2011 Mongeard-Mugneret Red Burgundies
Mongeard-Mugneret is a solid "value" producer of red burgundy, with wide range of impressive vineyard holdings, particularly at the 1er and Grand Cru level in the Vosne Romanee commune, as well as Flagey-Echezeaux and Vougeot, all the way up to Richebourg Grand Cru in Vosne. Mongeard-Mugneret is well regarded for their old-vines plot in Echezeaux, bottled separately as "vieille vigne" from their regular Echezeaux. I "heard" that 2011 is the last vintage of these venerable 60-year-old vines, as supposedly they got ripped out afterwards due to disease. (Note: I do not have the official confirmation on this yet...)
Our local wine shop conducted two tastings of Mongeard-Mugeneret 2011 broad line-up. While I did not taste everything, I did focus on a few key bottlings to get the idea of the producer's style and quality in the 2011 vintage.
Here are the tasting notes:
2011 Mongeard-Mugeneret "Les Orveaux" 1er Cru - pine, red plum, spice, tight, masculine, austere cool stern fruit, slight chocolate / vanilla, somewhat bitter aftertaste. Similar to Grands-Echezeaux, but softer and lighter with a touch more vanilla. Should be good with time.
2011 Mongeard-Mugeneret "Les Suchots" 1er Cru - palate: pretty, flower garden, raspberry, gentle touch of vanilla. More open than Les Orveaux, soft smokiness (not toast or char), feminine and inviting. Very nice already.
2011 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru - attractive red berries, flowers, vanilla on the nose. Palate: soft plush raspberries and red berries, vanilla, flowers, thick and weighty luxurious mouth-feel, spices. Not particularly tannic. Clean, balanced, and tasty. Very good, perhaps a little generic in character but certainly of high quality. Seems like this should be really good in 5-10 years, i.e. medium term.
2011 Mongeard-Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru - nose: very tight, masculine, flower pollen. Palate: similar profile to Les Orveaux, just more serious. Much more firm than Les Suchots. More like blueberries and chocolate, stronger spice, darker fruit, austere and hard right now, quite tannic. A lot of depth and extract here, without weight (i.e. mid-weight). Substantial wine that seems to have good potential but hard to see any of the "velvety texture" right now that Burghound mentioned. Pretty good, not great.
2006 Mongeard-Mugeneret Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru - compared to the hard and tannic 2011, the 2006 was all honeyed pretty red berries, and a hint of barn, very tasty already and so different in profile than the 2011. Yum.
Overall, the tasting confirmed that Mongeard-Mugneret makes solid, high-quality wines at very good price. For me, they seem to lack some excitement and personality, but given the cost, they are worth considering and cherry-picking relative to many other higher-priced red burgundies. Of the four 2011's I tasted, two (Suchots and Echezeaux) were pretty and aimed at mid-term drinking, while Orveaux and especially Grands-Echezeaux would need longer.
Thanks to Vin Vino Wine wine shop for serving the local wine community with almost daily fine wine tastings in Palo Alto.
Our local wine shop conducted two tastings of Mongeard-Mugeneret 2011 broad line-up. While I did not taste everything, I did focus on a few key bottlings to get the idea of the producer's style and quality in the 2011 vintage.
Here are the tasting notes:
2011 Mongeard-Mugeneret "Les Orveaux" 1er Cru - pine, red plum, spice, tight, masculine, austere cool stern fruit, slight chocolate / vanilla, somewhat bitter aftertaste. Similar to Grands-Echezeaux, but softer and lighter with a touch more vanilla. Should be good with time.
2011 Mongeard-Mugeneret "Les Suchots" 1er Cru - palate: pretty, flower garden, raspberry, gentle touch of vanilla. More open than Les Orveaux, soft smokiness (not toast or char), feminine and inviting. Very nice already.
2011 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru - attractive red berries, flowers, vanilla on the nose. Palate: soft plush raspberries and red berries, vanilla, flowers, thick and weighty luxurious mouth-feel, spices. Not particularly tannic. Clean, balanced, and tasty. Very good, perhaps a little generic in character but certainly of high quality. Seems like this should be really good in 5-10 years, i.e. medium term.
2011 Mongeard-Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru - nose: very tight, masculine, flower pollen. Palate: similar profile to Les Orveaux, just more serious. Much more firm than Les Suchots. More like blueberries and chocolate, stronger spice, darker fruit, austere and hard right now, quite tannic. A lot of depth and extract here, without weight (i.e. mid-weight). Substantial wine that seems to have good potential but hard to see any of the "velvety texture" right now that Burghound mentioned. Pretty good, not great.
2006 Mongeard-Mugeneret Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru - compared to the hard and tannic 2011, the 2006 was all honeyed pretty red berries, and a hint of barn, very tasty already and so different in profile than the 2011. Yum.
Overall, the tasting confirmed that Mongeard-Mugneret makes solid, high-quality wines at very good price. For me, they seem to lack some excitement and personality, but given the cost, they are worth considering and cherry-picking relative to many other higher-priced red burgundies. Of the four 2011's I tasted, two (Suchots and Echezeaux) were pretty and aimed at mid-term drinking, while Orveaux and especially Grands-Echezeaux would need longer.
Thanks to Vin Vino Wine wine shop for serving the local wine community with almost daily fine wine tastings in Palo Alto.
Comments