Wine Advisor
Jacques Prieur, Musigny Grand Cru 2005
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Like the Chambertin, very closed on the nose but reluctantly unfurls to offer aromas of cherry, violets, a touch of animal fur. Good definition and lift. The palate is full-bodied, very dense and masculine with huge mouth-coating tannins. Dense and oaky, it is almost the antithesis of say Roumier’s or de Vogue’s that are more refined and understated. An ostentatious Musigny, bold and brassy, I just feel this is lacking a little breeding. Drinking 2010-2018. Tasted January 2007.
Reviewed by: David Schildknecht
The Prieur 2005 Musigny delivers a gorgeous bouquet of diverse, sweet flowers, cassis laced, with lemon zest, spices and humus. Sleek, polished and silken-textured in the mouth, this wine offers superb concentration of super-ripe fruit with marrowy meatiness, but with more refinement and youthful class than the Chambertin, not to mention a buoyancy and dynamism and a sheer infectious juiciness in its finish, loaded with bitter-sweet florals. Nearly all bottlings from this negociant – on an upward path since the influx of Rodet capital in the early ‘90s – in fact originate in the Domaine Jacques Prieur. Martin Prieur and his team have striven to capture purity of fruit through gentle extraction, although for my taste I found some of their 2005s overly confectionary due to the influence of toasty new wood on already very sweetly ripe raw material. After malo – which was generally quite late here this year – the wines were sulfured but not yet racked. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.
About the Producer
HISTORY Domaine Jacques Prieur's mythical story started on February 24th, 1868, with the wedding, in Bligny-les-Beaune, of Claude Duvergey (22 years old) and Marie Taboureau (19 years old). Marie was born in Bligny in 1848 and Claude in Meursault in 1845. Their parents were winegrowers. Claude founded the Duvergey-Taboureau House and thrived in the wine and spirit trade, without investing directly, at first, in viticulture. In 1879, he acquired the property of "Les Herbeux" in Meursault, current heart of Domaine Jacques Prieur... and started buying vineyards. He then made a risky bet with the arrival of the terrible phylloxera in Côte d'Or. However, his choices would finally make him a visionary thanks to the use of American plants as cure. In 1889 he acquired the famous Clos de Mazeray Monopole (Meursault), a parcel of Volnay Santenots, 4.5 ha (11 ac) of Clos Vougeot and 2 lots in Chambolle-Musigny. In 1890 he became the sole owner of the prestigious Clos des Santenots in Volnay, 1.5 ha (3.7 ac) of Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes and 0.45 ha (1.1 ac) of the mythical Montrachet (notably supplemented by the "Dent de Chien" parcels in 1891 and 1892). He then ran his trade business in the Château de Bligny bought in 1890 for his wife. Without any direct heir, both spouses would turn to the Taboureau family side. Thus they married in 1891 Hélène Taboureau (Marie's niece) and a well-born young man from Beaune, Henri Prieur (itinerant salesman). They benefited from a very advantageous marriage contract including some goods but especially the promise of a profit-sharing in the Duvergey-Taboureau's trade. Jacques Prieur was born on January 31st, 1893, from the union of Hélène and Henri. The estate kept growing in 1895 with a new acquisition in Musigny and a swap between a plot of Clos Vougeot and parcels of Chambertin and Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze. In 1899, Claude Duvergey added Volnay Champans to its collection and in 1907, Chevalier-Montrachet. He died on March 9th, 1920, and bequeathed all of his property to Jacques Prieur (his wife remaining stakeholder). Soon after, the latter married Madeleine Darnat, daughter of sheets merchants from Lyon. In 1924, Jacques Prieur and comte Jules Lafon instituted the famous "Paulée de Meursault" in order to celebrate the end of harvests with all winegrowers from the village. Marie Duvergey-Taboureau died in 1935 and definitely left the estate to Jacques Prieur. Co-founder of the legendary Chevaliers du Tastevin, he gave his name to the estate in 1956. He died in 1965 and his wife in 1974, leaving the winery to their 6 children. In 1988, in order to avoid selling the winery to foreign shareholders, 5 important French families united, among them Labruyère Family, winegrowers and entrepreneurs from South Burgundy. In the 1990s the Grands Crus of Corton-Bressandes and Corton-Charlemagne would enrich the mosaic of terroirs of the estate. Today leading this jewel of Burgundy, Labruyère Family, supported by Prieur Family's heirs, promotes and defends, every single day, the great terroirs of Burgundy, worldwide
