2008 Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er Cru
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Tasting notes
The 2008 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses is endowed with an explosive bouquet and a multi-dimensional, textured core of dark fruit. The inner palate sweetness, richness and nuance here are all breathtaking. The finish seems to last into the next day. This is another spellbinding effort from Mugnier. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2038. With each passing year Frederic Mugnier has let up on the reigns of winemaking and allowed the vintage to take center stage. His wines now reflect the unique qualities of each harvest to an exacting degree. Mugnier describes the 2009s as rich, powerful and exceptionally dense wines that will be at their most exciting in several decades’ time, or – as Mugnier says with his typically dry sense of humor – when he’s no longer around. The vintage was marked by one week of very hot weather towards the end of the growing season, although on average 2009 was not a hot year. The harvest began on September 10. For the 2009s Mugnier destemmed 100% of the fruit as he didn’t feel he had the phenolic ripeness in the stems to use whole clusters. Fermentations lasted about three weeks, an approach which is now pretty much consistent from year to year. ‘Long, slow and gentle,’ Mugnier says. The wines were racked once and were scheduled to be bottled between April and May 2011. The percentage of new oak barrels continues to drop and is now between 15-20% across the entire range. I also tasted all of the 2008s, a vintage in which Mugnier’s wines are stratospheric for their sheer beauty, elegance and pedigree. In 2008 the harvest began on September 26, two full weeks after 2009, which is pretty consistent across domaines in these two years. Today the 2008s appear to have more finesse and silkiness. This will be a fascinating vintage to follow here. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808; Veritas Imports, Beverly Hills, CA; tel. (310) 205-3803; Toepfer Imports LLC, CO; tel. (303) 818-7640
Critic scores
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Palish medium red. Wild raspberry, orange peel, underbrush and a whiff of porcini on the nose. Sweet, wild and seamless, with superb energy giving focus to the flavors of red berries, spices, flowers and minerals. There's an exhilarating, almost citrussy acidity here that leaves the salivary glands quivering. This very backward wine will need extended aging to develop more amplitude.
Bright, moderately saturated medium red. Zesty aromas of red raspberry, orange peel, mint and pungent crushed stone, with a captivating candied quality. Dense, layered and sweet; at once fully ripe and sappy, with an exhilarating high pitch to its flavors of raspberry, stone and licorice. This wine is always sexy in the early going, but this 2008 shows a serious structure and seems quite backward today.
Pale and limpid with a lovely ethereal quality to it. Lots to savour and smack one’s lips over. Very complete on the nose. Hint of yeast extract. Very sweet floral notes on ripe fruit. Extremely charming. Gentle, pure with a wonderfully light touch. Trademark Mugnier purity. (JR)