FRENCH WINE

This highly aromatic Côte de Brouilly oozes with flavors of kirsch, crushed rocks, potpourri, and ripe raspberries. Juicy and fresh, the wine’s tangy acidity and structured backbone lead to a long finish. Drink over the next five years.

WINE ADVOCATE 92 POINTS - "Exuberant aromas of raspberries, blackberries and cherries introduce the 2019 Chiroubles Chatenay, a medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy wine that's round and enveloping, with a charming core of fruit and melting, delicately powdery tannins. It will drink well young."

WINE ADVOCATE 92 POINTS - "Offering up aromas of red plums, berries, raw cocoa and spices, the 2019 Côte de Brouilly Cuvée Melanie is medium to full-bodied, supple and velvety, with a fleshy core of fruit, melting tannins and lively acids. Bright and charming, it's produced from a south-facing site near Château Thivin."

WINE ADVOCATE 94 POINTS - "The 2019 Morgon Corcelette Vieilles Vignes Cailloux is once again quite structured this year, though it's not as brooding and muscular as its 2018 counterpart. Revealing aromas of raspberries, cherries, burning embers and sweet soil tones, it's medium to full-bodied, with a deep core of fruit, lively acids and a chassis of fine but abundant tannins."

WINE ADVOCATE 94 POINTS - "The 2019 Morgon Corcelette Vieilles Vignes Sable is excellent, unfurling in the glass with aromas of cherries, plums, violets and orange rind. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and muscular, built around succulent acids and powdery tannins, it's elegantly structured and built to age, even if it's charming enough to be enjoyed young—the 2011 vintage from my own cellar is drinking brilliantly."

WINE ADVOCATE 95 POINTS - "The 2019 Morgon Les Delys Vignes plantées en 1926 has turned out brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of ripe cherries, blackberries, strawberries, sweet soil tones and spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's seamless and multidimensional, and with striking concentration, succulent acids and powdery tannins, it's long and penetrating. While this is carrying less puppy fat than the 2018 at the same age, it's still quite a demonstrative, fruit-driven vintage of Les Delys, and while it will be long-lived, it can also be approached young."

WINE ADVOCATE 93 POINTS - "Aromas of cherries, blackberries, cassis, dark chocolate and smoked meats introduce the 2019 Morgon Pré Jourdan, a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and generous wine with an ample core of nicely concentrated fruit, succulent acids and fine, elegantly chalky tannins. As readers will remember, this new cuvée—which debuted with the 2018 vintage—derives from a lieu-dit near the village in the direction of Fleurie."

Starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalization and filtration. These techniques allow the character of Morgon to express itself naturally, without any cosmetic surgery: rustic and spicy yet also refreshing and loaded with the minerality of the granitic vineyards.

VINOUS 94 POINTS - "Shimmering purple. An expansive, spice-accented bouquet evokes ripe red/blue fruits, incense and potpourri. A nervy mineral element adds urgency. Juicy, focused and appealingly sweet, offering concentrated black raspberry, boysenberry and floral pastille flavors that tighten up slowly and turn spicier with aeration. Shows real heft but there's a distinctly elegant quality to this wine as well. Finishes sappy, subtly tannic and extremely long, leaving a suave violet pastille note behind."

never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides

The methods at Lapierre are just as revolutionary as they are traditional; the detail and precision with which they work is striking and entirely different from the mass-produced majority of Beaujolais on the market today. Decomposed granite comprises most of their eleven hectares, and the vines are an average of 45 years of age. Grapes are picked at the last possible moment to obtain the ripest fruit, which is a trademark of the estate style. The Lapierres age their wines on fine lees for at least nine months in oak foudres and fûts ranging from three to thirteen years old. These wines are the essence of Morgon: bright, fleshy fruit with a palatable joie de vivre that was undoubtedly inherited from their creator.

VINOUS 92 POINTS - "Shimmering ruby. Highly perfumed cherry, dark berry, spicecake and violet aromas show very good focus and energy. Bright and seamless on the palate, offering sharply delineated black currant and bitter cherry flavors and an exotic touch of blood orange. Lingers with resonating floral and mineral character on the gently tannic finish, which shows very good tension and sneaky tannins."

JOHN GILMAN 94 POINTS - "The Chermettes made some of my absolutely favorite examples of the buxom 2015 vintage and their La Rochelle is stellar. The deep and very sappy nose soars from the glass in a complex blend of cassis, dark berries, woodsmoke, pigeon, raw cocoa, dark soil tones van vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is pure, primary and rock solid at the core, with a bit more power than the 2014, ripe, seamless tannins and excellent length and grip on the well-balanced and still very primary finish. This is going to be a long-distance runner and will need several years in the cellar to start to shed some of its formidable tannins."