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
Many 2021 red Burgundies already taste pretty developed, but this is extremely youthful and vibrant, with great purity of blood orange and sour cherry fruit plus a touch of violets. There’s a lot more structure on the palate than the charming nose suggests, with an impressive tannic core. Long, crisp, stony finish that’s still a bit tightly wound. From a 9.55-hectare walled monopole site. From organically grown grapes.
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Jasper Morris
A light to medium purple. Mugnier elegance meets the Maréchale, so this is more in fruit than flowers after the ethereal Chambolle. There is enough depth of fruit here, both on the nose and palate, followed by a fresh finish, fruit plus acidity with also a light tannin or two.
Barrel Sample: 90-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale is more overtly structured from bottle than I perceived from barrel, unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries, vine smoke and earthy spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, taut and chalky palate that will reward some patience.
Rating: 90+
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.