Mugneret-Gibourg: Ruchottes-Chambertin 1945 – 2014
BY NEAL MARTIN |
“C’est un Chambertin vinifié à Vosne” – Henri Jayer describing Ruchottes-Chambertin
The trill of the telephone shatters the morning silence, shards of daybreak littering the bedroom and awakening the daughter. Drowsily she rubs sleep from her eyes, swivels her head to glance at the bedside clock. It’s early – nothing exceptional since her father’s practice means people call either before or after his surgery hours. The unanswered telephone seems to ring ever more urgently until syncopated footsteps are audible down the hallway and then her father’s unmistakable reassuring voice echoes up through the floorboards. On many occasions she has found herself eavesdropping upon his prognosis or advice, salving words spoken with almost paternal empathy. Her immediate thought is a medical emergency since he is one of the country’s most respected ophthalmic surgeons. Instead she recognizes the topic being that of the vine and not the eye.
“Bonjour Charles,” her father’s greeting spirals up from below. “Tout va bien? C’est un peu tôt, n’est-ce pas?”
“Georges, something has come up,” replies Charles, an old student friend from his days at University of Dijon. Charles is five years his senior, but they ran in the same circles, attended the same parties and chased the same girls. Georges nurtured a passion for wine, though his family is not winemaking royalty like Rousseau. Sure, the Mugnerets own a few plots here and there, though their wine sells for a handful of francs, part of the reason why Georges pursued a medical career to pay the bills. He can potter about the vines every Friday and Saturday; the occasional Sunday when the mood takes him.
Charles gets straight to the point.
“You often told me about wanting to add a Grand Cru to Clos Vougeot...”
“Correct,” confirms George with a tinge of resignation. “I’ve searched for years for a suitable plot, but it has never been right.”
“Always in Vosne-Romanée,” he chuckles. “You know, there are vines elsewhere.”
“And you know my father. He is born and bred in Vosne. He worked the land for many years. What is his expression? Vosne ou rien! I’m beginning to think that we’ll never find anything...”
“Ah, well, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Something has come up,” Charles interjects excitedly. “You know Thomas-Bassot?”
“Yes of course. The négoçiant.”
“They are selling their monopole of Ruchottes-Chambertin. It is wonderful terroir. They made some terrific wines there in the 1940s and 1950s.”
“So are you going to buy it?” asks Georges, envious of his friend’s access to such a Grand Cru.
This magnificent vertical tasting of Mugneret/Mugneret-Gibourg’s Ruchottes-Chambertin - a remarkable and virtually unrepeatable retrospective - not only spanned almost the entirety of Mugneret/Mugneret-Gibourg’s tenure of the Grand Cru, but ventured further back to the Thomas-Bassot era.
