De Vogüé brings back ‘Musigny Blanc’

Burgundian producer Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé has resurrected its ‘Musigny Blanc’ label after over 20 years of the wine being bottled as ‘Bourgogne Blanc’.

One of the last vintages labelled as ‘Musigny Blanc’ before vine age meant it was declassified to a ‘Bourgogne Blanc’. Photo credit: Vinehoo

The 2015 vintage will be the first time since 1993 that the white grand cru has been labelled as a ‘Musigny Blanc’, perhaps “the rarest of all grand cru white Burgundies” as UK agent Corney & Barrow’s managing director, Adam Brett-Smith, has written in the soon-to-be-released offer for the wines.

De Vogüé is the only producer in Musigny to make a white wine from the grand cru site.

As mentioned on the blog Wine Hog, the plot of vines that produce the domaine’s Musigny Blanc – just 0.6 hectares – has been undergoing sporadic replanting since the 1980s.

Major replanting in 1987, 1991 and 1997 meant that the age of the vines was “significantly…below what could produce the full quality of a grand cru Musigny”.

As such, the last vintage of Musigny Blanc was 1993 and since then the wines have been bottled as a simple ‘Bourgogne Blanc’, though sold at ‘village’ prices, while the vines came of age and prices have risen in tandem.

Since 2010 there has been a noticeable uptick in quality and Corney & Barrow’s fine wine director, Will Hargrove, told the drinks business that since that time, “we’ve been waiting with baited breath for it to happen.”

There was a feeling that the 2014 vintage – a markedly excellent vintage for white Burgundy – might be the moment the change happened but it has fallen to the 2015 vintage instead.

“There must be an element to which it’s a ‘wow factor’ vintage,” said Hargrove.