2007 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

Freddy Mugnier started picking on September 22 in 2008, with what he described as good sugar levels in the 12% to 12.5% range. He eliminated more rotten than green grapes and emphasized that "ripeness is no longer a problem in Burgundy." When he started in 1985, he explained, "a great vintage was when we could pick grapes at 11.5%, and even 11% was okay." Phenolic ripeness, of course, is another issue, and Mugnier told me he's more concerned with phenolic ripeness in dry years, when the juice can be riper than the skins. That's why he waited to harvest in 2009 and got very high sugars. "I would have been happy if I could have done a negative chaptalization in 2009," he told me. Incidentally, when I mentioned that many growers get higher sugars today partly due to lower crop levels, Mugnier noted that his own yields are not lower today than previously. In fact, he said, they were lower in the early '90s, when he used different farming methods.

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."