Mongeard-Mugneret – 2014 (Plus!)

Update 24.12.2015(16.12.2015)billn

DSC08722Tasted in Vosne-Romanée with lots of other people – 11 November 2015.

Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret
14 Rue de la Fontaine
21700 Vosne-Romanée
Tel: +33 3 80 61 11 95
www.mongeard.com+

This domaine was something of an enigma to me – some super bottles, mainly in off-vintages, and oaky things that I wish I hadn’t opened. This year I decided it was time to visit and learn – it wasn’t as easy as expected! My first attempt (in May) resulted in a ‘We’re quite busy now, but if you can make a tutored tasting with lunch and 3 wines on xxx-date, that will be €45.’ I persevered to be told that there would a chance to taste the new vintage in November – actually they had put quite a programme together so here was a chance.

For two days in November, in the Hotel Richebourg (a family property) they presented the 2014 vintage, the 2013 vintage, the 2015 vintage(!), a vertical of Echézeaux plus a large table of older wines – here was enough to remove the driving licence of the most careful taster, all wrapped up in multiple plates of canapés! I chose not to taste the 15s and 13s and also chose not to taste the table of older wines, despite a few older Richebourgs, as I felt I’d had enough – 35 – but it was still a good list tasted.

A short history…

The domaine covers nearly 30 hectares that are spread over 35 appellations. The family can trace their roots in Vosne-Romanée back to 1620, the current name on the label ‘Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret’ has been used since 1945 and is a reflection of the joining by marriage of the families of Eugène Mongeard and Edmée Mugneret – grandparents of the current patriarch, Vincent Mongeard.

The wines…

A combination of the modest, the oaked, and the excellent. I’m not sure that I learned as much as I would have liked to from this visit, the domaine remaining something of an enigma to me – there’s much more to learn. I might attribute some of that to the poor, small, tasting glasses – possibly ISO glasses…

2014 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits La Croix
Bright medium red fruit a little sweetness behind. There’s a pretty width of flavour here. Vibrant and tasty wine…

2014 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Dames Huguettes
A deeper, darker fruit of more intensity. More direct, a little more structured. A good burst of mid-palate and finishing flavour. Intense and interesting. Yum!

2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune
Higher tones much more red shaded fruit. More width, a faint creaminess and very good depth of flavour. A twist of tannin on the finish. Really excellent Savigny.

2014 Fixin
Also higher toned, but here with a floral aspect. Quite pretty. A narrower, fresher line of flavour, the fruit flavour coming quite late. Good and tasty finish.

2014 Fixin Vieilles-Vignes
Deeper colour. Deeper, tighter nose but with a fine floral top note. A faint impression of gas on the tongue, more supple and rounder in the mouth. Nicely complex in the finish, with a discreet dryness. Lovely.

2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Narbantons
Here the nose is much tighter, just a discreet floral note escapes the glass. A little mineral, wide over the tongue, growing fresh, complex flavour. Here is a very fine complexity, wedded to just a little, faintly dry tannin. Will be super – wait 2 years though…

2014 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Les Vergelesses
Relatively discreet in the bass department, but with dark, creamy fruit plus flowers above – very attractive. Here is a little more, faintly drying, structure, the merest suggestion of padding to the texture, and flavour that flows very nicely over the tongue. Lovely wine, fine finishing.

2014 Vosne-Romanée
Modest, higher toned, and yes, faintly spiced. Mouth-filling, here is more obviously spicy Vosne, plenty of slippery tannin too, fine finishing. Very good!

2014 Chambolle-Musigny
Pretty, higher toned nose, overall a little tight. Supple, less dry at the base, but with a good width of appealing flavour. Not especially complex but nicely tasting.

2014 Vosne-Romanée Maizières Hautes
A modest nose, with some encouraging sweetness. Nice width and dimension of flavour in the mouth – good complexity here. Very nice in the finish.

2014 Gevrey-Chambertin
A rather modest aromatic. Here is an excellent extra dimension of pretty fruit flavour – particularly lovely. The structure is there but finely wrapped. Excellent villages.

2014 Nuits St.Georges Les Plateaux
Nice high-toned florals here. More mineral wine, only slowly releasing a higher toned fruit flavour. Its comfy in the finish but really a more intellectual wine after the more pleasurable Gevrey. Still, vv good.

2014 Vosne-Romanée 1er En Orveaux
A deep, concentrated and complex nose, here with some barrel references too. Suave tannin structure, the tannin is far from hiding – but it’s a lovely texture. Wide and complex wine. Excellent.

2014 Nuits St.Georges 1er Boudots
A rather closed nose, perhaps due to a trace of reduction. In the mouth a hint of gas on the tongue, wide, mouth-filling wine, but essentially a rather tight wine, except for a very fine mid-palate flavour.

