2015 Bourgogne Rouge

Good dark red. Superripe aromas of blackberry, menthol and flowers; almost high-toned for a Mugneret wine. Wonderfully rich, spicy and sweet, conveying an old-vines creaminess of texture and finishing with a serious dusting of ripe tannins. A very large-scaled, concentrated Bourgogne with atypical length for the category. The Mugneret sisters pulled up 25% of these vines for replanting after the 2015 harvest.

(these very old vines yielded just 15 hectoliters per hectare in 2015 and the Mugnerets pulled up about a quarter of them after the harvest to replant): Bright dark red. Inviting aroma of raspberry, flowers and spices. A fleshy, ripe Bourgogne Rouge with flavors of black raspberry, licorice and spices nicely firmed on the back by dusty, chocolatey tannins. A second sample from a one-year-old barrel showed a bit more fruit intensity and depth and finished impressively long and ripely tannic but without the chocolatey element of the first barrel. Should make a terrific bottle.

The Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg—which hails from old vines in the lieu-dit of Les Lutinieres, entitled to the Vosne-Romanee appellation until 1936—is routinely one of the very best generic wines to be found in all of Burgundy, and the 2015 Bourgogne Rouge rendition is spectacular, soaring from the glass with a beautiful bouquet of ripe cherries, rose petal, orange rind, chocolate and a subtle framing of smoky new oak. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied and concentrated, with the structure and dimension of a serious villages-level bottling and a long, penetrating finish. While much Bourgogne is made for the short haul, this 2015 will reward a decade or more of cellaring, and its manifest potential made me wince when I opened a bottle from my cellar to write this review. Apr 2018, www.robertparker.com