Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée 2018

With La Colombière bottled on its own for the first time in 2018, this village Vosne-Romanée is, for once, a blend of four lieux-dits rather than five.

The village holding covers 3.64 hectares, according to Japanese importer Luc Corporation, and the producer's page maps the pieces: Les Chalendins to the north-east, Le Pré de la Folie, Les Champs Gourdin and La Colombière beside the house, the last marked by a wind turbine against late spring frost, and Les Croix Blanches to the south, all on clay and limestone. André Mugneret inherited Les Chalendins and Les Croix Blanches in 1938; the rest came with the house in 1934. In 2018 the old La Colombière vines, around 70 years old, filled a separate cuvée, so William Kelley records this bottling as the other four lieux-dits.

Picking began on 4 September 2018 after a warm, dry season, and some cuvées reached 14 to 14.5 percent alcohol, as Jammy Wine noted on a cellar visit that autumn. Winehog, tasting from cask with Marie-Christine Mugneret on 8 November 2019, called the 2018s rich and almost silky in texture, yet balanced and with surprisingly fine energy; the wines, it added, reflect the vintage, nothing more and nothing less. The method is unchanged: fully destemmed fruit, four to five days cold before fermentation, 14 to 20 days in vat, 18 months in barrel with about 30 percent new oak for village wines per Luc Corporation (Jammy Wine counted 25 percent here in 2018), bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Georges Mugneret, an ophthalmologist, died in 1988; his daughters Marie-Christine and Marie-Andrée, named on this label, run the estate, which merged its two family labels in 2009 and makes 20,000 to 30,000 bottles a year from just over eight hectares in nine appellations.

In the glass

William Kelley (Wine Advocate, January 2020, 90–92 as quoted by Berry Bros. & Rudd) found raspberries, spices, smoked duck and espresso roast framed by a deft application of new wood, on a medium to full-bodied, lively palate with fine tannins, a ripe core of fruit and an energetic finish. Jammy Wine, from cask in November 2019, noted blackberries, ripe black cherries, exotic spices and Vosne rose petals with fine-grained tannins. The domaine's general description of the cuvée: blackberry and bilberry with coffee notes, then cherry, strawberry and undergrowth in a rich, ample mouth.

When to open

Berry Bros. & Rudd gives a 2024 to 2041 window; the domaine itself says drink it at its fruitiest just after bottling or keep for a maximum of ten years. iDealwine suggests serving at 16°C.

At the table

The domaine recommends grilled or roasted red meats with salted new potatoes, ideally with Bonnotte de Noirmoutier salted butter.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg; Luc Corporation (Japanese importer); Wine Advocate (W. Kelley) as quoted by Berry Bros. & Rudd; Winehog; Jammy Wine; iDealwine