2014 Echézeaux
A modest aromatic, more of implied weight and a subtle floral high note. The structure is soft and more supple than the Boudots, with a good width of flavour, and indeed flavour complexity. Good wine, but not special…

2014 Clos de Vougeot
Tight but with a little spice. I like the lithe, supple texture here, lovely complexity and growing intensity. This, like the Echézeaux is elegantly rather than powerfully proportioned. But I find excellent finishing flavour that’s both complex and involving. Yum.

2014 Grands-Echézeaux
Less tight, a suggestion of very pretty fruit and equally pretty floral notes. Mouth-filling with plenty of supple structure, and here is really super complexity – excellent. Again a relatively elegant wine but a bit of a beauty.

2014 Echézeaux Vieilles Vignes ‘La grand complication’
Deep, a little oak spice, faintly floral too. Very fine texture, a soft width of flavour that keeps growing in volume. There’s a lot of wood doing the talking here, loudly talking, but also the base fruit seems very good.

2014 Richebourg
Very deep aroma, also very oaked – creamy vanilla style – that said, this isn’t supposed to be drunk in the next 5 years! Large scaled, plenty of tannin, and massively oaked flavours – like the nose. I’m sure that this will come good, indeed excellent, but there’s nothing here today for this taster – I don’t often spit Richebourg, but today…

An Echézeaux vertical…

DSC08723I’m guessing the Echézeaux may not the tastiest cuvée in the cellar – not for my palate anyway…

2010 Echézeaux
Wow – already a leafy development here, I’m surprised. Wide, oak-inflected – dark oak not the vanilla type. Finishing sweetness if not massive energy. Okay for what it is…

2009 Echézeaux
A hint of oak and warmth. Nice volume on the mouth and a growing, insinuating intensity. The finishing flavour is a little oak inflected, but this is pretty good. Nice finish.

2008 Echézeaux
Deep, dark oak with a hint of leafy forest floor. Nice core of fruit flavour here, but not the tastiest, that’s for sure. The one part of this wine I really like is the finish – tasty and lasting quite well.

2007 Echézeaux
Here is a more spicy, Vosne-style nose without obvious oak make-up. Wide, round, nicely supple, indeed a little saline. The flavours are relatively modest, but of wine!

2006 Echézeaux
Deep, interesting, perhaps a hint of interesting oak. Big, wide, complex, nicely textured – the first wine I really like – some fading oak in the finish. Very good.

2005 Echézeaux
Here is a little oak, but also a nice complexity of fruit flavour. Big, mouth-filling, growing intensity. Really lots of complexity and mouth-watering, very pretty flavour. Yum!

2001 Echézeaux
Forest floor, width, nice aromatic interest. Quite large-scaled, good dimension and complexity here. Really not better than a great 1er, except in the beautiful finish – super flavour – here it is grand cru…

2000 Echézeaux
Very pretty, complex mature nose. Sweetness, complexity, its flavour reflects the nose. This is lovely, like most 2000s today…

1996 Echézeaux
Pretty, leafy mature nose. There’s a faint bitterness to the flavours but it’s nicely buffered by the sweetness. Here is a very lovely finishing flavour. Very good!

1995 Echézeaux
Some tightness, but mature notes and here a faintly floral note too. Wide, good texture, mouth-filling. Still tannic, but the finishing flavour is quite good, and rather long…

1992 Echézeaux
Open, overt forest floor and some attractive sweetness. Big in the mouth, full, sweet, complex – bravo. For a 1992 this is really great. Yum!

1990 Echézeaux
Not clear. Less overt than the 92, but finer top notes. Lovely. Wide, mouth-filling flavour, growing rounder – concentrated sweet flavour – maybe almost too sweet. But balanced and an a really super wine!

1985 Echézeaux
Deeply aromatic. Lots of impressive complexity here – less easy to drink after the super-sweet 1990, but a really lovely wine. Very yum – probably prefer this to the 1990. Seriously a great finish.

1983 Echézeaux
A spicy nose, less sweet, underpinned with leafy mature notes. Despite the nose there’s a lot of sweetness here, more structured than 1985, but a really nice surprise. Lovely wine.

1978 Echézeaux
Airy, deeply leafy, almost going in the direction of faintly oxidised, but avoiding it by the skin of its teeth – lovely. Quite large, a little fat but with very good balance. Fine finishing. Very good!

1976 Echézeaux
Lovely warm, modestly sweet, faint cheese – but excellent! Big in the mouth, full, indeed massive. Very impressive the finish is really a ‘bravo!’

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;