Mugneret Gibourg Les Feusselottes 2012

The Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru les Feusselottes is much more backward, broodier on the nose compared to the les Chaignots, the fruit slightly darker with blackberry mixed with raspberry, a hint of mulberry and undergrowth developing in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with firmer tannin than the Chaignots, a little more masculine with very fine acidity, a touch of salinity coming toward the finish that lingers long in the mouth. There is something crystalline about this Chambolle-Musigny that is just exceptional ||It is always a pleasure to return to one of my favorite growers in Burgundy. Tasting with Marie-Christine, she told me that they wait two or three months after the blending to allow the wine to settle. They push the wine using neutral gas (nitrogen) to obviate the use of pumps. “It is important to have a delicate bottling,” she told me. “Bottling is the last moment that we can do something to the wine.” The other nugget of information that she told me was that the first vintage of Ruchottes-Chambertin, the 1977, was not bottled because there was an inexplicable and undesirable smokiness in the wine. I was not moved to give the 2012 Ruchottes-Chambertin a perfect score on this occasion – I’m ruthlessly strict on bestowing “perfection” upon a wine. What is more important in my opinion, is that anyone lucky enough to have a bottle of this wine in their cellar, is in possession of an exquisite, beguiling Grand Cru. And let’s see how it unfolds in the future.