Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses Premier Cru 2020
-
Morris
Jasper - Vinous
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Jasper Morris
Frederic Mugnier has a big plot of Amoureuses and a little one above the road which he has pulled out. Fred makes a point of the yellow ochre clay in contact with the rock as being the key tpo this vineyard. The 2020 has a rich dense purple colour, with an explosion of fruit on the nose, as ripe as one would want. Keep sucking up the aromatics! This continues on the palate, with a sensuality of texture allied to exactly the same aromatic profile, backed by fresh acidity. A very exciting Amoureuses to gladden our hearts in the years to come.
Barrel Sample: 95-98 -
Vinous
The 2020 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er Cru offers lovely red berries, kirsch and blood orange scents on the nose - very harmonious and beautifully focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, crisp acidity (more than Bonnes-Mares) with a very tensile, quite spicy finish that lingers in the mouth. This is just so sublime that I find it difficult to spit out.
Other Vintages
2017- Decanter
-
Parker
Robert -
Morris
Jasper
-
Parker
Robert
-
Morris
Jasper
-
Morris
Jasper
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Chambolle-Musigny represents the charm of the Côte de Nuits district of Burgundy. But you’ll find that term mainly in reference to the vineyards in its southern stretches, which border Clos Vougeot: the Grand Cru of Le Musingy and in part, its neighboring and most exceptional Premier Cru, Les Amoureuses. Some producers argue for the primacy of Les Amoureuses and its eligibility for Grand Cru status given its wines can sometimes surpass other Grands Crus.
Le Musigny ranks on par with the most acclaimed Grands Crus for Pinot Noir: Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Chambertin, and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. It is also the only Grand Cru in Côte de Nuits for Chardonnay. All of the others are in Côte de Beaune.
This village can in fact claim only two Grands Crus vineyards and—in the context of breaking down the minutiae—they are markedly different. Bonnes-Mares, the other one at the far northern end above the village, bordering Morey-St-Denis, offers power, strength and great aging potential. But Chambolle-Musigny includes a nice handful of exceptional Premiers Crus, as noted above with Les Amoureuses as the finest. Le Fuees and Les Cras are other noteworthy Premiers Crus.
Overall, a top Chambolle-Musigny offers pure aromas of violets, dark cherry and damp earth, coupled with a velvety elegance, supple mid-palate, an abundance of black and red berry, and finesse and power through a long and fine-grained finish.