2010 Chambolle-Musigny Les Fuées 1er Cru

This recent charity dinner at Saison was easily the finest meal I have had there and also one of my best dinners of 2018, period. The evening came together as a charity lot that was auctioned off at the most recent La Festa del Barolo to benefit children’s oncology at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Saison donated dinner and I contributed the wines from my cellar. It was a spectacular night of food, wine and conversation, all for a great cause.

The top 2010 Red Burgundies are now virtually impossible to find, so it was a real treat to taste these nine gorgeous, reference-point wines together. The goal of this seminar, which I curated at Pebble Beach Food & Wine, was to highlight a number of Burgundy’s finest terroirs ands most representative producers. I was joined on the panel by Master Sommeliers Larry Stone and Alan Murray, and winemaker Rajat Parr. All of the wines showed exceptionally well in what turned out to be a fabulous morning filled with great Burgundy and equally stimulating conversation. For more background on the wines, readers might enjoy this short video I shot just before the tasting. As Burgundy fans know, the 2010 growing season did not get off to a great start. A devastating winter frost killed a number of vines, especially in the low, flat-lying sectors close to the Route Nationale. Poor weather during flowering caused significant issues with coulure and millerandage. Conditions improved markedly during the last few weeks of the season, always the most critical time of the year. The 2010s combine excellent maturity levels from naturally occurring low yields with lively acidity that is the result of a long, cool growing season. Most importantly of all, the wines are highly site-specific. At their best, the 2010s are stunning wines that capture the essence of what makes Burgundy so thrilling. For more on 2010, readers might enjoy taking a look back at my initial thoughts on the vintage and wines.

Leave it to Frédéric Mugnier to take a contrarian view of the 2010 vintage. Mugnier is quite clear in espousing his opinion that not only is 2009 a better vintage than 2010, but that the 2009s will be longer-lived as well. His advice to me was to drink the 2010s now and cellar the 2009s. Mugnier's highly personal take is also reflected in the unconventional order in which these wines were tasted. I have to say, it was quite eye-opening to taste the wines in a different sequence than is the norm, as it keeps the palate and intellect sharp. The harvest started on September 22. As has been the case for a while, the focus is on doing as little as possible to the wines once they are in cellar, which among other things means that new oak is now practically non-existent here. Readers who want to learn more might want to take a look at my interview with Frédéric Mugnier posted on our website.

"I'm the one who doesn't complain when the weather is cool during the harvest," said Jacques-Frederic Mugnier, who generally outperforms in tricky growing seasons. "I love the style of 2010," he went on, adding that the wines combine the best traits of warm and cold vintages. "The acidity in 2010 is wrapped in ripe tannins, so we get only the nice side of the acidity: freshness and precision of fruit and long finishes. The fruit is similar to that of 2008 but there's more middle-palate flesh in the 2010s. It's rare to have silky texture combined with the energy and acidity of 2010." Mugnier noted that his 2008s have not closed down, and he believes there's even less chance that the 2010s will go through an extended sullen stage. The wonderfully perfumed 2010s finished their malos last April and May and had been racked about three weeks prior to my visit.