Winemaker Notes
Domaine Jacques-Frederic Mugnier Nuits-St-Georges Clos de la Marechale Premier Cru is a wine that always needs 5 to 10 years of aging before expressing its typically floral character. The bouquet is remarkable and persistent. One finds the aroma of iris mingled with raspberries. Even more so, that of white lilac.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Compelling proof of the excellence of the 2017 vintage, this is a very silky and sophisticated Nuits-Saint-Georges with great intensity of sour cherry fruit and delicate spicy notes. Quite soft acidity, but plenty of fine tannins give this an extremely sensuous texture on the medium-bodied palate. Very long, precise finish. From a 9.55-hectare walled monopole site. From organically grown grapes.
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Decanter
Fred Mugnier's sizeable 9.55ha premier cru is always a good source of well-priced drinking in Nuits-St-Georges. His sensitively oaked, refined 2017 shows his characteristic lightness of touch with filigree tannins and scented wild strawberry and pomegranate fruit.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale is a little more introverted after its recent bottling, unwinding in the glass with a reticent bouquet of red berries, raw cocoa, sweet soil tones and dried flowers. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with good depth at the core and a more structured, introverted profile than the Chambolle that preceded it. The missing ingredient here is a little time.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Inhabiting the bottom end of the northern half of the Côte d’Or, Nuits-St-Georges is a busy, market-driven town and home to many of Burgundy’s negociants. It is also the largest town in the Côte d’Or after Beaune and contributes "nuits" to the name of Côte de Nuits (i.e., the northern half of the Côte d’Or).
The appellation itself is divided into two parts, where in the north it directly borders Vosne-Romanée, the southerly end is the commune of Prémeaux. There are no Grands Crus in this village, though it does have a large number of Premiers Crus.
The best Nuits-St-Georges Pinot Noir are layered with cherry, plum, underbrush and sandalwood. The fruit is sweet, the wine energetic, and the finish long and lush.