Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru 2021 750ml

Tasted weeks apart in January 2023, William Kelley found this 2021 Bonnes-Mares rich and fleshy at 94 points; Neal Martin called it a little skeletal at 89.

Frédéric Mugnier files 2021 under the cold years, and he means it as praise. His vintage note records another small crop, cut by spring frost as in 2016, with his white Clos de la Maréchale down to a quarter of a normal yield. After 2020, the first harvest the domaine ever finished in August, he writes that 2021 is clearly a cold vintage, synonymous in his words with finesse and floral expression, yet still of the 21st century because of a velvety texture he credits to far more careful vineyard work than in the past.

The parcel is 36 ares, or 0.36 hectares in the Japanese importer Luc Corporation's listing, a narrow strip up the whole slope near the Morey-Saint-Denis boundary. Half the vines date from 1988, the rest from 1961 and 1980, and output runs to 900 to 1,500 bottles a year. Charles Curtis MW places the strip in the pale 'terres blanches' soils near the top of the hill. Mugnier calls it a wine between two villages, where Morey brings frankness, solidity and an earthy streak and Chambolle supplies the red fruit, with mineral and sometimes undergrowth notes behind it.

Luc Corporation adds that the climats were bought in 1889 from the Moret-Monge family by a Dijon liqueur maker, then leased out until 1985, when the present Frédéric trained at Beaune and consulted Christophe Roumier and Michel Lafarge. Wooden vats and steel tanks are used side by side only for volume, the wine spends about 17 months in barrel, and new oak stays at 15 to 20 percent, which the importer links to the moderate colour and silky feel of these wines.

In the glass

William Kelley (The Wine Advocate, January 2023, as quoted by Bordeaux Index) found red berries, blood orange, spices, sweet soil tones and smoked duck, with powdery tannins and a long, sapid finish. Allen Meadows (Burghound, January 2023, as quoted by Côte d'Or Fine Wines) gave 91-94 for blueberry, crushed fennel, earth and violet on a bigger-bodied, youthfully austere frame. Neal Martin (Vinous, January 2023, as quoted by Bordeaux Index) dissented at 89, reading it as light-bodied with a strict finish; Charles Curtis MW (Decanter, June 2022) gave 93.

When to open

The domaine asks for at least five to ten years; Allen Meadows suggests opening from 2033, Charles Curtis MW gives 2025 to 2045, and John Gilman sees it running to 2100.

At the table

The domaine's own advice: Bonnes-Mares takes stronger cooking than its other Chambolle wines, so meat in sauce or game rather than lighter dishes.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier; Luc Corporation (Japanese importer); The Wine Advocate (W. Kelley) and Vinous (N. Martin) as quoted by Bordeaux Index; Burghound (A. Meadows), Decanter (C. Curtis MW), View from the Cellar (J. Gilman) as quoted by Côte d'Or Fine Wines; label