What's Pressoir Drinking? Harvest Edition
September 30, 2023
Raj Vaidya
As I noted in the last newsletter, I was lucky enough to enjoy a week long stage at Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny earlier this month. I learned a lot about the winemaking at Mugnier, but also about the way in which Frédéric thinks about wines, and how he likes to drink his own wines. The French vignerons tend to take eating and drinking very seriously, and the experience at Mugnier was no different. Lunch often consisted of a refreshing beer (German witte) for an aperitif to reflect on the hard morning’s work, followed by a bottle of something humble and delicious with lunch. Dinners were a little more involved, as many friends and family attend the harvest every year, and so Frédéric and his wife Jocelyn welcome no less than 20 guests to stay with them at the Château de Chambolle for the duration of harvest, and every dinner is a grand feast of sorts. Multiple bottles of the same wines are opened, and at least two different vintages or crus are shared by the jovial group, buzzing with energy despite the long day’s work behind them and the early morning to follow.
The very first day I sat with the team for lunch and had a wonderful surprise; a cuvée of Mugnier I had never even heard of before. I’ve been visiting the domaine for over a decade and I had no experience with the wine, so it was quite a treat, and luckily for me my introduction came by way of the delicious, extremely generous 2017 vintage, which showed incredibly well. The Saint-Seine bottling comes from a vineyard just due south of Clos de la Maréchale. The Clos is the southern border of the Nuits-Saint-Georges appellation so Saint-Seine falls under the Côte-de-Nuits Villages appellation, (in this case) covering wines from the communes of Corgoloin and Comblanchien. The wine is truly lovely, with aromas of small red berries, a touch of baking spice and great mineral lift (Comblanchien is pure limestone, and despite the humble appellation it makes wines which are usually very racy and mineral.) On subsequent days and evenings, I was lucky to taste a few others; a somewhat heavier and more brooding 2018, a riper but deliciously fruity 2019, and a sadly somewhat closed example of 2020. This cuvée is never sold in the market, it isn’t a large parcel and with so much Clos de la Maréchale to take to market (9.55 Ha), Fred decided to keep this wine for the team to drink at home throughout the year.
The second evening was a rambunctious one, and Fred treated us to a couple of great, somewhat underrated vintages. First was a return to the 2017’s with a lovely Clos de la Maréchale. Bright in the same way the Saint-Seine showed, but with more density and length. Second was a vintage that I flubbed in guessing (this wine was served blind), as it has matured beautifully and has lost some of its early aromatics of citrus and green vegetal tones, which I found distracting and sometimes unpleasant in youth. It was a fuller, riper wine than I’d expected from this vintage, so I called it a 2015, and it turned out to be the Fuées Premier Cru from the cool, October harvested 2013 vintage! I learned a lesson about the ‘13’s that night, and have since drunk a few other domaines’ bottles from the vintage to great pleasure. Worth checking in on these again!
The following evening, Fred shared a wine which I was completely certain I’d identified correctly again, but this time (thank goodness) I was right…it was a bit of an easier puzzle to solve than the evolving 2013 vintage. The 2004 vintage in Burgundy is somewhat fraught with a very distinctive vegetal aroma which I recognized immediately in the glass, but on the palate the wine was much more complete and deep than many ‘04’s I’ve had. The length of the palate combined with its intensity made it clear to me that this had to be a Grand Cru, and it was soft and velvety on the palate, so I guessed it to be the 2004 Musigny. Thank goodness I was right, or my dining companions would surely have given me a hard time for two wrong calls in a row! I forgot to take a picture of the cork, but since the wine was so good and the two bottles Fred opened disappeared so quickly, he went down to the cellar and grabbed a magnum, setting it in front of me and proclaiming “Enough blind tasting, now just drink the Musigny and enjoy it!”. My first sip of the magnum surprised me; I generally expect a magnum to show more closed than the same wine in 750ml but this was a different profile, heavier, more structured and decidely less vegetal, though definitely closed also. I was confused, so I grabbed the cork for a photo and realized Fred had made a mistake, and grabbed a Bonnes Mares instead by mistake, and a different vintage also, 2002. An embarrassment perhaps, but only one of riches… The wine was spectacular once it had opened up, certainly a different texture than the Musigny, more tannic and fuller in body, but perhaps a tad less fine especially in texture.
On the last day I was with the team I was treated to a mature bottle, and from a vintage that Fred himself struggles to enjoy today. The 1990 vintage was Fred’s 6th harvest, still fairly early days, when he was not yet farming organically and was still (in his words), “unlearning everything I had been taught in wine school.” This was a vintage where several of his cuvées were acidified, and that addition of tartaric acid (the hope having been to find balance to the high alcohol of the vintage) has left a certain mark on the wine. I found it to be quite intriguing, and not unpleasant at all, though it did taste of a somewhat iron-rich, blood like flavor. Fuées is a Premier Cru on the north side of the village of Chambolle, just abutting Bonnes Mares, and like with Fred’s Bonnes Mares this ‘Morey-like’ structure is apparent in the wine. Higher and harder tannin was still present, but age had softened them into something quite lovely.
On my final evening I was treated to my favorite appellation from the domaine: Les Amoureuses. I have been enraptured by this vineyard, especially from chez Mugnier, since very early in my wine career; the depth of Musigny is matched by the aromas and palate, but Amoureuses always seems more layered and with greater finesse, truly a wine in which I cannot help but get lost.
Fred was so kind as to open two bottles of 2000, and this was great since he had, while expressing his worries about the current harvest to me some days earlier, mentioned that in some regards it reminded him of the harvest of 2000. He had terrible memories of the difficulties of that harvest and vinification, but also said that the subsequent wines turned out lovely, so he was holding out hope for the 23’s nonetheless. Needless to say these two bottles disappeared quite quickly. So once again he opted for the magnum approach, but he checked the cork to make sure he got it right this time, and so I had the honor of tasting the wine from both 750ml and magnum formats. Both were incredible experiences, and once the magnum had opened up a bit, it was truly the most magical wine I’d tasted all week. Lavender and cherry aromas that my mind’s eye brings back in clear focus today as I remember that glass, and an earthy spice that indicates mature Burgundy in the most enticing way. A very nice note to end my experience at Mugnier with, and a memory I’ll cherish forever!
Two lovely formats of 2000 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle Musigny les Amoureuses. Magnum cork above, bottle cork below.
