Gerard Mugneret Vosne Romanee Cuvee Precolombiere 2018
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The three parcels are located in the heart of the village with similar terroirs of deep red clays but with a layer of stones at 1.5 meters' depth.
Today Gerard works 8.5 hectares (20.4 acres), all of which are red grape (Pinot Noir) territory. A portion of the vineyards are worked on sharecrop contracts, so the actual production brought back to the winery is equivalent to approximately 6 hectares of vines. His wife, Francoise, who has been working the vineyards with Gerard since their marriage in 1973, also helps with all levels of administrative work of the estate.
Gerard takes his profession very seriously "a winemaker must have much humility, as is true in every day life! Once money and success arrive, too many people quickly forget the warmth of human contact, friendly ties and the help that can exist between winemaker colleagues." His philosophy towards the domaine is to vinify and bottle his entire harvest every year. This is why he is so attentive in the vineyards, working with just one employee that he himself trained. Between them exists trust and mutual respect, which is very important to Gerard. For Gerard, the vines are living beings and he treats them as such, actually speaking to them as he works. He has the impression that the vineyards respond to him in their own way, with the crop that they offer him at the end of each season.
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.”
This is the village for the most die-hard Burgundy fanatics. Vosne-Romanée has for many hundreds of years been the source of the most sought-after Pinot Noir in Burgundy. The village claims six Grands Crus—and some of the most famous at that—but in other villages where owners manage tiny parcels or a few rows of any one vineyard, monopolies dominate the Grands Crus of Vosne-Romanee.
Of these monopolies, Domaine Romanee-Conti (DRC) reigns supreme, claiming not only more total vineyard area than any other producer, but outright owning the entirety of two of the Grands Crus and a majority of two others. In its full possession are naturally Romanée-Conti, as well as La Tâche. DRC also owns most of Richebourg and Romanée-St-Vivant. The final two, La Grande Rue and La Romanée are completely owned by other other produers: François Lamarche and Comte Liger Belair, respectively.
While one could spend a lifetime on the puzzles of land ownership in Burgundy, the point is that Vosne-Romanee contains the most valuable pieces of vineyard real estate in the world. Pinot Noir from any of its vineyards—especially from within its 27ha of Grand Cru or 58 ha of Premier Cru land—is going to rank among the best.
The most outstanding wines from this village have everything: finesse and elegance coupled with the body and sturdiness for incredibly long aging ability. They are intensely floral and exotically spiced. Beautifully ripe, complex and ephemeral throughout, they are robust, yet fine-grained in texture. These wines will stay gorgeous for the long haul.