Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret Echézeaux Grand Cru 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Mongeard-Mugneret

The Mongeard family arrived in Vosne-Romanée in the 1620, with records showing a Mongeard working as vigneron for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in 1786. Their legacy now spans over eight generations, however they continue to produce wine with the utmost respect for tradition.

In 1945, Jean Mongeard, whose mother was a Mugneret, found himself making wine at the age of 16 in the place of his father who had died years earlier. 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.

Today the estate is run by Vincent Mongeard who began working alongside his father, Jean, in 1975. Vincent persuaded his father to return to the traditional method of bottling, without filtration, filtering only with certain vintages. Jean retired in 1995 and Vincent assumed complete oversight of the domaine. Today, Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret covers a total area of more than 75 acres, split among 35 appellations.

The Mongeards operate according to the purist of burgundy traditions. Their winery is based in Vosne Romanée, however they work with a variety of sites from the Côte de Nuits to the Côte de Beaune; from Marsannay to the south of Dijon to Puligny-Montrachet, including all the most prestigious villages of the Côte: Gevrey-Chambertin, Vougeot, Nuits Saint Georges and Savigny-les-Beaune. Naturally, the varied range and quality of climats in which the Mongeards own vineyards result in wines of great diversity and character.

One for the francophones out there. The video below shoes Vincent Mongreard discussing his winemaking ethos.

In the Vineyard

The domaine no longer uses weedkillers and the vineyards are all fertilised organically.

In the Winery

All the grapes are largely destemmed, and the grand crus are aged in around 60% new oak with 30-50% used for the premier cru and village wines. There is no fining and only a light filtration. The result is wines that are full, rich and concentrated with elegance and age ability. Amazingly, the domaine makes more than 30 crus – five grand crus, nine premier crus, nine village and a further nine regional wines.

The 2019 Vintage at Mongeard-Mugneret

From Burghound

“Vincent Mongeard succinctly commented that the 2019 growing season “was once again especially hot and dry though other than a bit of hail in Nuits St. Georges, it was relatively easy to manage. We had a moderately poor flowering with plenty of shatter, so yields were not especially good though neither were they really low either. As was the case in 2018, the fruit was so clean that it made for rapid picking as there was little to sort. I again vinified softly and at much cooler temperatures than usual, the idea being to try to avoid accentuating the intrinsic ripeness of the fruit. As to the wines, they have plenty of structure and underlying material, yet they are charming and to my taste, better-balanced than their 2018 equivalents.”

From Willam Kelley, The Wine Advocate

“Vincent Mongeard, who has directed this important Vosne-Romanée domaine since 1995, guided me through a selection of what is a rather extensive portfolio—drawing on fully 30 hectares of vines. Mongeard told me that his grands and premiers crus are farmed essentially organically, and that at the communal and regional level treatments are kept to a minimum. Most cuvées are largely destemmed, though some of the higher appellations increasingly see some whole bunches, and macerations long and cool (attaining a maximum of 25 degrees Celsius). Elevage is in barrels made by Tonnellerie Rousseau, produced from wood that’s purchased and seasoned in house, Mongeard favoring—rather unusually—the forests of the Ardenne and Jura over those of the Centre. The result is very classic wines that carry a rather toasty patina of wood in their youth but blossom with bottle age into superb examples of their appellations. And it’s worth adding that, while there are no bargains in mature Vosne-Romanée, I’d venture that the domaine’s older vintages are some of the finest values to be found on the secondary market today, as they reliably perform very well (some notes on the estates 1980s will appear in my forthcoming retrospective report on that underrated vintage).”

Where in the World is Mongeard Mugneret?

Mongeard-Mugneret is based in Vosne-Romanée.