2014 Jacques-Federic Mugnier Clos de la Marechale Premier Cru

Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, the 2014 Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale from Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier showed just a touch of volatile acidity on the nose but nothing to get too worried about. It just renders the aromatics more feisty and perhaps more feral than its peers, and after ten minutes there is a touch of unwanted brettanomyces coming through. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannin, plenty of lively and quite tensile red fruit that leads to a linear, slightly conservative finish that just needs to gain more flesh and personality. Tasted September 2017.

Bright medium red. Dark cherry, raspberry and flowers on the nose, plus a whiff of earth. Much tighter in the mouth than the Chambolle villages but already wonderfully suave and perfumed, showing a dusty, tactile quality and a lovely balance of sweet and saline elements. The dark raspberry and menthol flavors carry impressively on the perfumed, minerally back end.

(15% new oak; Mugnier made an approximation of the final blend): Bright, dark red. Sexy aromas of red cherry liqueur and spices. Sappy and rich for this cuvée , conveying lovely mineral thrust to the red fruit flavors. Finishes perfumed and very long, with fine-grained tannins and serious breadth. A lovely example of this wine, but Mugnier says the 2005 is still the best vintage for Clos de la Maréchale, nothing that "it's showing well now even if it's still young."