MONGEARD MUGNERET GRANDS ECHÉZEAUX GRAND CRU 2013

Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret
Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru 2013

“The 2013 Grands Echézeaux from Vincent Mongeard, like all of his 2013s, is still a very young wine and showing a bit of herbacité on the nose at this early stage of its evolution. The bouquet is a youthful and complex blend of black cherries, black plums, espresso, woodsmoke, a lovely base of soil tones and nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very primary in profile, with a fine core, bright acids, ripe tannic and a long, vibrant and youthful finish. The more modest ripeness of 2013 has given this quite a black fruity personality out of the blocks, with its fair share of herb tones, but it should prove to be a lovely wine with sufficient time to blossom. (1/2016)” 93/100, John Gilman

VARIETIES: 100% Pinot Noir (According to the quality of the vintage), Average age of vines 40 to 68 years
REGION: Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits, Côte-d’Or, Burgundy, France
AGEING: Aging is carried out in oak barrels, 100% of which are new oak barrels
GUARDING POTENTIAL: Enjoy now or will cellar well up to 30 years
SERVE: Serve at 14 – 16ºC
FITS TO: Bœuf à la Bourguignonne / Carré d’agneau Rôti / Coq au Vin / French cheeses like Époisses de Bourgogne, Bleu de Gex or Munster Géromé AOP are also excellent companions
CRITICS SCORES: 91 – 93/BH, 93/JG
VIVINO: Average 4.5 ★★★★✰

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Overview | Of | Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret

The Mongeard family origins date back to 1620 in the commune of VosneRomanée in Burgundy. Situated in between Dijon and Beaune, the Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret was renamed in 1945 after the marriage of Eugène Mongeard and Edmée Mugneret which allowed both families vineyards to combine, thus increasing the size of their joint domaine. Their son Jean began bottling wine for the first time and released it commercially under the new name. Jean also began selling estate fruit to high-end producers such as Marquis d’Angerville and Henri Gouges.

Today the estate has about 75 acres of land in around 35 different vineyards including four grand cru parcels: Échezeaux, Grands Échezeaux, Clos de Vougeot and Richebourg. With a specialty in producing high-end examples of the Pinot Noir grape vartiety, the domaine also releases some Chardonnay and Aligoté white wines. Vineyards are 45-50 years old on average and are grafted with superior Pinot Noir clones. Yields have been a mere 2.9 tons per acre. In the vineyards, the domaine has employed the philosophy of lutte raisonée since the early 2000s. Vines are pruned Guyot, and a green harvest takes place. Harvest is completely by hand. Grapes are destemmed, except for Richebourg for which about onethird of the stems are retained. The crop is then placed in the vats for alcoholic fermentation. Equiped with a very sensitive sulphate measuring pump, Vincent practices a traditional and moderate sulphating. Cool maceration of between 4-5 days. Generally speaking, the Premiers Crus receive about 40-50% new oak and the Grands Crus receive about 60-70% new oak. The oak barrels are from L’Allier, La Nièvre, and Les Vosges, and the domaine requests woods that are dried in open air and barriques that are slightly burnt. After a couple of months in the barrels, the wine goes through malolactic fermentation. In the spring, racking allows for the removal of the fine sediments. A second racking during the following winter. After a total of 18-22 months of aging, the wines are bottled without any filtration, only one fining could be necessary. The bottles further aged in the cellars before being released.

This delicious aromatic and pure vintage year offers wonderful length in the mouth. The colours are strong and bright with a deep ruby red. In the mouth, the fresh fruit, wild strawberry, raspberry and currant aromas explode like greediness. Then, the first acid notes give way to beautiful structure and fine tannins. For thousands of years in Burgundy, the Pinot Noir and man have been able to adapt to very contrasting geological and climatic constraints. This demanding yet passionate year for vine growers was marked by a splendid diversity of expression during which know-how, time and rigour were necessary during all stages of the vineyard and cellar work.