Tasted in Villié-Morgon with Dominique Piron and Julien Revillon, 16 February 2017. Dominique is the new face of the Beaujolais Interprofession – he has a lot of work!

Domaines Dominique Piron
Morgon 69910
Villié-Morgon
Tel: +33 4 74 69 10 20
www.domaine-piron.fr

The domaine today covers 85 hectares – and very many parcels.

Under the name Bailly, the Piron family can be traced back in Morgon as far as 1590, though of-course over such a time, there are many, many branches of the family. Since 1949 and 1971 Dominique’s grandfather and then father took on the estate – it was his father who started to bottle the wine of the estate – now all their production is commercialised by the estate – and, if needed, they will also buy good grapes here too. About half of their production is exported.

Despite its size, the domaine retains a major focus on Morgon – though there’s plenty of Beaujolais Villages too.

In the cuverie, about 75% of the harvest is destemmed and sees some remontage rather than pigeage – of-course that is both vintage dependant and cuvée dependant – “A couple of cuvées use a grill and see mainly pigeage but we try to avoid being systematic. The longest is 3 weeks of maceration for the last wines we shall taste, and some pigeage after about 8 days for the Beaujolais Villages.”

Dominique on 2016:
“The first part of the year was rather complicated with a late spring that was both cold and wet. Good weather slowly came, but with it some violent storms – hail included. It wasn’t really until towards the end of July that the weather really improved. The last days of the vintage were really fine, and for sure we finished much happier than we started. We manly lost harvest in Chiroubles – almost completely – but the other appellations were pretty good. Good grapes, and the wines look good – if 2015 is about power, the 16s are more classic and croquant and certainly have a lower amount of alcohol – though some are still pretty high.”

The wines…

These are robust wines with plenty of tannic structure – some from the oak – which will fade faster than the grape tannins. There is very much to like here as the wines are not overtly ripe and opulent, rather they have freshness but a structure that says ‘wait – be patient!’

2016 Beaujolais Blanc
Bottled yesterday.
Fresh and little mineral, really very nice. Big, fine textured, a nice density and weight of flavour. It could have more acidity but it’s really long and wide. Really a very tasty wine.

2015 Beaujolais Villages
Rather a pretty and quite generous nose of soft red fruit. Good volume, a little growth of structure, a lick of tannin, good weight of flavour – easy to drink, very easy to appreciate. A nice persistence – really very tasty.

2015 Brouilly
More colour. Deeper, dark, some heavy floral perfume too. Again good volume but here with much more depth of flavour – the texture is modified by a little dryness of tannin – but no grain – really a wine to wait a little time for but lots of stiff going on here. Potentially super…

2015 Chiroubles
A higher toned nose, freshness too – more delicate floral references. Much more fresh width, good energy, really a delicious flavour countered with structure that says ‘wait’ – really a Côte d’Or style of fruit structure and balance so far!

2015 Morgon La Chanaise
A cuvée that represents roughly 20 hectares of vines. It’s the name of lieu-dit here at the time of the cadastres of Napoleon also the original name of the domaine.
A deeper more brooding aroma of dark fruit – lots of depth without apparent reduction. Fresh, direct a great linear wine with super texture. The flavour is inflected with spice and maybe a hint of licorice. Super wine though with plenty of fine tannin – again, have some patience. There’s plenty of tannin in the finish that’s still to assimilate.

2015 Morgon Grand Cras
A little more open with fresh flowers with a subtle but attractive fruit below. A little more volume and certainly more depth of texture. This has really much more volume and roundness. Probably due to the modest oak that starts to come through in the finish. A bigger and rounder wine, certainly showing a lot of complexity though with help from the barrel.

2015 Fleurie
Two parcels, predominantly one for this blend though – Roche Guillon near Madone, south-facing on rose granite.
Not the most open nose but still showing a nice width of faintly floral red fruit – really very pretty. Supple, cool but tasty red fruit, and a tannin that takes its time to show. Round and very tasty wine – one of the few that I would happily drink right away – I shouldn’t, but hey… yum! A really lovely finish – the first that’s more fruit than tannin.

2015 Chénas Quartz
A selection from the best cuvées – 10 ha but also only 25 hl/ha – this has Lameloise also on the label, it’s sold both there and here.
A wide and fresh nose – darkly fruited – and a little warm pepper spice. Round and inviting in the mouth too – the shape and structure hints at plenty of barrel, but really there’s no oak flavour here. Bravo for that…

2015 Morgon Côte du Py
For the moment an assembly of all the parcels in this lieu-dit.
A little tighter nose – perhaps not tight as there’s weight of aroma here but it’s a tight mass, faintly spiced, faintly floral. A wine with good width and a slowly growing weight of flavour – lots of tannin but ripe-grained. The finishing flavours are less tight and really open and tasty. Another wine that will beg you to be patient. Super finishing and very long flavour. This is a wine with great potential…

2009 Morgon Côte du Py
Deep, some width, a silken nose hinting at lots but only slowly opening – fine though, and hardly an overt maturity. Another wine with lots of volume – lots of tannin too. This has great structure and is very much a complete article – except it tastes so young. bravo!

1991 Morgon
A mix of flowers and fruit, hyper complex, a hint of marsala – simply great. Nice volume in the mouth, fresh, floral, complex. Really a wine that hugs the palate, changing its flavours all the time. Yum!