Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret

A fews lines of the harvesting to remember the 2012...

"....We cut the first grapes in Pernard Vergelesses and in Savigny Les Beaune on 19th September. 
The next day we harvested in Beaune and then in Vosne Romanée and les Bourgognes reds. The 21st and 22nd were dedicated to harvesting in Gevrey Chambertin, Chambolle Musigny, Fixin and in Clos de Vougeot. 
The beautiful Sunday was dedicated to the Grands Crus Richebourg, Grands-Echezeaux, Echezeaux and then Nuits St Georges, the 1st Cru “Les Boudots”. On 24th and 25th September, the team harvested in Vosne Romanée for the 1st cru “Les Orveaux”, Vougeot 1st cru “Les Cras”, Nuits St Georges “Les Plateaux” and Marsannay. Wednesday was dedicated to the Regional Designations “Les Rouges Champs” and then the next day to Aligotés and Bourgognes whites. 
The 27th was in Vosne Romanée for the 1st cru “Les Suchots” and “Les Petits Monts”. After a day of rest, we continued the harvest in Hautes-Côtes-de-Nuits “Les Dames Huguettes” and a week later Hautes-Côtes whites and reds, “Le Prieuré” and “La Croix” on Saturday, 6th October...." 

Hardship leads to excellence... 
The year 2012 was particularly trying for the vine growers throughout the vegetative phase but what a challenge to overcome! 
Rare and precious, this magnificent vintage offers dense wines with deep colour, fruit with a hint of blackcurrant, cherry and strawberry in the wood that are rich and intense with spicy notes. The tannins are silky and round and the acid-tannin balance offers wonderful aromatic complexity and great harmony.

The village of Vosne Romanée entered in the Burgundy history in 636. It was at the beginning of the XVII century that we first noted the name "Mongeard" in the registry.
For more than eight generations, the Mongeard family has been established in Vosne Romanèe, right in the midst of the Côte de Nuits, producing wine with an utmost respect for tradition
Since then and threw all the generations, the family is committed to their passion: Vine and Wine.

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 1975, Vincent Mongeard, Jean’s son, began working alongside his father, and became 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. Jean Mongeard retired in 1995. Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret today covers a total area of more than 33 hectares, among 35 appellations.

The varied range of “climats” in which the Mongeards own vineyards results, naturally, in wines of great diversity. 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.”

These vineyards are 45-50 years old on average, and are grafted with superior Pinot Noir clones. Their age, as well as the prudent care with which they are tended, has resulted in yields of a mere 39 hectoliters per hectare over the last five vintages.

Respectful of the tradition, Vincent Mongeard practices the vinification at the Domaine with the greatest care. The grapes are destemmed completely except for the appellation Richebourg for which we keep one third of the stems. The crop is then put in the vats were the alcoholic fermentation will take place.

Severe pruning at the end of the winter allows improving vegetation and control of the productivity of the vine. The pruning is the essential factor to obtain quality: when practised by an experienced winegrower, this meticulous work remains manual.
Numerous type of pruning exists, but the most widespread in Burgundy and the one we have retained, is known as the "Guyot pruning".
Each year we keep two branches, "la baguette" that will give productive branches and "le courson", which will give the woods to be pruned in the following year.

The work continues in the vines in the months of June and July, it is during this period that we do the raising and the tying-down, which constitue of disposing of the vine branches and to fix the small branches between the steel wires. This work which requires meticulous and precise care, is to facilitate the passage of the tractors who are doing the treatments under the vigilant supervision of the person in charge of the crop and who will also judge of the frequencies of the treatments.
The "lutte raisonnèe" applied by the Domaine during the last fifteen years permits to avoid the over treatment and the packing down of the soil by the repeated passage of the machinery.

It is the most awaited moment: The Harvesting. The end result of a full year’s work. Period of joy for some, period of important responsabilities for others.
The grapes of the highest quality are hand-picked and are then brought to the winery , this is where the talent of the winemaker comes in. A minimum yield exists for each appellation "d’origine contrôlèe". A reasonable yield seems to be around 30 hectoliters per hectare for the Grands Crus and 40 hectoliters per hectare for the Villages and First Growths.
The particularity of a moderate production remains for our Domaine the essential premise and the main factor of quality

Respectful of the tradition, Vincent Mongeard practices the vinification at the Domaine with the greatest care. The grapes are destemmed completely except for the appellation Richebourg for which we keep one third of the stems. The crop is then put in the vats were the alcoholic fermentation will take place. Equip with a very sensitive sulphate-measuring pump, he practices a traditional and moderate sulphating, nevertheless necessary because of the sulphurous anhydride (SO2) which is a natural antiseptic preservative that allows neutralising the development of bacteria.
A moderate cool maceration of between 4 to 5 days, depending of the vintage, allows to obtain the extraction of the colouring matter, aromas and tannins. The start of the fermentation process is natural.

The vinification requires a vigilant and constant serveillance because a good fermentation as to be made at 30°C, therefore, the importance of the control temperature installations for a good thermal regulation of each the fermenting vats.
After fermenting for 12 or 15 days, when the sugar is fully converted into alcohol, the devatting takes place. A supple pressing is made in one shot, in order to not introduce excess tannins. A pneumatic press allows a nice extraction of bright wines with less pressure.
The wine is then place in a tank to unify the press juice and the free-run juice, and then taken down in the cellar by gravity and placed in new barrels in various proportion depending on the vintage and the appellation.

After a couple of months in the barrels, the wine has his fermentation malolactic fermentation. It will transform the malic-acid into acid-lactic and therefore reducing the acidity of the wine. The spring decanting allows to remove the fine sediments from the wines and also eliminate a great proportion of the carbonic gas. A second racking during the following winter prepares the wines of the bottling.

After 18 to 22 months of ageing, the bottle filling is made without any filtration, only one fining could be necessary. 
Over the years, a small depot could eventually appeared. It will not in any way alter the quality of the wine, but it will be a guarantee of the authenticity of our growth and the respect of our soils. Our wines are made to remain in the cellars for a very long period, our corks comes from Spain and a strict selection is made, they have to be healthy, supple, not porous and of a good size.
The bottles will be age quietly for a few more months or years in our cellars awaiting the moment for the long trip: from our cellars to your table.