Winemaker Notes
The Corcelette vineyard is on south-east-facing granite slopes from two vineyards called Bellevue and Montillet. The vines, an average of 70 years old, are planted very densely at 11,000 vines/ha (4,500 vines/acre) and gobelet trained.
Blend: 100% Gamay
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This starts quite gently and unspectacularly, but as it flows gracefully over your palate, it builds in expression and intensity. Though the striking blue-fruit aromas are still on the shy side due to the wine’s youth, the wet-stone minerality is very pronounced in the long, seriously structured finish. Drinkable now but best from 2026.
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Vinous
The 2023 Morgon Corcelette, from vines on sandy soils, has a perfumed, quite floral bouquet, with touches of wilted rose petal infusing the red berry fruit aromas. The palate is fresh on the entry with sappy red fruit notes. This has more density than Godard's Moulin-à-Vents, with a dash of white pepper that perks up the finish. The 2023 has good potential.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
The bucolic region often identified as the southern part of Burgundy, Beaujolais actually doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the rest of the region in terms of climate, soil types and grape varieties. Beaujolais achieves its own identity with variations on style of one grape, Gamay.
Gamay was actually grown throughout all of Burgundy until 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banished it south, making room for Pinot Noir to inhabit all of the “superior” hillsides of Burgundy proper. This was good news for Gamay as it produces a much better wine in the granitic soils of Beaujolais, compared with the limestone escarpments of the Côte d’Or.
Four styles of Beaujolais wines exist. The simplest, and one that has regrettably given the region a subpar reputation, is Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the Beaujolais wine that is made using carbonic maceration (a quick fermentation that results in sweet aromas) and is released on the third Thursday of November in the same year as harvest. It's meant to drink young and is flirty, fruity and fun. The rest of Beaujolais is where the serious wines are found. Aside from the wines simply labelled, Beaujolais, there are the Beaujolais-Villages wines, which must come from the hilly northern part of the region, and offer reasonable values with some gems among them. The superior sections are the cru vineyards coming from ten distinct communes: St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Any cru Beajolais will have its commune name prominent on the label.