to take back the vineyards as leases expired. On top of the Musigny Grand Cru, Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier makes a wine from the Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru vineyard, as well as two premier cru wines, Les Fuées and Les Amoureuses, and a village-level wine. From the Nuits-Saint-Georges holdings, Mugnier makes a Clos des Fourches premier cru wine, and a red and a white premier cru from the Clos de la Maréchale vineyard, which is a monopole of the domaine. Vineyards are farmed without herbicides or pesticides and just two mildew treatments per year. Grapes are de-stemmed and whole berries are fermented in old open wooden vats. After around 16 months in oak, wines are bottled without fining and filtration.
