MONGEARD MUGNERET GRANDS ECHÉZEAUX GRAND CRU 2016

Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret
Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru 2016

The Vintage 2016 is generous, silky and delicate like 2010. Reds colour are deep and intense with violet and garnet shades. Tannins are very fine and elegant. The mouth is particularly long and balanced, full of freshness and softness. The sweep of the aromas reveals lots of fresh red fruits offering a rich and smooth mouth. White wines are pure and supple. Particularly tasty and well balanced, they release many aromas of white fruits with acacia and white flowers notes offering a rich range of aromas.

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: 90 – 93/AM
VIVINO: Average 4.5 ★★★★✰

___________________________________________________

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.

To the Eye : A pure bright deep red, truly stunning. Clear and limpid, the shifting colour nuances often vary, though generally tending towards fairly dark shades of garnet or violet-purple: a colour that holds the eye.

To the Nose : With age, the palette tends towards pepper and musk, animal pelts, leather and spices, prunes. Sometimes the bouquet hints at scents of woodland undergrowth, moss, mushrooms, damp earth, game, fruit preserved in alcohol and mulberries round off this range of aromas. Especially in young wines, one may well encounter scents of pine, dog roses, violets and fresh cherries.

In the Mouth : Peaceful and dreamy, serene with age, subtle and refined, this wine fully reveals the complex nature of a really good Burgundy, all the art that can be achieved through the medium of pinot noir grapes grown on one particular terroir. The structure is outstanding: solid, full-bodied, rich and exceptionally harmonious. It is wholly appropriate for the qualification Great to precede Echezeaux in the name Grands-Echezeaux: it has that extra touch of class, of vinosity, and a dense and subtle texture.