Wines of the Week: Mongeard-Mugneret & Castello Romitorio

Mongeard-Mugneret 2020 Echezeaux Grand Cru Burgundy         94

The 2020 Echezeaux from Mongeard-Mugneret is very clearly the product of a very ripe, hot year. Bright medium-dark ruby-red in colour, it explodes from the glass with very ripe, sultry and downright sexy red cherry, blackberry, sweet spice and earthy aromas. Then broad, ripe and fleshy in the mouth, with decadent superripe red cherry fruit flavours on entry. Then firms up considerably in the middle and on the long finish, which features more red and black cherry nuances, complicated by herbs and licorice. There is noteworthy tannic heft to this wine (it was aged in 60-80% new oak), but also plenty of gorgeously superripe fruit: if the fruit outlives the tannins, this will be quite the wine. But for now, it needs to be cellared for another five years at least to allow its youthful tannic clout to dissolve somewhat. Drinking window: 2029-2040.

One of my favourite Burgundy producers, Mongeard-Mugneret is about as good a guarantee there is in all of Burgundy when it comes to picking a good to great bottle of wine. For the entry-level wines to the grand crus, just about anything coming out this cellar in Vosne is top-notch. The family has ties to Vosne-Romanée since at least the eighteenth century, and reportedly a Mongeard was working at DRC as a vigneron already back in 1786. In fact, the family traces its ties to wine too much earlier, to 1620. There have been eight generations and counting at Mongeard-Mugneret: the wines today are made by Vincent, who started working at the estate in 1975 along his father Jean. The estate counts over thirty hectares spread out over just as many Appellations, and boasts 1.82 hectares of 25-60 years old vines in Echezeaux.

Castello Romitorio 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Filo di Seta                 94

Castello Romitorio is well-known among Italian wine aficionados for being located in the highest reaches of  the Montalcino denomination, just like you’d expect any self-respecting castle to be. The vineyards are similarly situated: such a high altitude is a blessing in this day and age of climate change. No surprise then that Castello Romitorio’s wines express their terroir: for example, the estate’s Brunellos are some of the more perfumed, steelier, refined and more austere Brunellos when young. Cellaring greatly repays for itself, as these are wines that really start coming into their own about ten years after the vintage, though clearly, you can pull the cork on a bottle earlier than that should your heart so desire. The estate is a very beautiful one, perched up high above everyone else in Montalcino, with views of the bucolic countryside below all around. Castello Romitorio was bought in 1984 by world-famous painter and sculptor Sandro Chia (father of the Transavanguardia art movement) who’s still responsible for all the colorful wine bottle labels.

Deep red. Violet, dark plums, blueberries, eucalyptus and mint on the perfumed, vibrant nose. Then taut and tapered, with classically austere flavours of dark fruit and minty herbs nicely framed by a strong but noble tannic framework. A hint of minerality emerges on the long, classic finish. Matured thirty months in oak, this ought to age well but it will require appropriate cellaring. The grapes are picked in a specific vineyard located at about 350 meters above sea level in the cooler northwestern section of the Montalcino denomination; the wine expresses the cooler, wilder side of the Montalcino denomination where differences in terroir are actually quite apparent between similarly-made wines, depending on where the grapes are grown. The name of this wine stems from that of a small stream that runs through the property: filo di seta, or “silk thread”, in English). Drinking window: 2027-2040.

I had tasted another bottle of this previously and it was disappointing,  most likely due to some cork related issues. This bottle is more typical of what the 2019 Fill dieta is about.