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Domaine J-F Mugnier

"I try to pick when the grapes taste good," said Frédéric Mugnier in November. "The most important thing is the quality and taste of the tannins. Sugar and acidity can be adjusted, but you can't make good wines with underripe skins." As 2015 brought the lowest levels of malic acidity in Mugnier's experience (he started picking Pinot Noir on September 8 and, with potential alcohols around 13%, did not chaptalize), the effects of the malolactic fermentations "were almost invisible."

Mugnier completely destemmed his fruit, as usual, and carried out the same vinification as he does every year. "I don't adapt my winemaking to the specific vintage," he said. "In a warm, dry vintage with a lot of phenolic material, is it necessary to extract more," he explained. "And in colder years with lower levels of phenolics, should I really extract when the quality of the grapes is not as good?" He went on: "I'm certainly not a mystic but I think that grapes have a certain natural harmony. And if you try to change the inherent character of a vintage, you're more likely to lose it than to improve it."

Mugnier emphasized that he doesn't have--or want--a sorting table, for two reasons. "First, it's not very effective; sorting must be done in the vineyard. You can eliminate green clusters or leaves but anything rotten must be eliminated by the pickers or the bad berries will have contaminated the juice by the time the fruit reaches the winery. And also, I don't want a sorting table because I don't want to recreate a factory with an assembly line."

On the likely aging curve of the 2015s, Mugnier said, "I imagine that the 2015s could shut down in bottle, because it's possible that they have some tannins that could dominate. The spring of 205 was very dry and the wines suffered somewhat from drought. This may have left a trace of bitterness in the tannins. And I think the 2015s will benefit a lot from long aging."

From The 2015 Red Burgundies: You Are So Going To Want Them (Jan 2017) by Stephen Tanzer

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2015 Chambolle-Musigny

Color: Red

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