A Wine Full of Contradictions: Beaujolais’ Morgon Expresses Its Unwelcome Terroir in All Its Intensity. In-Store Saturday Sips: A Taste of Morgon.

Join Us for Saturday Sips: A Taste 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.

Elie

Morgon has always represented a Beaujolais of a different color. Not merely the richer, denser dark-red hue (as opposed to the grapey purples of other appellations) but the metaphorical color of ambition. Not willing to produce Gamay-based wines that are simply fun and enjoyable (‘peasant wines’ in the parlance of the French, or side-show wines like Beaujolais Nouveau), Morgon—aided by its unique terroir—has always set the goal of producing wines that are complex, meaningful and on a par with great wines found anywhere else in the world.

The frontal assault on the world’s perception of Beaujolais began in the last century. Led by négociant Jules Chauvet (a staunch opponent of the industrial farming that had become the norm in the region) the movement embraced older, earth-friendly agriculture that disdained the use of chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and a factory mentality among producers. At the time, this was a rather unheard of proposition in the region, but the goal was hand-crafted, often painstaking artisan winemaking.

Chauvet’s disciples were dubbed the Club de Cinq—the ‘Gang of Five,’ they included (besides Chauvet) Guy Breton, Joseph Chamonard, Jean Foillard, Marcel Lapierre and Jean-Paul Thévenet, and sometimes Yvon Métras. The revolution came to a head in the 1980s and forever altered the reputation of once-lowly Gamay in the rhetoric of cognizant wine lovers, who have delighted in seeing these wines approach the earthy majesty once thought exclusive to Pinot-Noir-based Burgundy.

In modern times, a new generation of winemakers (influenced by the Club de Cinq’s work) are determined to display Morgon in her full glory. They have returned to the quintessential and traditional Beaujolais practices of viticulture and vinification: Old vines, late harvests (never chaptalizing), rigorously sorting grapes and using minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all. Over the decades, those principles have expanded to include biodynamic and organic farming and vineyard management.

For an audience who has embraced natural wines, Morgon has long been the natural choice, but for hardcore fans of terroir, who realize that the more transparent is the work done in the field and the cellar the more identifiable is the location, modern Morgon is a mirror of its remarkable foundations, especially the schistous, manganese-veined ‘roche pourrie’ that provides many Morgons with their underlying structure.

The Beaujolais Underground: A Veritable Mosaic of Soil

The biggest error a Beaujolais neophyte makes is an expectation one-dimensional predictability. To be fair, the mistake easy to make based on the region’s reliance on Gamay, a grape that elsewhere may produce simple and often mediocre wine.

In Beaujolais’ wondrous terroir, however, it thrives.

In fact, this terroir is so complex that it nearly defies description. But Inter-Beaujolais certainly tried: Between 2009 and 2018, they commissioned a colossal field study to establish a detailed cartography of the vineyards and to create a geological snapshot of the exceptional richness found throughout Beaujolais’ 12 appellations.

Beaujolais may not be geographically extensive, but geologically, it’s a different story. The region bears witness to 500 million years of complex interaction between the eastern edge of the Massif Central and the Alpine phenomenon of the Tertiary period, leaving one of the richest and most complex geologies in France. Over 300 distinct soil types have been identified. Fortunately, Gamay—the mainstay grape, accounting for 97% of plantings—flourishes throughout these myriad terroirs. In the south, the soil may be laden with clay, and sometimes chalk; the landscape is characterized by rolling hills. The north hosts sandy soils that are often granitic in origin. This is the starting point wherein each appellation, and indeed, each lieu-dit draws its individual character.

There are ten Crus, the top red wine regions of Beaujolais, all of them located in the hillier areas to the north, which offer freer-draining soils and better exposure, thereby helping the grapes to mature more fully.

Courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild

A Palette of Ten Crus

Beaujolais is a painter’s dream, a patchwork of undulating hills and bucolic villages. It is also unique in that relatively inexpensive land has allowed a number of dynamic new wine producers to enter the business. In the flatter south, easy-drinking wines are generally made using technique known as carbonic maceration, an anaerobic form of closed-tank fermentation that imparts specific, recognizable flavors (notably, bubblegum and Concord grape). Often sold under the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations, such wines tend to be simple, high in acid and low in tannin, and are ideal for the local bistro fare. Beaujolais’ suppler wines generally come from the north, where the granite hills are filled with rich clay and limestone. These wines are age-worthy, and show much more complexity and depth. The top of Beaujolais’ classification pyramid is found in the north, especially in the appellations known as ‘Cru Beaujolais’: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour.

Each are distinct wines with definable characteristics and individual histories; what they have in common beyond Beaujolais real estate is that they are the pinnacle of Gamay’s glory in the world of wine.

Vins de Lieux: The Particulars of Terroir Plot by Plot

Although the individual qualities inherent in a specific plot of vines was always discussed privately among Beaujolais growers, the wines themselves—even those by the region’s patron saints, the Club de Cinq—were generally blends.

Says Louis-Clément David-Beaupère (Domaine David-Beaupère; Juliénas): “We forgot to tell people about our climats.”

‘Climat’ is the Burgundian term for ‘vins de lieux’— wines sourced entirely from a given parcel of land, and may be considered the ultimate expression of terroir. This is the essence of the Bourgogne viticulture model, since each of these parcels—which may be only a portion of an overall vineyard—has a specific geological, hydrometric and exposure characteristic. The production of each Climat is vinified separately, from a single grape variety.

Every one of Beaujolais Crus is subdivided into lieux-dits—the change is in trumpeting them. For example, the soils of the Côte du Py, the source of many of Morgon’s most cherished wines, is built around decayed schist, while the soils of nearby Douby—only around seven hundred feet away—are deeper and more granitic, producing markedly different wines.

Cru Morgon: Durable, Long-Lived and Slightly Off-Message

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 ‘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 (42-acre) 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.”

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.

Marie-Élodie Zighera, Clos de Mez

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.”

Vintage 2017

In Beaujolais, 2017 will be remembered as the little vintage who could. After enduring frost in the spring, hail and drought in the summer and rain during the harvest, this sequence of events actually helped produce some excellent wines. The period of drought concentrated the grapes and the harvest rain provided reinvigoration. Gamay excelled, gaining a rich, ripe, fruit character balanced by acidity.

The resulting wines ranged from the intensely concentrated, which should stand cellaring, to the equally excellent lighter examples, which displayed the classic florals that Beaujolais is known for.

Despite the unnerving weather, in 2017, Beaujolais delivered against the odds.

Clos de Mez, 2017 Morgon-Château Gaillard ($32)
Château 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.

Domaine de Vernus

After thirty years in the prosaic world of insurance brokerage, Frédéric Jametton decided to do a rakehell turn on his career trajectory. Having been born in Dijon and lived in Burgundy for most of his life, he had become an enlightened wine lover. Not only that, but his former profession brought him in contact with numerous members of the wine community. At the end of 2017, he realized that the time had come to invest in a winery.

Initially looking in the south, he became convinced that the heat spikes brought on by climate change made it unsuitable for the long haul, and after discussions with his friend Guillaume Rouget of Flagey-Echézeaux (who agreed to come on board as a consultant) Jametton settled on Beaujolais, piecing together 30 acres of vineyards acquired from 12 different proprietors, and is gradually restructuring parcels with a view to more sustainable farming.

Winemaker Guillaume Rouget, left, with Frédéric Jametton, Domaine de Vernus

Thanks in part to Rouget’s influence, vinification is conducted along Burgundian lines, with around 70% of the grapes destemmed and fermented in stainless steel with élevage in recently-used, high-quality Burgundy barrels for some 10–11 months. Jametton’s ultimate goal, echoed by Rouget, is to offer a range of wines that brings out the best of the different terroirs while respecting the character and personality of each Cru and each plot.

With Rouget in charge of the vineyards and winemaking process, Frédéric remains at the management helm and spearheads marketing.

