2006 Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée

The Mugneret 2006 Vosne Romanee displays the bell-clear, chiseled-edge of fresh red fruits and saline, crystalline minerality for which this estate's wines are justly renowned. Hints of herbal concentrate and of vanilla and caramel from barrel segue nicely into the fruit on a soothingly polished palate, and this finishes with a very sunny, ripe disposition and welcome sense of lift. Plan to enjoy it over the next 4-6 years. The Mugneret sisters engaged in serious triage and crop-dropping in their vineyards in early September, obviating, they claimed, the need for more than modest additional culling on sorting tables. They report having had to be vigilant during fermentations that had a natural tendency to run warm and fast, and gentle in extraction in order to preserve the naturally forward fruitiness which they said was immediately evident from the aromas when fermentation commenced, and which reminds them most of 1997, though ultimately with more structure. Like many growers, the Mugnerets were surprised at the levels of potential alcohol reached by their crop given the meteorological conditions, but they stuck by their regimen of light chaptalization in order to, they insist, beneficially extend the fermentations – an approach which at this address no one I know has ever accused of diminishing potential elegance, or clarity of fruit. "Chaptalization has an unjustly bad name," adds Marie-Christine Mugneret to reinforce their point. (Incidentally, although there have been plans to legally reconstitute this estate under a single name, each of its appellations continues for now to belong to either Domaine Georges Mugneret or Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, a distinction I have intentionally blurred in referring to the wines of this cellar by the hybrid name "Georges Mugneret Gibourg" which its proprietors hope will eventually become official.) A Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93