2017 Domaine Meix Foulot Mercurey Clos du Chateau de Montaigu 1er Cru

The 2017 Mercurey 1er Cru Clos du Château de Montaigu was showing especially well, unfurling in the glass with a classy bouquet of minty cassis, dark chocolate, cherries and spices. It’s medium to full-bodied, satiny and supple, with beautifully refined tannins, excellent mid-palate depth and a long, penetrating finish.

As I wrote last year, Agnès de Launay presides over this important 20-hectare estate in Mercurey, which boasts an enviable palate of premiers crus that includes a monopole, the 1.9-hectare Clos du Château de Montaigu, a wine that is typically simultaneously the most complex, elegant and complete of all the domaine’s reds. For the time being, farming is conventional. The 2017 vintage is a great success at this address, the inherent suppleness and charm of the vintage seemingly synergizing with the domaine’s style, tempering tannins but not at the expense of fruit and flesh. All these wines come warmly recommended.