Domaine Stéphane Magnien Chambolle-Musigny Les Athets 2024

Domaine Stéphane Magnien Chambolle-Musigny Les Athets comes from vines planted in 1902, the oldest the family owns.

Stony subsoil on the Chambolle side of the boundary gives a lighter, more perfumed frame; the wine spends twelve months in cask with around ten per cent new wood, then two to three months in tank so the scent stays intact.

Fine and lightly spiced, with small red fruits and a length you rarely find at village level. Serve at 16-18°C with roast poussin, veal or a simple mushroom tart.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.

Type: Red Wine
Style: Light to medium-bodied, Dry
Grape Varietal: Pinot Noir
Tastes Like: A classic village red Burgundy: Pinot Noir with the finesse Chambolle-Musigny is known for
Alcohol Percentage: 13%
Closure: Cork
Size: 750mL
Appellation: Chambolle-Musigny AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, France's protected designation of origin, here at village level, the rank above Burgundy's regional wines)
Region: Côte de Nuits, Burgundy, France
Terroir: Les Athets, a village vineyard in Chambolle-Musigny on stony ground; the vines were planted in the early 1900s and are the oldest the family owns
Aging: Twelve months in French oak casks with around ten per cent new wood, then two to three months in tank before bottling
Serving Temperature: 16-18℃

Domaine Stéphane Magnien is a small family estate in Morey-Saint-Denis, in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits, with its cellar in the 18th-century family house just behind the village church. Stéphane is the fourth generation, after Victor, Félix and his father Jean-Paul. Félix made the wine but sold it to négociants (merchant houses); Jean-Paul was the first to bottle it under the family name, and Stéphane took over in 2008 after several years working alongside him. The domaine is tiny, under five hectares across village, premier cru and grand cru sites in Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin, and many of the vines are old, a good share of them the small-berried Pinot Tordu. The vineyards are ploughed and no herbicides are used, the wines are fermented with natural yeasts, and they are bottled without fining or filtration.

Les Athets is the family's oldest vineyard: the vines were planted in the early 1900s, which makes them well over a century old and very rare in Burgundy. Vines this old give only a small crop, and the domaine bottles them on their own rather than blending them into its other village wines. Only a little new oak is used, so the character of the old vines and Chambolle's stony soil comes first.

Starters: Puff pastry with morels and cream
Poultry: Roast spatchcock with tarragon
Veal: Veal escalopes with mushrooms
Vegetarian: Mushroom and Gruyère tart

Aisy Cendré: A Burgundian cheese ripened under wood ash, earthy and mellow beside an old-vine village red
Charolais: A firm goat's milk cheese from southern Burgundy with a clean, nutty finish
Gruyère: Smooth and gently sweet, it suits a lighter Pinot Noir
Saint-Nectaire: A supple, earthy cheese from the Auvergne

Feuilleté aux Morilles (Puff Pastry with Morels in Cream)

Ingredients (Serves 4 as a starter):

• 20g dried morels
• 250mL warm water
• 200g Swiss brown mushrooms, quartered
• 1 French shallot, finely chopped
• 30g butter
• 60mL dry white wine
• 200mL thickened cream
• 1 sheet frozen butter puff pastry, thawed
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Soak the morels in the warm water for 30 minutes. Lift them out, rinse well to remove any grit and halve the larger ones. Strain the soaking liquid through a paper towel and keep it.
2. Preheat the oven to 200℃. Cut the pastry into four rectangles, score a border 1cm in from the edge, brush with the egg yolk and bake on a lined tray for 15 minutes, until puffed and golden. Cut out the centre lids.
3. Melt the butter, add the shallot and cook for 2 minutes. Add the Swiss browns and morels and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the wine and 125mL of the morel liquid and reduce by half. Stir in the cream and simmer until it coats the back of a spoon. Season and add the parsley.
5. Spoon the mushrooms into the warm pastry cases, top with the lids and serve straight away.

Morels are prized across eastern France, and a puff pastry feuilleté filled with morels in cream is a much-loved starter in Burgundy and the neighbouring Jura. The deep, woodland character of the mushrooms is a natural match for old-vine Pinot Noir, and the light pastry keeps the dish delicate enough for a fine Chambolle-Musigny.