Winemaker Notes
Fleshy, complex and with character.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Rich and ripe Bojo with blackberry, violet and wet-earth aromas. Some mahogany and mushroom character, too. It’s full-bodied with layers of firm yet ripe tannins and a long, flavorful finish. Chewy. Structured Côte du Py. Drink or hold.
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Decanter
Some gamey, slightly rustic characters on the nose. Red-cherry and dark plum flavours dominate the smooth, rich and voluptuous palate. Part-aged in wood, this has added an extra dimension of flavour. Warm, generous and very approachable, there is plenty of concentration here - along with lingering acidity - to encourage further bottle age.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aromas of smoked meats, cherries, blackcurrant, rich soil tones and violets introduce the 2018 Morgon Côte du Py, a medium to full-bodied, muscular and structured wine with a rich core of fruit, ripe acids and ample reserves of powdery tannin. This is definitely built to age and will reward at least a year or two of patience, as it's quite tightly wound at present.
Rating:91(+)
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.