ÉCHEZEAUX

2019 Grand Cru Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg

EN PRIMEUR

15% whole bunch here. A fleeting impression of plumpness in the touch but then it gathers force and there's tension, with acidity just firming the tannins slightly. All quite closed, but there's a lovely saline finish. Complex. lots of energy here despite the obvious concentration. Drinking range: 2035 - 2050L&S (Oct 2020)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

Perhaps the deepest purple in the flight. The fruit is very backward, and when it does start to emerge shows a considerable ripeness. Then along come the mentholated cherries and some wood tannins. At first this seems monolithic as a wine style, or is it just a question of extreme youth? I think it’s the latter now as it builds with time in the glass. Drink from 2028-2038. Tasted: September 2023. Drinking range: 2028 - 2038 Rating: **** Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy  (Nov 2023)

(the blend has now changed from 50/50 to two-thirds/one-third from the climats of Les Rouges du Bas and Les Quartiers de Nuits). A more restrained if somewhat riper nose is comprised by notes of dark berry fruit liqueur and a wonderful range of spice and floral elements, all of which is trimmed in enough wood to notice. Here too the medium weight plus flavors possess a beguiling mouthfeel thanks to the generous sap that helps to buffer the firm tannins shaping the lengthy and balanced finale. This moderately austere effort should amply reward extended cellaring. Drinking range: 2031 - Rating: 92-94 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jan 2021)

The 2019 Echezeaux Grand Cru was showing beautifully when I visited, wafting from the glass with aromas of rose petals, wild berries, plums, orange peel, spices, loamy soil and espresso roast. Full-bodied, velvety and enveloping, it's sumptuous and gourmand, with exquisitely refined tannins, lively acids and a seamless, effortless profile. It will be fascinating to compare and contrast the finer-boned 2019 with the more muscular 2018 in the fullness of time. Rating: 94 - 96+ William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jan 2021)

20.5 hl/ha at 13.7% alcohol with 15% of whole bunches following on from the 2016 decision to try them in this cuvée. The proportions are no longer half and half between their two plots, now two-thirds/one third since they took back the vines in the upper plot, les Rouges du Bas, from the retiring sharecropper. A slightly fresher pink purple. The bouquet takes a bit of teasing out. Quite floral but too ripe to be roses, more like peonies. Generous, almost lush fruit on the palate, while avoiding excess heat, good bone structure with little pinpricks of acidity, very long and subtly nuanced. Slightly darker fruit at the very back. Tasted: November 2020 4/5 stars Rating: 94-97 Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy  (Jan 2021)

The 2019 Echézeaux Grand Cru is raised in about 75% new oak. It has a high-toned bouquet lent a light spiciness by the contribution of 15% whole cluster. Light flinty aromas develop with aeration, followed later by more briny aromas. This is quite mercurial in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a fresh opening, and very elegant and silky in mouthfeel; the stem contribution is very discreet. The wine fans out wonderfully on the finish but retains its aristocratic air. Excellent. Drinking range: 2025 - 2050 Rating: 94-96 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Dec 2020)

Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg was founded in 1933 on the marriage of Jeanne Gibourg and André Mugneret. Holdings then consisted of Bourgogne, village Nuits, village Vosne and Echezeaux. Their son Georges, an opthalmologist by day, added to the vineyards, but his acquisitions (Nuits 1ers Crus Vignes Rondes and Chaignots, Chambolle 1er Cru Feusselottes, and Grands Crus Clos Vougeot and Ruchottes Chambertin) were kept separate as Domaine Georges Mugneret.

On Georges' death in 1988, his widow Jacqueline and daughter Marie-Christine took over. Marie-Andrée, the younger daughter joined them a little later having completed her studies as an oenologist. In 2009 Jacqueline retired and the two domaine names were put together to become Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg, ending the prior confusion of labels.

The sisters have proved more than safe hands as far as the winemaking is concerned, and these are top-flight Burgundies with that elusive balance of enough concentration allied with delicacy of expression and the capability to age well. All the vineyard management has been brought in-house (the domaine previously relied on two métayeurs for part of the vineyard) and the quality has reached new heights, its wines some of the most sought-after in the Côte de Nuits.

In 2017 Marie-Christine 's daughter Lucie joined the domaine, and Marion and Fanny, daughters of Marie-Andrée are now also part of the team.

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