Burgundy lovers are conditioned to distinguish between ‘négociant’ (i.e. ‘merchant’) bottlers of wine and ‘domaine’ (i.e. ‘estate’) bottlers. A
négociant purchases fruit (or juice, or even finished wine on occasion) from individual growers and then crafts/finishes/bottles it under his name, whereas the domaine bottler grows, makes, and markets everything himself. Some might be inclined to make qualitative distinctions between the two, but increasingly, the modern négociant is every bit as hands-on, and intimately connected to his source material, as any individual domaine.
Exhibit A is Frédéric Magnien, who I had the pleasure of spending the day with a few months back. He is an innovative, impassioned, fifth-generation
vigneron who personifies the term “micro-négociant” (a designation of relatively recent coinage). And today’s wine, from the Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru “Les Borniques,” is a perfect distillation of everything he brings to the table: a jewel-box, if lesser-known, vineyard site right next to Grand Cru Musigny; impeccable old-vine fruit from a great vintage; and a dialed-back approach to barrel aging that lets the nuances of site shine through as clearly as possible. The best part is that Magnien delivers all this at an affordable price: This is prime “collectible” material with a lot of insider cachet for less than three digits—not something we see often in today’s Burgundy market. We can offer up to six bottles per customer today until our allocation runs out, so take as much as you can afford. You will not regret it!
Having grown up riding his bike through the vineyards of Morey-Saint-Denis, and having learned his craft from his father, Michel (Domaine Michel Magnien), “Fred” has assembled an enviable roster of grower-partners, all of them either certified organic or in the process of conversion. He works closely with these growers, many of whom he’s known since childhood, to produce exceptionally pure expressions of some of Burgundy’s greatest vineyards. Magnien founded his maison in 1995, following an extended period of travel to other great wine regions of the world. The roster of wines now produced under the Magnien label is extremely long and diverse, stretching the length of the Côte d’Or and reaching up into Chablis as well. All the wines display the kind of precision that comes from careful, hands-on fruit sourcing, and there’s no doubt that Magnien considers himself a vigneron first and a winemaker second.
In recent years, as he has embraced organic and biodynamic practices, his work in the cellar has evolved: Wines have long been fermented with a percentage of whole clusters intact, and only on indigenous yeasts, but starting with the 2015 vintage, Magnien began aging some of his wines—including today’s—in a 50%-50% mixture of used oak barrels and terra cotta amphorae, or jarres, explaining that “[the] mix of the two wine ageings unveil the brightness and clarity of wine thanks to the jar, while keeping its complexity and length thanks to the traditional cask.” While I was visiting, we did a tasting of both ageing vessels, and it was mind-boggling that both samples on their own were great, but nowhere as good as when blended together. I would never have believed it if I wasn’t there.
As for the vineyard source here, “Les Borniques” is one of the lesser-known of Chambolle-Musigny’s 24 Premier Crus, which is surprising given its prime positioning—it directly borders both Grand Cru Musigny and Premier Cru Amoureuses, perhaps the most famous Chambolle Premier Cru. Its soils, streaked with veins of white and yellow clay over limestone, are nearly identical to Musigny’s, but its aspect is marginally different, with more of a full east/slight northeast tilt in comparison to Musigny’s (and Amoureuses’) more southeasterly exposition. Ultimately, it’s one of the best illustrations of the “game of inches” we so often obsess over around here. Take about five steps to the south of Les Borniques and you’ve entered an entirely new dimension in terms of price—kind of hard to believe when you walk these vineyards in person!
Today’s 2016 is very representative of the vintage, which is to say it’s sumptuously ripe and accessible, like ’15, but a little more structured and focused than its predecessor. In the glass, it’s a deep, reflective ruby moving to magenta and pink at the rim, with a fruity, floral nose of cherry kirsch, red and black raspberry, wild strawberry, damp violets, tea leaves, underbrush, and crushed stones. Texturally, this is everything you could ask for in Chambolle-Musigny—the wine glides across the palate with silky, feminine grace, culminating in a long, aromatic finish. And yet, as delicious as it is now, the real fireworks will begin around its fifth birthday when to fruit eventually becomes more of a background character, so be sure to lay a few bottles down—to be able to revisit this wine periodically, over the course of the next 10-15 years, is a privilege I wish everyone could have. If you choose to open a bottle soon (and you should), decant it 45 minutes before service in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees. It will make an extremely graceful accompaniment to leaner beef dishes or, as in the attached recipe, duck. When you’re ready to get serious, this is a bottle to reach for!
