Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Chénas Les Blemonts is energetic and pure, with beguiling aromas of red cherries, raspberries, dried rose petals and Indian spices. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied but boasts an impressive concentration for its weight, displaying a well-layered mid-palate of silken fruits, supported by loosely woven, fine-grained tannins and bright acidity. Sharpened by pockets of salinity and lithe bitterness, the palate gains elegant definition, culminating in a mouthwatering, flavorful finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Chénas Les Blemonts comes from clay and manganese soils, raised 50% in used barrels/demi-muids and 50% in epoxy-lined vats, the two blended just before bottling. This has a slightly more tertiary nose and a touch more energy than Les Carrières, just a faint touch of pressed violet in the background—very nuanced. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, pastille-like purity, a fine bead of acidity and a dash of Indian spice on the finish. Very fine.
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Jasper Morris
The soil here is manganese rich clay. This wine, like Les Carrières, has been made with zero sulphur, but comes across as the more robust of the two. A greater depth of crimson, more weight to the bouquet, some breadsticks and a slatey note, then little red fruits come out behind with good acidity. Fresh cherry very pure finish. Still growing. 12% alcohol.
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.