Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru

When Jean-Baptiste Mongeard identified a serrated-leaf, low-yielding Pinot Noir mutation on the family's Vosne-Romanée parcels in the 19th century, he sent cuttings to the Beaune Viticultural School in 1884 — the Pinot Mongeard massal selection that still anchors the domaine's ~1.82 ha of Échezeaux today. The family's holdings here sit on clay-over-Bajocian-limestone soils mid-slope, a substrate that delivers mineral density and controlled drainage, concentrating fruit without sacrificing the site's characteristic iron-flecked tension.

Vinification retains 40–100% whole clusters through a 4–5 day cold pre-fermentation maceration, followed by native yeast fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless steel at ~30°C for 12–15 days. The wine is transferred to barrel by gravity and aged 18–22 months in French oak from Allier, Nièvre, and Vosges forests — new-oak proportion reaching up to 60% for Grand Cru, calibrated vintage by vintage at pressing by Vincent Mongeard's palate alone. Bottled unfiltered at ~13.5% ABV.

What separates Mongeard-Mugneret from Côte de Nuits peers is a deliberate house philosophy of approachability in youth without sacrificing structure — a fruit-forward generosity that the more austere, reductive school of the appellation rarely permits. The 2022 vintage, a warm and early harvest year in Burgundy, amplifies that ripeness while the whole-cluster component preserves spinal freshness; drink from 2028 through 2040+.