Five Beaujolais Producers Channel Morgon in All Its Glorious Complexity, All Insanely Easy to Drink (8-Bottle Sampler $295)

Join Us for Saturday Sips: The Originality of Morgon

Come as you are; come any time that’s convenient for you during our business hours to sample selection from this week’s selections. Our staff will be on hand to discuss nuances of the wines, the terroirs reflected, and the producers.

In 1918, when John Keats wrote “… Can burst joy’s grape against his palate fine …?” he was not referring to Beaujolais. But he should have been.

Complexity and ease combined; in slightly less poetic terms, that describes bucolic Beaujolais to a ‘t’. And that ‘t’ stands for tradition, as the best of the winemakers in the region are enjoying a renaissance of their roots, producing non-manipulated, non-interventionist wines that reflect the granitic glories that Gamay brings to an odd appendage of Burgundy which is utterly un-Burgundian in grape, style, or intent.

The intrinsic joy wafting from a glass of Beaujolais is unmatched in any other winemaking district in the world. This week, join us in celebrating this delightful quirk of hedonism with a selection from Morgon, among the easiest and most complex of Beaujolais Crus and the ideal wine for a cool summer break.

The Twelve Appellations of Beaujolais

Despite being wed to a one-trick pony named ‘Gamay’, the variety of the terroir in Beaujolais is astonishing. Geologists have identified more than three hundred individual soil profiles—in the south, clay-rich soils (often mixed with chalk) predominate throughout rolling hills, to the north, where the soil is sandy and granitic, Beaujolais has carved itself into 12 appellations. The most generic, located mainly between Arbresle and Belleville, makes ‘Beaujolais’ the largest of the AOPs. ‘Beaujolais Villages’ is found in the northern part of the vineyards and includes 38 villages. The steep vineyards, facing east-south-east, surround the ten famous Beaujolais Crus of the northern half. From north to south, they are St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly, each with its own personality and charm.

The Expression of Morgon’s ‘Rotten’ Terroir

Overlooked by Mont du Py, Morgon is the second largest of the Beaujolais crus after Brouilly, and in the heart of it lies the appellation’s most famous terroir, the Côte du Py. Sitting atop an extinct volcano at the highest point in the region, Py contains the oldest soils of Beaujolais, dating back hundreds of millennia.

Morgon’s neighborhood is upscale; surrounded by Fleurie, Chiroubles, Brouilly and Régnié, and slightly under five square miles in total, it is an epicenter for the terroir that Gamay loves best. While all ten Crus feature some granitic soil, Morgon is granite-land. Not that, but it is a unique type, the blue-tinged version known as andesite. And the only rock that Gamay loves more is iron-rich schist, which in Morgon also has in spades; decomposed and referred to by locals as ‘roches pourries’—rotten rock.

As in much of Beaujolais, Morgon vineyards are protected from cold northwesterly winds by the hills immediately to the west. Instead, warm, dry ‘foehn’ winds develop on the eastern slopes, drying the vineyards after rain and helping to prevent fungal diseases. Otherwise, the wide, shallow valley of the Saône River offers no topographical barriers to unfettered sunlight and vines bask in plentiful sunshine during the growing season. Heat is moderated by cooling influences from the Mediterranean, allowing for the retention of acidity while phenols and sugars evolve. As a result, Morgon wines are denser than those made in much of Beaujolais, displaying ripe cherry and dark fruit characters and a fleshy, juicy texture. Morgon wines age so well that the region’s name is often used as a verb to describe a cellar-worthy wine, saying ‘il morgonne’, or ‘it Morgons.”

Clos de Mez

Marie-Élodie Zighera has roots in the past; a metaphor that is not really a metaphor since her oldest vines were planted so long ago that when France entered the First World War, they were already producing.

“Vines have been in my maternal family for four generations,” she says. “The grapes they grew were delivered to the cooperative cellar by my grandmother and mother up until I arrived at the domain as a winegrower. However, this did not deter my grandmother or mother from taking great care of our 17-hectare vineyard. At that time, I was living in Paris with my family and we would come to Fleurie for the holidays. I used to love this time so much, being in close contact with nature.”

