Dominique Mugneret

In 1935, 22 year old Marcel Mugneret, Dominique’s grandfather, created the domaine Marcel Mugneret in Vosne-Romanée, which would later become Domaine Denis, today Dominique Mugneret. Marcel began with just a couple of hectares of Vosne-Romanée Villages and Vosne 1er Cru les Boudots, and all production was sold as new wine to négociants. Denis joined the team in the 1960’s as a salaried employee until 1972, when the Liger-Belair family of Nuits St. Georges rented him a hectare of Nuits 1er Cru les St. Georges. At this time Denis was handed over the lease of the Richebourg and Clos Vougeot vineyards by his father (also Liger-Belair properties) and also purchased a third of a hectare of Vosne Villages for himself. This was the beginning of the domaine “Denis Mugneret”. In 1979 Marcel retired and the remainder of his vineyards were passed down to Denis (Passetoutgrain, Bourgogne, Vosne Villages and 1er Cru les Boudots). 1979 was also the first real harvest as a salaried employee for Denis’ son Dominique, after finishing his viticultural degree at the wine school in Grandchamps, just outside of Beaune. It wasn’t until his official arrival at the estate in 1982, after completion of his military service, that the domaine began bottling and commercializing their own wine. It was then that they built a large capacity cellar and wine making facility (cuverie) which allowed them to properly age wine in barrel and stock bottles. For the first few years the domaine bottled a selected number of barrels and appellations, the first serious bottling being the 1985 vintage. Over time the domaine has gradually accumulated more land in the Côtes de Nuits, and today the estate makes 13 appellations over eight hectares. Since the 1999 vintage Dominique has been at the reigns of the estate. The vineyards are tended with great care, focusing on controlling the yields and producing healthy fruit. Dominique places great importance on the winter and spring pruning, severe debudding, canopy management and trimming of the canopy over the summer months. In recent years he has experimented with trimming the foliage less severely to promote more complete photosynthesis in the leaves, thus an ample supply of sugar to the grapes. For the last few years he has also carried out a green harvest, but he does not believe that this necessarily promotes greater quality. Dominique feels that green harvest is necessary in years of abundant production merely to limit the yields, but that in most years if the spring pruning and debudding has been dome correctly, a green harvest should not be necessary. Since his arrival, Dominique has followed the “bio” tendency of vineyard management, which focuses on respecting the environment and the natural vineyard habitat. Chemical fertilizers have been completely replaced by natural compost, and the use of pheromones has replaced certain insecticides. Herbicides are used sparingly, as Dominique experiments with other methods of eliminating unwanted weeds. For the moment he is planting grass between the rows in certain vineyards, but is not yet convinced that this is the best solution for all of his vineyards. The average vineyard age of the estate is 40 years. The harvest is manual, and the grapes are sorted on a sorting table at the domaine. They are 100% destemmed and vinified in a modern cuverie, which combines traditional philosophy with modern techniques to make the purest wines which are true to their terroir. In hot years the must is cooled to roughly14°C and left four to six days for a prefermentation maceration to promote the extraction of color and fruit. Dominique pumps over the must twice daily to homogenization (absence of air). The must then gradually warms (sometimes with help) and alcoholic fermentation gets on its way. Dominique generally pumps over twice a day for oxygenation (frequency depends on the year). After approximately 12 to 16 days of cuvaison (total maceration and alcoholic fermentation period), the new wine is devatted and pressed (horizontal Vaslin). Dominique does a déboubrage (decanting) for 24 hours, then by gravity barrels the wines in the cellar for barrel aging. The percentage of new oak depends principally on the appellation, but also on the characteristics of the given year. Generally the percentages are as follows: 25%-30% for Village appellations, 30-50% for 1er Cru, and 75% for Grand Cru. During the élevage the wines are simply left alone to carry out their malolactic fermentation. Generally this takes place slowly over the winter and through the month of March. Dominique generally racks the wines and adds a light dose of sulfur shortly after malo to protect the wines from dangerous oxidation. Depending on the year, he might choose not to rack and simply protect the wine with very light sulfur, leaving the wine on the lees for nourishment. The wines are racked again only for the pre-bottling assemblage. The Vosne-Romanée villages is generally aged in barrel for approximately 13 months, the 1er and Grand Crus for 15 to 17 months, depending on the vintage and the appellation. He generally practices a very light filtration before bottling, without fining.