I keep driving past this Clos and seeing the constant work going on there – and I don’t mean just the vines: In the last year or so, workmen have largely repaired the walls of the Clos – last week a pair were ‘re-pointing’ the stonework of the entrance gates. I thought Mr Mugnier was joking with me when he said he might restore the mini-colosseum building as a gite, well I don’t know if it’s really a gite, but it looks in much better shape than the Acropolis now!

Anyway I’m on a very good ‘run’ of wines that I would rebuy, but thankfully so – these are all wines that I bought (typically) en-primeur – if they are no good I’ve clearly been wasting my time ‘practising’ these last years! Anyway, lots of parallels between this wine and the previous day’s 2006, but this is on a much higher plain – except perhaps if you want to drink it today!
2006 JF Mugnier, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos de la Maréchale
Relatively deep colour with purple hints. The nose starts with sugary dark fruit of real depth, though less width – slowly it adds a creamy coating and eventually red berry notes begin to peek through. Fresh impact and plenty of extract too; the wine/wood tannins are smooth and impart an acceptably bitter note through the core of the wine – the sweetness of the dark cherry fruit is quite enough to balance, mixed with iron and minerals. The tannin and some of the bitterness are the main items of note in the finish, though these will fade and bring to the fore the creamy fruit that plays second fiddle today. It impresses now, but it will clearly impress more in the future.
Rebuy – Yes

I may change my mind if the weather turns hot, but I think a couple of 99 Gevreys might be nice in the next days; Fourrier Combe aux Moines and Bachelet VV anyone?