Mongeard Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru 2019 (6x 750mL), France

The Mongeard family arrived in Vosne-Romanée in the eighteenth century, and records show a Mongeard working as vigneron for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in 1786. In 1945, Jean Mongeard, whose mother was a Mugneret, found himself making wine at the age of 16. His father had died five years before, and there was no one left to do the job. The entire 1945 crop was purchased by Baron le Roy, Marquis d’Angerville and Henri Gouges. Gouges instructed the young Mongeard to personally bottle the wines, rather than sell in barrel.

In the words of Robert Parker, “the style of winemaking seems to extract rich, supple, concentrated fruit from the grapes...The wines always seem to show well young, but age nicely for 10-15 years.” Since 1997, Vincent Mongeard, Jean’s son, has been responsible for viticulture and vinification of the domaine’s wines. He persuaded his father to return to the traditional method of bottling, without filtration, filtering only with certain vintages. Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret today covers a total area of more than 25 hectares, divided into 22 appellations. These vineyards are 45-50 years old on average, and are grafted with superior Pinot Noir clones.