"Unusually good energy here"
Part II
2009 Mugneret-Gibourg
Vosne-Romanée
The Most Renowned Village in all of Burgundy?
"One of the great Burgundy producers...The style is pure, accurate and high-impact without a great show of weight."
-Matt Kramer, Making Sense of Burgundy
This is the perfect moment for this email - I'm writing it in an airplane, somewhere above the Rockies, en route to La Paulee, the great Burgundy festival, which this year is in San Francisco.
In the cargo hold below me, somewhere very safe I hope, is a very curated collection of six magnums - to be opened and enjoyed as part of the festival. For Champagne, 1992 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses, 1998 Dom Pérignon Rosé and 1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil, for whites a 1993 Ramonet Batard and for reds, DRC's 1985 Grands Echezeaux along with a most precious solo magnum of 1993 Mugneret-Gibourg Clos Vougeot.
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Indeed, as we wrote just two weeks ago, spend some time in the cellars of serious Burgundy collectors and along with the elite regulars (Roumier, Rousseau, DRC, etc) you will often find a corner stocked with Mugneret-Gibourg.
Here is real-time proof that this is the case. If they have been under the radar for the last few years, Mugneret-Gibourg's reputation is blowing up - the wines are extraordinary.
They've been among our favorites for some years though there's no denying that something seems to have happened since 2005. The wines have simply reached a new, unprecedented level.
Today the spotlight belongs to one of the best values in the collection, the village Vosne-Romanée - year in and year out one of our favorite village reds. And if it's never a particularly easy bottle to find in any reasonable quantity, things are only going to get worse. A nasty hail in 2010 basically wiped out half the vineyard, so this is something of a swan song for this wine until the vineyard recovers.
And what a song it is - this bottle is an awesome example of what a village wine can be: Dark, powerful, mysterious fruit - drizzled from beginning to end with palate-staining blackberry, tart cherry and wild flowers. Bright aromatics that soar and flirt with notes of soil and stone and spice. As with all the best Mugneret-Gibourg wines, this is finely-honed and perfectly balanced.
In the spectrum of village wine, this bottle, especially in this vintage, commands a place in the upper echelon of village wines and truth be told it can put to shame many a 1er Cru.
The natural power here will allow for a graceful and long aging curve but as we've said before, the 2009 vintage will drink very well at nearly any point - so don't be shy...
...especially in the context of an estate whose reputation is skyrocketing - these are going to be harder and harder to find. Take advantage of the availability now.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com to this email or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits