2022 Morgons from Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes, and More Beautiful Beaujolais!

Our early visits to Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes (maybe 15 - 20 years ago) always seemed to be on cold, rainy days in January. The tannic structure of the young wines, unusual in Morgon, was fairly intense, so it was always a great relief and a great pleasure to get to the elegant mature wines which showed beautifully at 5 to 15 years of age. Here is an apt description of Louis-Claude from our friends at Louis-Dressner Selections:

"Louis-Claude Desvignes was of the sparrow-type Beaujolais vigneron: raven-black hair that was, more often than not, standing in various directions, bright eyes and prominent nose, and a well-pitched, humorous cackle.  The seriousness of his winemaking, however, was never in doubt.... Louis-Claude passed away in 2021; at that point he'd been long retired, having  passed the estate to his children Claude-Emmanuelle and Louis-Benoît, the eight generation to work this land. Emmanuelle joined in 2001 and Benoît in 2004; while little has changed stylistically, their their arrival has brought some major shifts. 100% of the production is now estate-bottled, and the estate is now certified organic."

The family's historic vineyards have been within the Morgon cru for generations. The majority of the vines are on the Côte du Py in the center of Morgon, the fruit of which is of far superior quality to that produced in the outlying areas of the appellation. If there were a classification of vineyards in Morgon, Côte du Py would be a premier cru and Javernières a grand cru. They are located on the best exposition of the hill, with soil of decomposed schist, and Javernières is a plot within the Côte du Py with a little more clay.

New in 2020 was the outstanding "Javernireres - Aux Pierres," already recognized as one of the finest wines of the Beaujolais! "Aux Pierres" comes from a 0.57-hectare plot of 90-year-old vines on a steep, east-facing slope, with historic top quality massale selections. The soils are iron-rich, red clay with schist, pyrite and decomposed volcanic rocks. The farming is in conversion to organics, soon to be certified like the rest of the Desvignes estate. Half of the bunches are left whole with half destemmed and put together into closed concrete vats for a partly carbonic fermentation; maceration is 13-14 days with a submerged cap and no punchdowns. Minimal SO2 is used. The wine is aged in 30-hectoliter concrete egg for 10 months. The Desvignes family considers "Aux Pierres" to be a true vin de garde. The 2022 is an extraordinary wine!

We've added the superb 2020 Georges Descombes Morgon and the Alain Coudert's 2022 Fleuries to today's offer (these are our last bottles of the Cuvee Tardive) as well as the always delicious Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais L'ancien Vieilles Vignes Nouveau!

-David Lillie