Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret Richebourg Grand Cru

When Jean-Baptiste Mongeard identified a serrated-leaf, low-yielding Pinot Noir mutation in the 19th century and had it preserved at the Beaune Viticultural School in 1884, he was encoding the domaine's philosophy into the vine itself: concentration through restraint, not intervention. That massal selection — the 'Pinot Mongeard' — still anchors the 0.31 ha Richebourg parcel today, a fragment of mid-slope Vosne-Romanée where clay over Bajocian limestone delivers both mineral density and the drainage that keeps yields honest at this elevation.

Vinification retains approximately one-third whole clusters for tannic architecture, preceded by a 4–5 day cold pre-fermentation maceration and followed by 12–15 days of natural-yeast fermentation in temperature-controlled stainless at ~30°C. The wine moves to barrel by gravity, then ages 18–22 months in Allier, Nièvre, and Vosges French oak at up to ~60% new — a ratio Vincent Mongeard calibrates by palate at pressing, not by formula. Bottled unfiltered.

What separates Mongeard's Richebourg from austere Côte de Nuits orthodoxy is deliberate: the house pursues ripe, supple tannins and aromatic generosity even at Grand Cru level, making this one of the few Richebourgs that rewards relatively early access without sacrificing the structural depth for a 20–30 year arc. The 2022 vintage, a warm and even growing season in the Côte de Nuits, amplifies that fruit-forward signature while the limestone subsoil preserves the tension needed for long cellaring.