MUSIGNY – MUSIGNY - MUSIGNY x 28 in GRAZ

WINE TALK
41

Leo,
thanks - incredible long lease over 50 years … [wow.gif]
Gerhard

42

Gerhard,

First, I have to say “thank you” for your efforts. Although it was clearly a lot of work to organize your notes and then summarize them in what is not your native tongue (your English is excellent nonetheless!), the payoff was that you didn’t have to “suffer” excessively…after all, you were drinking Musigny!

Speaking for most of us (I think), Musigny is a holy grail of Burgundy that we rarely experience because of cost and rarity, so we live vicariously through your notes. I, for one, only have a couple of bottles in my cellar. Thinking back, I can only really remember drinking “real” Musigny two or three times. (I’m not counting the de Vogue 1er cru, which is “real” but young vines Musigny.) However, one of those times was a 1929 Pierre Ponnelle bottling and that was an epiphany wine, proving (for me) your point that when Burgundy is really good, it’s better than anything else.

Cheers,

Harry

43

Robert,
remember: you´ve got an early invitation for participation from my side … but no reply … that was over a year ago … so what!?
You know that if you take the price of the most expensive bottle out of 30 in the tasting, the fee was clearly less than half for everyone. … grouphug

44

Very nice tasting Gerhard and interesting format and writeup. While it did not have the “controls” of one producer across multiple vintages or multiple producers in one vintage it was enlightening and fascinating to see how some of the “lesser” vintages performed.

45

Dear Gerhard,

what an amazing event, thanks to post all this on this board, desperately seeking an excuse to visit you in Graz again.

Cheers
Roland

46

I have just found this thread, and glad I did. Thank you Gerhard for the report. I like your list of the top or 8 crus, fits my percetion perfectly. But please, no need to rank them within this “top division” of grands crus. Which is #1, which #2 etc is a pointless thing IMO.

47

Lewis,
that´s why I wrote “from South to North” [basic-smile.gif]

48

I know that Gerhard, I wasn’t clear in my post, but my intention was to agree with you approach.

49

Thanks for the TNs and details info re ownships and their holdings of Musigny.

Gerhard : you assigned points to wines you had tasted.

Why you do not wish to rank the top g-crus by points… [highfive.gif]

Are you afriad that we may not agree with you.

Please rank them…so that we may have some funs [swearing.gif]

50

(there seems to be a problem with the smileys at the moment?)

Peter,
I´m definitely NOT afraid … I´m never afraid to announce my opinion! [basic-smile.gif]

The problem is that when I´m tasting a particular wine it´s in the glass at the moment …
while the mentioned Grand Crus are partially monopoles (depending on the ability of the actual wine-maker), on the other hand heavily split up between 11 and 25+ owners …

So when I´m ranking the 8 GCs below it´s based on the very best examples I´ve ever tasted, including the potential for perfection these vineyards have:

Hors Classe: ROMANÉE-CONTI
VERY TOP CLASSE: TA TÂCHE, LA ROMANÉE
TOP CLASSE: ROMANÉE-SAINT-VIVANT, RICHEBOURG, MUSIGNY, CHAMBERTIN & CHAMBERTIN CLOS DE BEZE
(always from South to North)

51

Thanks…I will give my ranking at the end of this post.

I would like to add the following information regarding your comments and TNs.

You are right on when you said : Vougeraie 99 was the first vintage by Pascal Marchand ( a follow Montrealer ). 2005 was his last.

You are also right on when you said : Leroy Musigny is too pricey for what it is.

I did a comparative tasting of the 4 folllowing Musignys from vintage 1995 :

(a) I owned 4 bottles of Musigny - Leory 95 ( out of a total of 6 for the whole province of Quebec ) and (b) more than a case ( of 12 ) of the Musigny from the 3 following producers : Vogue, Drouhin and Prieur.

Each time when I openned the Leroy I always matched it with the other 3 - under the Theme : Is Leroy Worth Its Price .

When young…the Leroy ruled. It has always been expressive for the last 3 times …I openned it. I still have one left and I will wait until 2015.

As they matured …the differene in enjoyment became narrower.

The Leroy was released at CAD $646; Vogue CAD $165; Drouhin CAD $ 135 and Prieur CAD $ 110.


Here were my ranking - before Burghound was born :

99 points - RC
98 points - LT
96 points - Musigny and Richeboug;
95 points - RStV; Chambertin and Chambertine-CdBeze.

Here are my ranking - NOW ( and with the current release price in consideration ):

99 points - RC
97 points - LT and La Romanee
96 1/2 points - Musigny
96 points - Richeboug; RStV;
95 points - Chambertin and Chambertin-CdBeze.

