| Review: |
"Mugnier's 2015 Chambolle-Musigny Village is beautiful, wafting from the glass with a pretty nose of raspberry, strawberry, sweet spices and peony. On the palate, the wine is bright, weightless and medium to full-bodied, with satiny tannins, fruit of crystalline purity and a long, sappy finish. This is an exquisitely transparent Chambolle Village that exemplifies Mugnier's ethereal style. Produced from 1.3-hectares of vines in the lieux-dits of La Combe d'Orvaux and 1er Cru Les Plantes. Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier maintains that 2015 is "an extraordinary vintage, but one made for people with cellars: the wines will be better at age twenty than they are at age ten." The 2016 vintage, he believes, will offer more immediate pleasure, but 2015, he suspects, will ultimately transpire to be the more distinguished. And certainly, Mugnier has produced a superb set of wines which reflect the fully formed and fullyrealized aesthetic of an original winemaker at the height of his powers. As readers are likely to know, that aesthetic emphasizes purity, transparency, and concentration without extraction. While tasting the 2015 Musigny, our discussion turned to complexity, Mugnier sagely observing that "complexity is inherently difficult to describe—a wine that's easy to describe can't be truly great," a contention it would be difficult to dispute. Note also that the domaine's policy of withholding its Musigny for later release, to preclude its premature consumption, will continue." |