Domaine Mongeard Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru 2019

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.

Echezeaux wines are among the most renowned of grand cru Burgundy. In their youth, these wines have vanilla-scented, smoky, woody aromas combined with suggestions of red fruits and spices. After a few years the nose becomes more musky and animale, with scents of mushrooms, truffles or woodland undergrowth. The great complexity of the bouquet makes this a wine both rich and feminine; fat and mellow, with fine, delicate and fairly supple tannins. In the mouth the attack is spirited, and there is a succulent fullness with aromas of red fruits.

The domaine farms 1 hectare 82 a 00 ca with hard limestone and low clay. 100 % Pinot Noir averaging 25 to 60 years. Harvesting by hand exclusively. Hand-sorted in the winery. Destemmed.  Aged in 60 to 80 % new oak barrels.