2006 Domaine Bouchard Père et Fils Beaune Clos de la Mousse Monopole

Pro Reviews

Vinous Media (VM)

Medium red. Redcurrant and leather aromas offer good lift. Supple on entry, then juicy and more closed than the Beaune du Chateau, with a trace of greenness and less flavor intensity. These vines are planted north-south and normally take longer to ripen, which may have resulted in a drier expression in a year like 2006. A bit muscular and dry on the back.

Wine Spectactor (WS)

Medium-bodied, with cherry and earth notes supported by burly tannins. Firm on the finish. Drink sooner rather than later. Drink now through 2012. 130 cases imported. –BS

Wine Advocate (WA)

From their monopole south of Teurons, Bouchard’s 2006 Beaune Clos de al Mousse displays herbal, bitter-sweet floral, and fungal aromas; comes to the palate with considerably subtlety and diversity of flavor as well as textural refinement; and offers a persistent, complex sense of interplay between chalky, herbal, floral, black fruit, fungal, and forest floor elements. I suspect this will be well worth following for half a dozen years.

Director Philippe Prost emphasized the importance of flexible and surgical picking (with a crew numbering upwards of 300) and getting his crop to Bouchard’s battery of presses within two hours via a fleet of mini-vans. He insists that relatively little triage was necessary on the domaine vineyards (as opposed to those under contract) and the estate wines are certainly predictably stronger as a group. (I have generally mentioned in the notes that follow which wines are from Bouchard’s domaine and which from contract fruit, but have explicitly noted this as part of a wine’s description, only if there are two versions of the same appellation within the present portfolio.) The fruit was crushed very gently and the wines racked only once – at 10-14 months, than usual – explains Prost, in order to guard against exposed or drying tannins, a policy which my tastings suggest was generally successful.

Burghound (BH)

A red raspberry-infused nose that is both ripe and elegant complements perfectly the round, rich, supple and generous flavors that coat the palate on the firm and dusty finish. This is also delicious and serious but doesn’t quite have the finishing depth though I like the mid-palate concentration.