Marie-Élodie Zighera, Clos de Mez

With a drive to turn this love into a vocation, Zighera studied viticulture; after graduation, she found work in a number of vineyards. Among them was Clos Vougeot, where she concluded that she could not hope to make such wines from her family holding.

Then came the eureka moment: “A professional tasting of old vintages was held and I was invited to attend during my work placement at Vougeot. With a Morgon 1911, the unanimous opinion was that it was magnificent wine; that it had aged as well as a Burgundy. I finally knew what type of wine I wanted to make and most importantly I realized it was possible. I had another strong advantage too: the freedom to imagine without guidelines being imposed. I set up my business in 2006 and named the domain Clos de Mez, a shortened version of my name.”

Zighera makes wine in Fleurie and Morgon, where the average age of vines in her plots is 45 years. Her Fleurie holding outlines a hilly landscape, where Gamay vines follow the contours of the slopes of Fût d’Avenas, the mountain passes of Durbize, Labourons and Raymont Peak. She says, “Legend recounts that a Roman legionary once passed through here, leaving his name to the site and to the village. Our vines in Fleurie are found in the southern part of the appellation, bordering Morgon. Facing South/South-East, they stand at an altitude of about 300 meters. The soils of Fleurie La Dot and Fleurie Mademoiselle M, which originate from acid rock, are deep and provide good drainage. Rose colored granite is widely predominant here and is found in the form sand called saprolite.”

Clos de Mez, 2017 Morgon-Château Gaillard ($32)
Chateau Gaillard is a lieu-dit that passed to Marie-Élodie from her grandmother. Adjacent to the border of Morgon where it borders Fleurie, the plot of 70 year old vines with very low yields giving a wine of great depth and aging potential. Grapes are sorted as they are picked in each plot of the vineyard; the grapes are moved to the vats by a system of gravity where whole-bunch pre-fermentation maceration at cold temperature is carried out for few days, followed by alcoholic fermentation interspersed by cap-punching and pumping-over. The wine offers ripe, black-fruit character with lively acidity and an expansive finish.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland

Daniel Bouland has been called reclusive and solitary—he has also been called the best artisanal vigneron in Beaujolais. When collectors compare him to more flamboyant regional names like Foillard and Lapierre, it is always favorably, at least in part because of his obsessive respect for micro-terroirs—in French, ‘pur’ terroir. Working with fewer than twenty acres of impeccably cultivated vines in the Morgon lieux-dits of Corcelette, Bellevue and Les Delys, plus small parcels in Chiroubles and Côte de Brouilly, Bouland’s wines are approachable upon release, but created with such a backbone that his terroir’s mineral nuances will continue to become more pronounced with five or more years in the cellar.

Daniel Bouland in Morgon’s lieu-dit ‘Les Delys’ with Gamay vines planted in 1926.

With the success of Cuvée Mélanie, named for Daniel Bouland’s daughter, Bouland has added her name to current bottlings beneath the name ‘Mélanie et Daniel Bouland’, possibly in advance of the younger Bouland ultimately taking charge.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Vieilles-Vignes Sable’, 2021 Morgon–Corcelette ($43)
Corcelette is a south-east facing climat where the soils are sandy pink granite and the vines are between 60 and 75 year old vines. Made famous by the iconic Jean Foillard, the roster of vintners who today bottle a Corcelette reads like a who’s who of Beaujolais masters. Brooding and filled with mineral piquancy, the wine bursts with wild fruit including slightly dried black cherry, blackberry, cranberry and pomegranate that digs in with powdery, penetrating tannins.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Sable’, 2021 Morgon–Bellevue ($39)
Bouland’s Bellevue soils are split into two named cuvées—one for the sand (Sable) and one for the stones (Cailloux). “These two parcels are only separated by a small track,” says Bouland. “but the soil is completely different. Not only does the weathered sandy granite differ from the Cailloux parcel, but the slope is steeper, and the 40-50 years old vines are on a specific low-yielding rootstock called Vialla—a stock well adapted to these soils.”

