7/19/26 - 

Spending time with Michele Smith and David Chapel of Domaine Chapel in Beaujolias is like stepping into a different time. I met the two while visiting the region in April and was incredibly impressed by them and their wines. 

The estate was created by David Chapel and Michele Smith who met in 2013 while Michele was visiting Beaujolais and David was working for Mathieu Lapierre. David led her tasting at the domaine that day, and soon decided to move to New York to be with Michele where she was the wine director at Brooklyn Fare. After a few years, the two decided to move back to where it all began. Once settled in Beaujolais, they started to source vineyards together, focusing on acquiring vines that were on slopes and only farmed organically. Many of their 6.5 hectares that they farm are old vines and are planted with high density.

You will see two labels from them, Domaine Chapel being from their own vines, and Smith-Chapel, their micro-negoce of all organically farmed grapes. Our visit kicked off with a trip through a vineyard of theirs in Regnie and a quick lineup of recent vintages. We were lucky, as they had bottled 2025 Beaujolias-Villages and Bourgogne Aligote earlier that week. WOW were those young wines singing! We worked our way through some more serious, Cru Beaujolais and at the end as the group was just talking and hanging out, everyone went back for more of those 2025s. These wines have arrived at the perfect point of summer when textural, fresh white wines and light, bright, juicy reds are exactly what I, and many others, want to enjoy. 

As I went to finish up today's offer, I saw news of a terrible hail storm that went through Beaujolais. Michele posted a video online of some of the aftermath, and although they don't know the exact damage yet, it is possible that they could lose upwards of 90% of the 2026 vintage. We truly hope that this is not the case. Sometimes we don't fully acknowledge the true work and effort that winemakers put in year after year that can all be wiped out in one day. We are sending lots of love to the Chapel family today, and all the other vignerons that were affected this week. We feel so grateful to be able to offer your wines out today, and thank you for the labor of love that allows us to enjoy such special bottles of wine. 

-Hanna Krilov Cohen

>>>VIEW THE WINES<<<