2005 Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er Cru

An exuberantly spicy, pure and strikingly elegant nose that is at once airy and complex complements to perfection the layered, sweet and rich mouth coating flavors that are as stylish and pure as the nose is, all wrapped in a textured, refined and beautifully balanced finish that offers huge length. This is a serene and complete effort and again, as good as any vintage that I can remember. In short, this classy effort is pure silk and lace. In a word, magnificent.

Some blue still in the colour here. Very seductive, exotic, floral notes on top of ripe red fruits. Lovely wine! Much more expressive than de Vogüé’s at this early stage. Very complete – massively fruity and charming. A bit of crème de cerises? A stunningly striking wine. (JR)

The 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses offers a lovely aromatic melange of ripe red cherry, raspberry, buddleia, orange zest, and ginger in the nose. It is juicy and refined, with the tannins melting away and the palate registering almost a white wine impression, richly-saturating and yet lilting, and with a sorbet-like presentation of black raspberry. This almost ethereal Chambolle finishes with startlingly vivid florality, sweet berry fruit and spice, with just a subtle suggestion of marrow. (None of the Mugnier 2005s register strong animal or meaty characteristics at this early stage.) Frederic Mugnier works from a just-expanded and superbly appointed cellar, and a tasting of his 2004s confirms that he is scoring hits even when Nature does not make it easy as she did the following year. Mugnier advocates unusually late but limited pigeage. “After all,” he opines, “we take great care not to crush the berries, so it doesn’t make sense to do an early pigeage and break them,” and late punch-down further extends the fermentation. Various Importers. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet; fax 011- 333-80-24-29-70.