Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Clos de la Maréchale 2021 is a vibrant and elegant Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, showing pure blood orange and sour cherry fruit with subtle violet notes. Medium to full-bodied, it offers a firm tannic structure and a long, stony finish that promises excellent aging potential. From the 9.55-hectare walled monopole, organically grown.

James Suckling | JS 94
Published: Jan 24, 2025

Many 2021 red Burgundies already taste pretty developed, but this is extremely youthful and vibrant, with great purity of blood orange and sour cherry fruit plus a touch of violets. There’s a lot more structure on the palate than the charming nose suggests, with an impressive tannic core. Long, crisp, stony finish that’s still a bit tightly wound. From a 9.55-hectare walled monopole site. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2026.

Decanter | D 93
Published: Jan 6, 2022

Mugnier’s nearly ten-hectare monopole at the southern extreme of Prémeaux-Prissey has suffered in recent years: hail in 2018, coulure in 2019, drought in 2020, and frost in 2021. It has produced a bit more than half a normal harvest this year, but what is left is lovely indeed, with lush, pretty aromas of raspberry with floral notes and a delicate, supple texture on the palate that is ethereal yet oddly persistent. It is far from the most structured in the portfolio but is among the most approachable.
Closure: Cork
Body: Medium
Oak: Lightly Oaked
Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir / Pinot Nero

The Wine Advocate | RP 90+
Published: Jan 18, 2024
Drink: 2027-2041

The 2021 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale is more overtly structured from bottle than I perceived from barrel, unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries, vine smoke and earthy spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, taut and chalky palate that will reward some patience.

Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier picked over the first week of September, destemming his crop and maturing it with only a minimal supporting presence of new oak, as usual. Fermentations, he told me, went smoothly. The resulting wines are supple and suave, without quite the same drama as the unusually concentrated 2020s, the utterly sensual 2019s or the filigreed 2021s. With the exception of the domaine's sole white wine, they don't show much of the heat of the vintage. They seem set to offer long, broad and immensely pleasurable drinking windows.

Mugnier.fr

The origin of the name of this vineyard is unknown. In 1855, the vineyard was still known as “Clos des Fourches”, then in 1892 as “Clos Maréchal”, before becoming “Clos de la Maréchale” in the 20th century.

Research by historian Jean-François Bazin has shown that no marshal or marshal’s wife from the Second Empire had any connection with this village. Further research is required. To be continued…

On 1 November 2003, the estate was enlarged in one fell swoop from 4 to 14 hectares. Clos de la Maréchale, owned exclusively by the Mugnier family since 1902, returned to the estate at the end of a 53-year lease.

Clos de la Maréchale is a 9 ha 76 ares parcel. It is the largest monopole (appellation belonging to a single owner) in the Côte d’Or. The average age of the vines in 2008 was around 45 years.

Historically, the wines of Premeaux are regularly described as being among the best of Nuits-saint-Georges, albeit with a less “spirituous” (alcoholic) character and “exquisite finesse”.

THE WINE
Clos de la Maréchale has the straightforwardness and solidity of the wines from Nuits-saint-Georges, but without the austerity and rough tannins of the young wines from the central sector of Nuits. These wines need a few years of ageing before they fully come into their own, but they then develop a typical floral character tinged, it seems, with raspberry, iris and white lilac.