2006 Chambolle-Musigny Village

Freddy Mugnier carried out a more careful debourbage than normal in 2007 as he had to eliminate some rotten fruit in most of his vineyards, but he told me that the wines were so clear by November that he wasn't planning to rack them until the bottling. "The pHs are normal, and not especially high," he told me. "The vintage has a lot in common with 2000, or at least that was my first impression. The grapes had thin skins and the wines are low in tannins but they have better acidity. Since the end of the malos in March they've put on weight and color and become more serious. They'll definitely age for 15 years or more, like just about all of my vintages, but will they become greater? I'm not sure there's a hidden dimension to the wines." In contrast, he thought his 2005s and 2006s could last for 50 years, adding that the 2006s were at least as rich as the 2005s, and fresher. But he noted that the development of his wines constantly surprises him. "The '86s, '88s and '97s seemed to be at their peaks at a certain point only to become better and fresher five years later," he said, "while vintages like '90 and '93 have simply aged very slowly and steadily."

Freddy Mugnier's 2005s are wines to make a Burgundy lover cry-especially if he or she doesn't own them-but his '06s are no less remarkable in the context of the newer vintage. He picked early, with good sugars, actually beginning before the official start of the harvest in the Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos de la Marechale on September 18, and though he brought in his fruit in good conditions he was unsure of its quality at the outset. Today he's far more positive. "The structure of the '06s is more apparent than that of the '05s," he began. "Their tannins are a bit sharp, and they have slightly more acidity, but the wines are almost as dense as the 2005s. Of course, this was not at all evident just after the fermentations: we thought they were a bit weak in the middle. Now they seem to combine the structure of the '99s with the intensity and sharpness of the 2001s." Mugnier carried out the same vinification as in recent years: two to four pigeages per day during the last half of the fermentation, when most of the grape sugars have already been fermented. His aim is to keep the berries uncrushed as long as possible, which helps him extend the length of the fermentation. Grape sugars, according to Mugnier, were the same here in '06 as in the previous year-from 12.5% up to 14% for part of the Clos de la Marechale.