Wine Advisor
Jacques Frederic Mugnier, Musigny Grand Cru 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2010 Musigny is breathtaking. It is at once weightless yet full of flavor and dynamism. There is marvelous tension and sheer energy in the fruit, while certain elements of virility – especially in the tannin – seem to develop as the wine sits in the glass. Like all of the Mugnier wines, the Musigny is really a wine built on textural finesse and a certain elusiveness that asks more of the taster than it offers. It represents the height of sensuality and unknowable beauty in Burgundy. In many ways Mugnier's Musigny resembles Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's Romanée-Conti. No matter how much time I spend with the wine there is always more to discover.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Deep, dark, saturated red. Knockout nose combines black cherry, black raspberry, minerals, graphite and licorice. Like liquid silk in the mouth, conveying great thickness of texture without any weight. Noble, utterly vibrant wine with near-perfect balance and a finish that mounts for two minutes or more. A sappy essence of Burgundy. Mugnier calls 2010 Burgundy at its best, and this wine makes his case.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Dark red. Explosive aroma of blueberry, crushed stone and blood orange. Utterly palate-saturing and solid yet weightless, conveying great urgency and razor-sharp definition to its crushed fruit, floral and spice flavors. Most impressive today on the extract-rich back end, where the flavors build slowly and inexorably, finishing with outstanding dusty persistence and lift. Late note of black olive. This should evolve in bottle for decades.
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.
