2022 Musigny Grand Cru

Christophe Roumier and I conducted much of the tasting, sporting matching bobble hats in different colors (gifts from an importer from the previous visit). At least they kept our heads warm. Roumier was typically self-effacing as I tasted through his complete range of 2022s. “It wasn’t a complicated growing season, apart from small worries about powdery mildew,” he explains. “I started picking on September 3, and there was around one week of picking, like normal. The highest alcohol level is 13.6%, and it’s quite uniform. I shortened the pre-fermentation cold soak to four or five days instead of nine or ten, so the cuvaison is shorter. I did three or four punch downs.” I asked Roumier whether he could see differences between the terre blanches and terre rouges soils in Bonnes-Mares in the light of global warming. He told me that he felt the latter is more impacted by dryness, yet Bonnes-Mares copes well as a Grand Cru. I won’t blather on about individual cuvées because these were exemplary wines, surfeit with tension, complexity and terroir expression. Above all, these wines set tastebuds alight. The good news is that there are greater quantities than in 2021, and Roumier said he would probably reduce prices on a few cuvées because he feels that it’s the right thing to do. That will not be reflected in the secondary market, where speculation renders these some of the most expensive in Burgundy. Unlike others, Roumier has no interest in the pecuniary side of the business, wishing that people would simply enjoy his wines and perhaps allow them to mature in bottle, where they can often evolve into wines of utter profundity.