2020 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

“I like it when it’s difficult. It’s like the good old days,” quips Frédéric Mugnier, and to be honest, if those words had been uttered from anyone else’s mouths, then I would have laughed…but he means it. My visits to Mugnier are one of my most cherished, not only because of the wines but because our conversation habitually meanders into related topics upon which he does not pull his punches. Today, we speak about the current frenzied demand for Burgundy and how it has changed the region’s spirit, the spectre of global warming that clearly plays on his mind and the essence of what a Burgundy wine ought to be.

“The year was relatively cold and rainy, which made the work in the vineyard more difficult,” he continues. “We had to make sure we sprayed at the right time against mildew, which was not easy. We only sprayed copper and sulphur, though I’m not organic, and that included weekends. It’s good to have a tractor that is not too heavy but remains light enough with good spraying capability. For that, you need a turbine, and turbines are heavy. We didn’t have too much damage from mildew. It was not easy to reach full maturity, and in the end, it became a competition between ripeness and rot. There are many vintages like that, and the wines turn out to be delicious, delicate and seductive. I think 2021 is that kind of vintage. They say: vines must suffer to make great wine. But I think it’s the winemaker that must suffer. People evaluate wines after a year. Look at all the restaurants in Beaune with 2020 Grand Crus and all their lists [Mugnier rolls his eyes and sighs]. I judge my wines on how they taste after ten years.”

“We started the picking on 16 September, and the sanitary conditions for the bunches were fine. My crop is comparable in volume to recent vintages. We cropped at 25hl/ha, whereas average is 35hl/ha, and alcohol levels reached around 12.5%, just the Chambolle Village was chaptalized a little. Early samples that we take for analysis are often lower [in potential alcohol], but the final degree is often one degree higher than expected, so I end up wondering why I chaptalized in the first place.”

In many ways, 2021 is the kind of growing season that might throw obstacles in the way of Mugnier, but the style sutures neatly with his style of wine. Standouts include a spellbinding Les Amoureuses and, predictably, the Musigny Vieilles Vignes, both shade the Bonnes-Mares that I find relatively skinny and missing a bit of meat on its bones; nothing unexpected given the growing season, plus the fact that this has rarely been Mugnier’s strongest card to play.

My last visit in March was coincidentally the first that I had visited back in July 2021 to taste the 2020s. It was too early to publish my notes, which is why none appeared in my original report; then my appointment had to be postponed twice due to my returning to England early and then Omicron in January. Finally, I rang Mugnier’s doorbell in late March to retaste the wines. Frédéric Mugnier was in typically sanguine form, bemoaning the prospect of yet another frost-affected weekend, ruing how many seasons have been struck by frost in the last decade compared to the two before. “I picked from 26 to 31 August,” he mentioned. “I think it is a vintage that must be kept in bottle, and it may disappoint those who drink it young.” The two standouts were a quite sensational Musigny Vieilles Vignes that could well challenge Christophe Roumier’s, regal and majestic from start to finish. Whilst the Amoureuses was a little closed, perhaps due to the inclement weather, a thunderclap above our heads as we tasted it, I thought Mugnier Les Fuées was singing, blessed with a captivating oyster-shell tinged nose.