Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This compact and concentrated Morgon makes a bold statement. Lots of savory, plus hints of wet earth and bark on the well-rounded, medium-bodied palate. The best thing about the wine is the complex, firm and earthy finish that leaves no doubt about its excellent aging potential. From four hectares of 50- to 70-year-old vines. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Grand Cras lieu-dit is one notoriously hard to understand, with Jean-Marc saying it took him 10 years to figure out the best way to vinify the wine; but on the evidence of this 2022, it seems he has figured it out. The 2022 Morgon Grands Cras offers notes of currants, licorice, cracked white pepper and vine smoke. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, the wine shows strong delineation, with a sharp attack, fine-grained tannins and tinges of bitterness. It has remarkable depth, characterized by savory notes of brine and dried sage, further ringed with a wet-stone salinity that takes over the palate on the finish. The wine possesses a rustic nature typical of the terroir, lending it the charm of authenticity.
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.