52

Gentlemen… Stop It. So many points… [swearing.gif]

53

OK…ok…Lewis - sorry. newhere

For a while…I thought I was at the other Board [wink.gif]

54

[rofl.gif]

55 
MUSIGNY Grand Cru: 10,8555 ha 
Consisting of: La Combe d´Orveau 0,6128+0,1532=0,766 ha Jacques Prieur 
Les Petits Musigny 4,1935 ha Comte de Vogüé
Le Musigny 5,8942 ha (10 owners)
- from the latter below the „Route des Grands Crus“: 0,1337 ha (4 owners)

Gerhard…I have a small question regarding the size of Les Petits Myisngy : 4.1935 ha and Le Msyigny 5.8942 ha - which you had listed about.

Where do you obtain the figures ?

I checked the text of the AOC Chambolle-Musigny…they are different. The size of the Climat Les Petits Musigny is :4 h 15 a 55 c and Le Musigny is : 5 h 89 a 80 c.

Maybe the text of the AOC Chambollte-Musigny ( which I had checked ) …is not the up-dated version ?

Here is a copy of the text ( re the size of some of climats ) :

C Les Charmes 5 82 05
Les Sordes 35 80
Les Condemennes 5 11 90
Les Babillières 3 73 80
Les Nacoires 3 12 80
Les Bas-Doix 1 79 40
Les Hauts-Doix 1 76 00
Les Amoureuses 5 35 75
Les Musigny 5 89 80
Les Petits Musigny 4 15 55

56

Peter,
the surface of Les Petits Musigny is from Matt Kramers “Making Sense of Burgundy” - double-ckecked with the map in Bazin´s “Chambertin” book.
The figures for Les Musigny were much harder to obtain, because often the parcels “below the road” have been forgotten, or the latest addition of the 2nd Prieur-parcel in Combe d´Orveau were omitted …
After all the addition of all individual parcels should sum up to the grand total which wasn´t easy at all.
Eventually I think I´ve made it pretty correctly.

The only thing I´m still unsure about is the (unplanted) parcel of Vogüe “below the road” in the neighbourghood of the Ch.Confuron-parcel … just below the border between LPM and LM.
I´m not totally sure if it is counted to LPT or to LM !?
This parcel is also the cause for the difference between the total surface of Vogüe (roughly 7.14 ha) and the often quoted 7.12 ha (planted !).
Actually it doesn´t matter very much because it´s now a parking space for the workers … [wink.gif]

BTW: our rating of the 8 GCs is not THAT different … isn´t it ?
[highfive.gif]

57

Gerhard…thanks for the up-dated information regarding the very small details of the ownerships of Musigny.

Thanks for your hard works. This information, in my view, should be kept as a reference point ( repeat : a reference point ) for burgundy-nuts if they are interested in Musigny.

Here is what Clive Coates said about Musigny …in this C"Or :

***Le Musigny is one of the very greatest climats in the whole of the Cote d’Or, one of the handful which includes Chambertin and Clo-de-Beze, La Tache and Romanée-Conti. This is more than a prince of the blood in the royal house of Burgundy, as Pierre Lèon-Gauthier would have it. This is majesty itself. And if one is thinking of its texture and character, the queen rather the king. There other four can fight among themselves for the role of consort. …a great Musigny is heaven in a glass. Would that one could afford to drink it more often. ***


Here is what H. Johnson said re Musigny:

****The lilt of the name is perfectly appropriate for the wines of this parish - and so it the apparent evocation of the muse. It is hard to retain oneself from competing in similes with the much-quote sages of Burgundy, but here it seems to me Gaston Roupnel has it precisely right. Musigny, he says, ¨ has the scent of dewy garden….of the rose and the violet at dawn ¨. ****


Regarding the ratings - Yes…there is no much difference in our ratings of the 8 GCs.

You earn my respect [welldone.gif]

BTW…very looking forward to your report on RSV.

58

Peter – I think Hugh Johnson had an even better quote about Musigny, maybe the best one ever, in his World Atlas of Wine: “Whoever said that Musigny was a feminine wine was a great admirer of women.”

59

Nice to hear from you Claude…it has been a while.

When I was new in Burgundy, I like what the description of : “the scent of dewy garden….of the rose and the violet at dawn.” It is so fascinating, enchanting and so fiting…when I first encountered Musigny.

Now as I am more muture, I much prefer : " whoeven said that Musigny was a feminine wine was a great admirer of women." Yes I agree with you : the best one ever.

60

ah, but the full detailed text from H. Johnson’s World Atlas of Wine is better. Not sure who first used the terminology, but Micheal Broadbent used it in describing Musigny… “peacock’s tail”

“The glory of Musigny is that it adds to its undoubted power a lovely haunting delicacy of perfume [eau de parfum…as the French would say???]; a uniquely sensuous savour” +1 for those who admire/respect women :slight_smile:

"A great Musigny makes what is so well described as a ‘peacock’s tail’ in your mouth, opening and becoming more complex and seductive as you swallow it. It is not so strong as Chambertin, not so spicy as Romanee Conti- but he must have been a great respecter of women who called it ‘feminine’.

Hmm, myself I like my women, complex and seductive, senuous, and savory Asian spicy flirtysmile