Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier - Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru 'Clos de la Marechale' 2023

Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier is one of Chambolle-Musigny’s most historic and quietly revered estates. The family business was founded in Dijon in 1863 by Frédéric Mugnier, a successful producer of liqueurs, cassis, absinthe, and aromatized wines. During the phylloxera crisis of the 1880s, he began acquiring vineyards in Chambolle-Musigny, followed by the Château de Chambolle-Musigny in 1899 and the monopole Clos de la Maréchale in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1902.

The domaine and liqueur business remained under family management until 1949. The following year, Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier sold the struggling spirits company and leased the vineyards to Maison Faiveley. Direct control of the Chambolle parcels returned to the family in 1978, and in 1985 his son Frédéric Mugnier—an engineer by training and later a commercial airline pilot—settled permanently at the château and assumed responsibility for the estate. When the long-term lease on Clos de la Maréchale expired in 2003, the domaine grew almost overnight from four to fourteen hectares.

Today, Frédéric and Jocelyne Mugnier work alongside a dedicated permanent team, farming exceptional holdings that include Musigny, Bonnes-Mares, Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Amoureuses and Les Fuées, as well as Clos de la Maréchale, the largest monopole in the Côte d’Or. The latter produces both red Pinot Noir and a rare white Nuits-Saint-Georges from Chardonnay.

Frédéric’s approach is thoughtful, empirical, and deeply respectful of the vineyard. Industrial fertilizers were abandoned in 1986, herbicides in 1990, and insecticides in the mid-1990s. Rather than following a prescribed organic or biodynamic system, he practices an exacting form of reasoned viticulture intended to protect the vineyard’s living ecosystem while responding pragmatically to each season.

In the cellar, the wines are made with restraint: grapes are completely destemmed, fermented with indigenous yeasts, and aged for 12 to 18 months in barrel with no more than approximately 30% new oak before bottling without fining or filtration. The resulting wines are celebrated for their purity, delicacy, and transparency—wines shaped less by the hand of the winemaker than by the singular character of their origins.

This vineyard is right alongside the route national between Comblanchien and Premeaux. It was owned by the Mugnier family for generations, and it was these fore-fathers that planted the oldest vines in the Clos around World War I. As the family became less involved in the alcohol and wine business, they decided to lease the vineyard long-term to Domaine Flaiveley in 1950. When Frédéric moved to Burgundy and took over the old family house and cellars, the lease was still in effect: it only ended in 2004. Frédéric suddenly went from having 4 to 14 ha of vines, which necessitated enlarging the family cellars.

100% de-stemmed, 15-20 day ambient yeast fermentation in open wooden vats. Aged for 18 months in barrel (15% new oak). Racked twice. Transferred in April to stainless steel tanks to age for 3 additional months. Bottled in June-July. SO2 additions before fermentation and before bottling.

"The 2023 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale is denser and more structured than its Clos des Fourches sibling. Exhibiting notes of cassis, plums, raspberries, spices and petals, it's medium- to full-bodied, with good density and sweet tannins. It's showing better in bottle than it did from barrel." - 91 Points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Producer: Jacques-Frederic Mugnier

Country: France

Region: Burgundy

Varietal: Pinot Noir

Appellation: Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru

Vintage: 2023

Size: 750ml