Opening in the glass with aromas of raspberries, plums, spices and smoke, the 2021 Bellevue is fleshy and succulent with a core of tangy, acidic fruits, mulberry especially, shored up by sweet spices, licorice and rose petals.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘1926’, 2021 Morgon-Les Delys ($48)
Like Bellevue, the lieu-dit Les Delys is part of the larger climat Corcelette, down the slope and located right where Domaine Chamonard sits. The vines were planted in 1926 in the deep granitic sand typical of Les Delys, bringing roundness and texture to the wines. It was aged in concrete and bottled in August, 2022. The 2021, still in the blush of youth, unfolds with primary aromas cassis, black raspberry, red plum, mint and tarragon.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland , 2021 Morgon-Pré Jourdan ($39)
Pré Jourdan is a lieu-dit that has only been producing for Bouland for a few years; near Fleurie, the vines are over 70 years old. One of the last cuvées to be bottled this year, it shows blackberries and spices mingled with notes of rose petals, violets and potpourri.

Domaine des Terres Dorées

With a name from a fairy tale (‘House in the Land of the Golden Stones’), Domaine des Terres Dorées is a 150-acre vineyard located in Charnay, just north of Lyon. Owner/winemaker Jean Paul Brun is a champion of ‘old-style Beaujolais’, and by ‘old’, he means an era before pesticides and herbicides, and especially, a time when native yeasts alone were used to ferment.

He says: “Virtually all Beaujolais is now made by adding a particular strain of industrial yeast known as 71B. It’s a laboratory product made in Holland from a tomato base, and when you taste Beaujolais with banana and candy aromas, 71B is the culprit. 71B produces a beverage, but without authenticity or charm.”

Jean-Paul Brun, Domaine des Terres Dorées

Brun also insists that Beaujolais drinks best at a lower degree of alcohol and that there is no need to systematically add sugar to the must (chaptalize) to reach alcohol levels of 12 to 13%.

“My Beaujolais is made to be pleasurable,” he maintains. “Light, fruity and delicious, not an artificially inflated wine that is only meant to shine at tasting competitions.”

“The emphasis is not on weight, but on fruit,” he adds. “Beaujolais as it once was and as it should be.”

Domaine des Terres Dorées ‘Tirage au Domaine’, 2021 Morgon Côte du Py – Javernières ($30)
The historic Morgon lieu-dit of Javernières sits at the foot of the Côte du Py, where soils are much heavier and stickier with deep, iron-rich red clay versus the more schistous ‘rotten rock’ further up the hill. Exposures are also more easterly; the wines tend to be dense but soft and more red-toned and elegant versus the darker, more muscular wines of the Côte du Py. Brun’s three-acre plot produces a wine that shines with Damson plum, raspberries, sweet spices and licorice.

Guy Breton

Guy Breton took over the family domain from his grandfather in 1986—up until then,  the family had been selling their fruit to the large cooperative wineries which dominated the region. The rise of imported yeast cultures to impart flavor and aroma, the use of high-tech carbonic maceration and the widespread commercialization of Beaujolais Nouveau played hell with the region’s reputation, and to much of the wine world, Beaujolais came to be seen as one-dimensional, lacking any expression of the native terroir.

Guy Breton

Following the example of traditionalist Jules Chauvet, Guy and three other local vignerons initiated a ‘back-to-nature’ movement, calling for a return to the old practices of viticulture and vinification. This began with old vines and refusing to use synthetic herbicides or pesticides. They harvested late and sorted rigorously to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalization and filtration.

“The end result allows my wine to express itself naturally,” he says, “without make-up or plastic surgery: rustic, spicy, loaded with schist minerals and at the same time, refreshing and deep-down delicious.”