Vintage 2020

If you can invent a way to leave Covid out of the equation, 2020 was a wonderful vintage throughout Beaujolais. The growing season was warm, beginning with a mild and frost-free spring, which developed into a hot and sunny summer without hail or disease. Drought—a persistent worry in the region—was not as severe as it might have been, and by harvest-time the majority of grapes were in fine health with rich, ripe, almost Rhône-like flavors—raspberries, sour cherry and even garrigue; the local scrub comprised of bay, lavender, rosemary and juniper.

2020 yields were low due to the dry conditions, leading to concentrated juice and wines able to benefit from time in the cellar.

But, of course, you can’t leave Covid out of the equation: Normally the release of Beaujolais Nouveau occurs on the third Thursday of every November, but in pandemic-dominated 2020, the normal celebrations could not take place and producers instead chose to release the wines a week earlier than usual in order to allow for international shipping times.

Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Morgon ‘Grands Cras’ ($47)
Grands Cras, ideally situated at the foot of the Côte du Py, ranks among the appellation’s most famous climats. The deep soil is made up of granitic alluvium that allows grapes to maintain Burgundy-level tannins while retaining the fruitiness typical of Beaujolais. With an average vine age of 71 years, the fruit is hand-harvested and 80% destemmed, following which the wine spends ten months in oak. A rich, cherry-driven profile with hints of kirsch, fresh tobacco and menthol.

Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Morgon ($36)
Lieux-dits L’Évêque and Champ Lévrier from vines with an average age of 67 years. 80% destemmed with three weeks of fermentation on native yeasts followed by ten months maturation in 80% oak barrels and 20% in stainless steel tanks. This structured Morgon is a benchmark wine showing cherries and plums abound along with licorice, mineral and taut acidity.

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.

Vintage 2022

Like 2017, 2020 was vintage with highs and lows throughout the season, temperature-wise especially. A cold and dry winter led to savage frosts in the spring and hail that damaged crops. And then, in July, the agricultural canvas dried out and remained rain-free and sweltering until harvest. Such arid conditions had a two-fold effect; both kept the berries clean from rot and disease as well as pushed them to phenolic ripeness – drought, however, did become an issue. As vines struggled, yields were inevitably reduced. For some producers this meant forgoing making Beaujolais Nouveau. The quality of the fruit, however, was fantastic as the intense heat concentrated juices, making for some very rich, flavorful wines.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Vieilles-Vignes Sable’, 2022 Morgon-Corcelette ($48)
Corcelette is a south-east facing climat where the soils are made of sandy pink granite and the vines are between 60 and 75 year old. 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, Bouland’s bursts with wild fruit including dried black cherry, blackberry, cranberry and pomegranate that digs in with powdery, penetrating tannins.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Vieilles-Vignes Cailloux’, 2022 Morgon-Corcelette ($48)
Bouland’s Corcelette 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 a sappy bouquet of black cherries, pomegranate and a hint of sweet cranberry, the wine shows Morgon’s depth along with Morgon’s firm backbone.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Vignes Plantées en 1926’, 2022 Morgon-Les Delys ($48)
The lieu-dit Les Delys is part of the larger climat Corcelette, down the slope and located right where Domaine Chamonard sits. From a three-acre parcel featuring the domain’s oldest vines, the plot was planted in 1926.These ancient workhorses have dug deep into the subterranean water sources to keep maturity progressing in a dry growing season. This is Bouland’s most age-worthy and firmly-structured Morgon, showing deep and brooding wild berries, cherries, exotic spices, cracked black pepper and vine smoke. It is very young, though—it would be a shame not to leave a few bottles to develop secondary and tertiary notes through the years.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Sable’, 2022 Morgon-Bellevue ($39)
Morgon’s renowned, high-altitude lieu-dit Bellevue is built on ancient, eroded pink granite soil on a 22% southeast-facing slope. As in Corcelette, Bouland releases wine from this plot under two names, ‘Sable’ and ‘Cailloux’ for the specifics of the soil beneath the 70-year-old vines.

