Nuits St Georges Clos de la Maréchale, Domaine Mugnier 2007

A ripe, fresh and slightly herbal nose combines notes of red and blue pinot fruit, soil tones and a touch of underbrush that can also be found on the fresh, pure and racy silky textured flavors that possess real verve on the dusty, linear and palate staining finish. Lovely if lighter than either the 2005 or 2006 versions.

Mugnier's 2007 Nuits-St.-Georges Clos de la Marechale elicits aromatic allusions to ripe black raspberry, cedar, cardamom, burley tobacco, nut oils, and game, delivering a similar sense of complexity on a relatively rich if conspicuously tannin-girded palate. The sheer sap and finishing grip in evidence here suggest that one might want to follow the wine for 4-6 years in anticipation that the tannins will refine themselves.