Guy Breton, 2020 Morgon ($45)
Although 2020 was one of the hottest growing seasons on record, Guy Breton draws juice from 80-year-old vines to produce this succulent, floral, breezy wine; a dose of relief from the sundogs of summer. Managing elegance and lightness behind a rich backbone of fruit, the wine shows wild strawberry tartness and crystalline, balancing floral notes and an appealing softness that is evidence of Breton’s reputation among the Gang of Four who are ushering Beaujolais into a new era.

Domaine J. Boulon

A half hour’s drive south of the Mâcon, the village of Corcelles-en-Beaujolais has been the Boulon family home since the 1850s. Hugo and Ludvine Boulon are the seventh generation of the family to run the estate’s holdings in the Beaujolais Cru villages of Morgon, Brouilly and Moulin à Vent, a total of 67 acres.

Hugo, Ludivine, Jacques and Françoise Boulon, Domaine J. Boulon

Having sold grapes to the local co-operative for nearly a century, Joseph Boulon began to domain-bottle in 1973. His son Jacques, and Jacques’ wife Françoise were responsible for the subsequent growth and modernization of the estate. Since 2005, their daughter Ludivine and her husband Hugo have carried the torch in the production of these delightfully bright wines.

Domaine J. Boulon, 2019 Morgon ($18)
The grapes selected for this heady, concentrated wine come from vineyard plots throughout the family’s old-vine holdings where vine age averages 85 years. It’s fermented and aged entirely in glass-lined concrete vats, preserving the freshness and nuance of the old-vine fruit and shows luscious tones of black currant and bramble berries behind floral aromatics and a spicy finish.

RECENT ARRIVAL

Gamay’s Strong Presence in Touraine, Heart of The Loire Valley

The exception to prove the rule: Gamay showcases best in Beaujolais, except when it doesn’t. In the Loire Valley, Gamay comes in two colors: red and rosé. The latter are found mostly in Anjou and Saumur, whereas in Touraine, Gamay is essentially is a stand-alone red or used or in blends (Malbec, around and upstream of Amboise, or Cabernet). Three other appellations use Gamay as the main input in their production of red wines: Valençay (at the crossroads of Berry, Sologne and Touraine), Châteaumeillant, in Berry and Touraine Mesland (around Chaumont-sur-Loire, near Blois). Loire Gamay is similar, but notably unique when tasted alongside Gamay from Beaujolais; Touraine terroir tends to bring out a muskier side of the grape with forest-floor notes of fern and capers.

Domaine Marie Thibault

“I grew up in the Loire Valley, but unlike many vignerons working in the Loire, I did not come from a winemaking family,” says Marie Thibault, adding, “But also unlike many of them, I have degrees in both biology and oenology.”

Marie Thibault began making wine in the early 2000s, working for a time with François Chidaine in Montlouis, where she fell in love with Chenin Blanc. In 2011, she founded her own nine acre estate on a single windy slope in Azay-le-Rideau, a lesser known commune of Touraine. She immediately converted to organics and has been certified with Ecocert since 2014. Among the natural elements in her vineyards is the flock of two dozen ewes that graze between the vine rows during the autumn; every ten days, they are penned inside a new hectare to keep the soil naturally fertile and the grass clipped.

Marie Thibault, Domaine Marie Thibault
©Jean-Yves Bardin

“My vineyard is small, but the soils are extremely varied and as such, so are the grapes I grow. I work with Côt (Malbec), and have a special love for Gamay, Grolleau, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Most of my vines are at least 50 years old. I compensate for small production by purchasing from organic estates nearby, especially those grown by my family.”

Marie Thibault ‘Les Grandes Vignes’, 2018 VdF Loire-Touraine ‘Gamay’ ‘natural’ ($41)
Thibault’s unique lens on Gamay is seen in this example produced from 50+ year-old vines she discovered growing adjacent to her plot on flinty silex soil. The vines were untrained and un-trellised, and harvest was exceptionally labor-intensive. She allows a 10-month maceration in order to shows off the Gamay’s savory side, with crisp rhubarb, earthy red berry notes and fine-grained, well-integrated tannins showcased.

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Posted on 2023.06.23 in Morgon, Touraine, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages