Stalwart readers of our Daily Discoveries know how much we adore the wines of Frédéric Magnien. It seems that every vintage he and his team up the level yet again on producing truly elegant, terroir transparent reflections of the wonderfully beguiling nuances found in the vast array of Burgundy appellations. Today’s feature though is hands down my pick for best-in-class value. Sourced from prized vineyards–many within the village AOC boundaries of Nuits-St-Georges–and made in the soft, graceful Magnien style, this wine is less about micro-climats and more about the glorious primacy of Burgundy Pinot Noir writ large. I’ll put this bottle next to any Pinot made anywhere regardless of price, and it will hold its own!
If you drink a lot of Burgundy, you’ve probably heard the term “micro-négociant.” We use it a lot, especially when we’re offering wine from Frédéric Magnien. Négociants are “merchant-bottlers,” meaning they purchase fruit (or juice, or even finished wine) from individual growers and then bottle it under their names. Micro-négociants do the same thing, but in a much more hands-on, collaborative way—with results that are readily evident in the glass. Frédéric only purchases fruit, and his team harvests all the bunches from every vineyard he contracts with. It may seem a subtle distinction, but treating vine-growers as partners rather than contractors pays measurable dividends. Magnien only works with growers who are certified organic (or in the process of conversion), and, having grown up riding his bicycle through the vineyards of Morey-Saint-Denis, he knows every inch of the Burgundy terroir.
“Fred” Magnien founded his maison in Morey-Saint-Denis 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. He has his own teams carry out harvests in the vineyards he works with, all of which he carefully selects and closely monitors throughout the growing season. All of the fruit for today’s wine comes from top parcels, with vines averaging 30-40 years of age, in Nuit-St-Georges and the Haut-Côte de Nuit—quite impressive for a Bourgogne Rouge bottling!
The focus on purity and elegance from team Magnien plays perfectly with the lovely 2022 vintage, which was warm and dry but without the hydric stress of 2020, and a healthy crop further added to the perfect balance that this Bourgogne achieves. Serve it at cellar temperature in a nice, big Burgundy bowl after a good 30-plus minute decant. The suave, ripe red and black fruits will pop up first–Morello cherry, crushed raspberry, plum–followed by fresh cut roses, dried mint, wild fennel, forest mushrooms, and wet rocks. It’s already open and forward, with a sappy, silky, medium-bodied texture and mineral laced finish. Serve with your favorite sandwich or burger (sautéed mushroom and swiss please!) or try the recipe below for duck confit. Oh, and if you are already planning ahead then yes, this also goes really well with turkey!
