Musigny Grand Cru Reviews

An admirably subtle touch of wood serves as a backdrop for the exuberantly floral-infused and perfumed nose that offers up notes of exotic spice, poached plum and jasmine tea. The equally tautly muscular yet refined and lilting flavors are blessed with excellent punch and power while exhibiting a pungent minerality on the hugely long built-to-age finish. This refined effort is both stylish and very classy.

The 2021 Musigny Grand Cru contains 100% whole bunches like the BonnesMares this year, but they are better assimilated. Red berry fruit, undergrowth and light tobacco scents gently unfold. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly dry tannins, rather spicy, building in the mouth with white pepper touches towards the finish. It's a lovely wine but not a top-drawer Musigny.

Deep red with ruby tones. Knockout nose offers kaleidoscopic scents of raspberry, blood orange, crushed rock and pepper complicated by torrefaction notes of cocoa and mocha and lifted by lilac and rose petal. Incredibly silky on entry, then expands and builds in the middle palate, with an element of noble vegetility adding another dimension to the flavors of fruits, flowers and stone. Superb acidity here, which Pierre Vincent says is due to "the concentration of all of the wine's elements." Finishes with outstanding peppery energy and lift: one of the longest wines of my November tour and nearly impossible to spit. There are just three barrels of this elixir: one new, one one year old and one two years old. Built for a long life in bottle.

A regal, majestic Burgundy, the 2012 Musigny is totally alive in the glass. Sweet, perfumed aromatics meld into red berries, mint and anise and wild flowers in an impeccable, beautifully layered wine. The 2012 will naturally take a number of years to peak

Don't miss! This is restrained to the point of being borderline inexpressive though aggressive swirling coaxes notes of highly spiced floral, red currant, black cherry and kirsch to reveal themselves. The mouth feel of the strikingly seductive medium weight plus sized flavors is pure silk and satin as the grain of the tannins is ultra-fine. There is also excellent underlying tension and delineation to the understated and harmonious finish that really fans out on the beautifully well-balanced finish. This is a stunner of a wine that should thoroughly reward long-term cellaring.

The 2010 Musigny emerges from the glass with an extraordinary range of aromas and flavors. Freshly cut roses, red berries, mint and spices all flow gracefully from this finely chiseled Burgundy. The fruit gains tons of depth and volume in the glass as the wine continues to dazzle. This is yet another showstopper from La Vougeraie. Pierre Vincent used 80% whole clusters for the Musigny and aged the wine in 100% new oak. Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045. This is stunning set of wines from Pierre Vincent and Domaine de la Vougeraie. It is impossible to miss the attention to detail at this impeccably run domaine. No expense is spared. It takes 80 people to work the vineyards during harvest and another 20 in the cellar to take it from there. Production in 2010 was of course down significantly as it was everywhere else. Yields came in at 24 hectoliters per hectare for the Pinot and 29 for the Chardonnay. Vincent used between 30-80% whole bunches, depending on the wine. Readers who want to learn more might want to check out my video interview with Pierre Vincent on www.erobertparker.com. I will report on the domaine’s 2009s in the April issue. For now let me just say the 2009 Musigny is one of the wines of the vintage.

A soaring nose of cool, elegantly pure and very fresh aromas of violets, black cherry, plum and stone are gorgeously spicy. There is terrific intensity to the rich and mouth coating broad-shouldered flavors that brim with dry extract that imparts a velvety and seductive texture to the explosive and hugely long finish. This is very firmly structured and will require at least 20 years to realize its full, and considerable, potential.

The 2009 Le Musigny is dazzling. Sweet roses, cherries and spices are some of the notes that emerge from this impossibly elegant, haunting wine. The layers of fruit and complexity are beyond eternal, while the tannins feel like cashmere on the finish. I can’t wait to taste this once it is in bottle. Sadly, there will only be 900 bottles to go around, so I am not sure how likely that is. The Musigny was made with 80% whole bunches and was aged in 100% new oak. Tasted from barrel. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2039. Biodynamic farming and non-interventionalist winemaking are at the heart of the approach at Domaine de la Vougeraie. The 2009s saw roughly a 25 days of maceration (including a week of cold soak) with one punch down a day. Once in barrel racking was kept to a bare minimum. A number of wines were bottled in late 2010 and early 2011. I tasted these wines with winemaker Pierre Vincent in March 2011.

(from a tiny parcel of only .17 ha) 80% whole clusters. A dazzling array of spice, earth, mineral, fruit and overt floral aromas that change every few seconds while introducing elegant, pure, transparent and vibrant tightly constructed flavors that possess superb power and striking depth of material on the unbelievably long finish. This is quite firmly structured but impeccably well-balanced and this brilliant effort is a perfect example of the term power without weight. A monument in the making as there is just another dimension here. 2024+