‘Sable,’ grown on sandier soils, shows a nice balance between fresh acidity and well-structured tannins with blackberry and cherry on the nose and assertive minerality on the finish.

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Cailloux’, 2022 Morgon-Bellevue ($41)
‘Cailloux’ soils are rockier, and provide classic aromas of red cherries, kirsch, herbs and a pleasant hint of carbonic bubblegum.
 

Mélanie et Daniel Bouland, 2022 Morgon-Pré Jourdan ($41)
Pré Jourdan is a lieu-dit that has only been producing for Bouland for a few years, but has been around a lot longer; 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 Dorée

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.”

Vintage 2021

A warm, humid winter prompted an early budbreak, but April produced a vicious bout of frost followed by a snow-dump that affected new growth. A slight reprieve ensued in June, which allowed for a successful flowering, but heavy rain settled back in throughout July and August. The grapes did not dry out until late August, but the alert against rot and disease was a feature of the entire season.

Harvest came later than usual but was a success; the fruit remained fresh and aromatic with good acidity, although overall, 2021 wines are lighter in both body and alcohol compared to other years.

Domaine des Terres Dorées, 2021 Morgon Côte du Py-Javernières ($30)
The Javernières lieu-dit sits at the foot of the hallowed Côte du Py hill, noted for the iron-rich clay component of its sandy granite soils. The vines in this bottling range from 50 to 100 years old and are farmed sustainably and harvested by hand. he vinification is traditional Burgundian: The bunches are destemmed and fermented with native yeasts and without sulfur in concrete tank. The maceration lasts about four weeks. The wine is aged in concrete for 6-8 months and bottled with a light, non-sterile filtration and minimal sulfur.

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 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 called 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 Club de Cinq who are ushering Beaujolais into a new era.

Notebook …

Is Beaujolais on a Path Towards Premier Cru Recognition?

Of all the ‘subdivisions’ in wine, lieux-dits (named places) are perhaps the most poetic. Having earned their reputation for quality, often over centuries, they are individual plots of exceptional terroir named with love and respect—after a family, a natural landscape feature or a historical event. Among more than six hundred recognized lieux-dits in Beaujolais is La Chapelle des Bois (The Chapel of the Woods), La Tour du Bief (The Tower of the Reach) and La Martingale—whose translation is self-evident.

As in the rest of France, these names have often appeared on Beaujolais wine labels, not necessarily as a legal indicator of quality, but as an informal nod to those in the know. It’s an optional honor, and although lieux-dits are registered, they do not have to conform to specified body of regulations such as crop yields and minimum sugar content. Those sorts of mandates belong to a separate system of classification, one that includes Premier and Grand Crus, the jewels of the Côte d’Or.

Beaujolais’ mosaic of soils was brought to light in 2018 when an unprecedented nine-year study revealed more than 300 types descended from fifteen geological formations. This is one of the reasons that Beaujolais wines are unique, not just from one AOP to another, but also from lieu-dit to lieu-dit.

Now a movement is afoot in Beaujolais to elevate the classification some of these revered plots beyond named-vineyard status to Premier Crus. As you might imagine, this is a monumental undertaking. First, a winegrower has to approach the National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) with proof of the vineyard’s aspirations: Are there references to the lieu-dit in the historical archives? Does the wine display characteristics that are unique in the AOP, and does the winegrowers already mention the lieu-dit on their bottles in order to more finely define their terroir? If the answer is yes, the interested party then submits an application to the INAO and awaits their evaluation.

Growers in Fleurie, Brouilly, Moulin-à-Vent, Côte de Brouilly and Juliénas have already submitted such applications and data collection continues in the other Beaujolais Crus.

Patience is understood to be a virtue, as it often takes a decade or more for the upgrade in status to be approved… or not.

Lieux-dits of the “Beaujolais hillside” identified on the 1869 Budker map, Bibliothèque Nationale de France

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Posted on 2025.01.09 in Morgon, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages