One of my all-time go-to red burgundies for quality and consistency, the Clos de Marechale from Freddie Mugnier is one of my favorite wines one of Burgundy’s most meticulous vignerons. You can read a LOT more about this Domaine and its long history here at the importer’s website: Mugnier at Wasserman
The Wine Hog visited with Mugnier recently to taste some 2023s and had this to say:
The 2023s is all about balance
The 2023s is a complex vintage where the balance between yields and ripeness became one of the key factors. How were the yields controlled and how did this affect the intensity and complexity? Mugnier found a nice cool balance in 2023 – it is lightfooted and conveys the delicacy that most are looking for in a Mugnier wine. The Mugnier 2023s are transparent, and while it’s early, they seem to offer all the qualities I look for: enjoyability, a refined expression of their terroirs, and delicate complexity. They are indeed wines of joy and pleasure, and first and foremost wines of hedonistic pleasure rather than the ultimate in detail and weight. That said they are lighter compared to 2022 and 2019
In stock NOW
FREDDIE MUGNIER
2023 ‘Clos des Fourches’ 1er Rouge
Nuits-Saint-Georges
$149.99 SALE for 6+ (Wood OWCs for 6)*
Reg $154.99
93 WineHog - 2 Burghound - Allen Meadows
The Chambolle-Musigny Les Fuees 2023 is one of my favorites. Still affordable yet giving so much joy and complexity The nose offers perfumed fruit notes, sensual and hedonistic fruit. It has this refined coolness and good acidity for the vintage. It has the magic
Don’t look for Clos des Fourches on your Burgundy crus map, you won’t find it. The name disappeared from the map at the end of the 19th century when the vineyard was renamed Clos de la Maréchale. We have chosen to revive it to designate the cuvée we produce some years from the youngest Clos de la Maréchale vines. At the time, the name ‘fourches’ evoked the ‘fourches patibulaires’, in other words the gallows from which criminals were hanged. It is understandable that some people preferred the name “La Maréchale” and its evocations of a world of operetta, dazzling, futile and festive.
- Variety: Pinot Noir
- Vine Age: Planted in 1980.
- Terroir: Facing east, clay soil with oolithic limestone pebbles.
- Viticulture: Sustainable
- Vinification: 100% de-stemmed, 15-20 day ambient yeast fermentation in open wooden vats. Aged for 18 months in barrel (15% new oak). Racked twice. Transferred in April to stainless steel tanks to age for 3 additional months. Bottled in June-July. SO2 additions before fermentation and before bottling.
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2023 ‘Clos de la Marechale’ 1er Rouge
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er
$164.99 SALE for 6+ (Wood OWCs for 6)*
Reg $172.99
1.5L Mags x 2 available: $299.99
92 Burghound - Allen Meadows
This is also quite aromatically pretty with its more deeply pitched nose of red and blue pinot fruit and ample earth influence. The equally delicious medium weight flavors possess an appealing succulence before culminating in a bitter pit fruit-inflected finish. Like the Chambolle villages, this too could use better depth but the quality of the underlying material appears to be up to the challenge. Allen Meadows, Burghound 1-1-2025
91-94 Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy
A more vigorous purple. Fresher lively fruit on the nose. Not vastly concentrated but with plenty of raspberry fruit through the middle of the palate covering the bone structure nicely, with even a little tension at the finish. Drink from 2029-2034. Tasted Nov 2024.
17 Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com
Transparent crimson. Some chestnut character on the nose and lovely smooth character on the palate. Very distinctive and, from experience, I know this never disappoints. A wine with a beginning, middle and end. Review date 1-15-2025
The origin of the name Clos de la Maréchale remains a mystery. Known in 1855 as Clos des Fourches, then Clos Maréchal in 1892, it finally adopted its current name in the 20th century. Research by historian Jean-François Bazin found no link between the vineyard and any marshal or marshal’s wife of the Second Empire, leaving the story unresolved. On November 1, 2003, the vineyard—owned by the Mugnier family since 1902—returned to the estate after a 53-year lease, expanding the domaine from 4 to 14 hectares overnight. Today, Clos de la Maréchale spans 9.76 hectares, making it the largest monopole in the Côte d’Or, with vines averaging around 45 years of age (as of 2008). Wines from Premeaux have long been counted among the finest of Nuits-Saint-Georges, prized for their restraint, elegance, and exceptional finesse rather than overt power.
- Size: 9.55 ha (24.12 ac)
- Variety: Pinot Noir
- Vine Age: Planted in the 1910s and 1980.
- Terroir: Facing east, clay soil with oolithic limestone pebbles.
- Viticulture: Sustainable
- Vinification: 100% de-stemmed, 15-20 day ambient yeast fermentation in open wooden vats. Aged for 18 months in barrel (15% new oak). Racked twice. Transferred in April to stainless steel tanks to age for 3 additional months. Bottled in June-July. SO2 additions before fermentation and before bottling.