Domaine Mongeard Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux 2020

The Mongeard family arrived in Vosne-Romanée in the 18th century, and records show a Mongeard working as vigneron for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in 1786. In 1945, Jean Mongeard, whose mother was a Mugneret, found himself making wine at the age of 16. His father had died five years before, and there was no one left to do the job. The entire 1945 crop was purchased by Baron le Roy, Marquis d'Angerville and Henri Gouges. Gouges instructed the young Mongeard to personally bottle the wines, rather than sell in barrel, because of the exceptional quality of the family's wines.

Robert Parker describes the wines of the domaine: 'The style of winemaking seems to extract rich, supple, concentrated fruit from the grapes...The wines always seem to show well young, but also age nicely for 10-15 years.'

Since 1997, Vincent Mongeard, Jean's son, has been responsible for viticulture and vinification of the domaine's wines. He persuaded his father to return to the traditional method of bottling, without filtration, filtering only with certain vintages. Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret today covers a total area of more than 25 hectares, divided into 22 appellations. Their vineyards are 45-50 years old on average, and are grafted with superior Pinot Noir clones. All of the wines are 100% de-stemmed with the exception of Richebourg, for which they include 1/3 stems for more tannic structure. The Echezeaux is made from the climats of Echézeaux du Dessus and Les Treux and aged in 75% new oak. 

Grand Cru Grands-Echezeaux wines are pure bright deep red in color, truly stunning, shifting towards fairly dark shades of garnet or violet-purple. With age, the aromas tend towards pepper and musk, animal pelts, leather and spices, prunes. Sometimes the bouquet hints at scents of woodland undergrowth, moss, mushrooms, damp earth, game, fruit preserved in alcohol and mulberries round off this range of aromas. Especially in young wines, one may well encounter scents of pine, roses, violets and fresh cherries. In the mouth, this wine is peaceful and dreamy, serene with age, subtle and refined, fully revealing the complex nature of a really good Burgundy, all the art that can be achieved through the medium of pinot noir grapes grown on one particular terroir. The structure is outstanding: solid, full-bodied, rich and exceptionally harmonious.  The soils in this vineyard are rich in clay on bajocien limestone. 100 % Pinot Noir averaging 40 to 68 years. Harvesting by hand exclusively. Hand-sorted in the winery. Destemmed according to the vintage. Aged in 100 % new oak barrels.