Tasted in Charnay-lès-Mâcon with Nicolas Dietrich, 20 February 2018.

Maison Trenel
Chemin de Buèry
71850 Charnay-lès-Mâcon
+33 3 85 34 48 20
www.trenel.fr

Nicolas on 2017:
“2017 was a bizarre vintage because we had the large incidence of frost – though mainly we weren’t touched – but it was more delicate in the south of Beaujolais where we have vines managed organically. Twice it hailed – for instance 1 hl/ha so effectively no harvest in some vines. It was therefore harder to buy and of-course demoralising for those hit in two consecutive vintages. The rest was fine with a good yield, if diminished a little by drought. The deeper soils with more clay had the bigger yields and with plenty of maturity. We harvested at the beginning of September and not in hot weather. Because we are buyers and made our contracts quite early we were able to make a volume similar to normal. It’s a good commercial vintage for us and we keep growing since purchased by Chapoutier in 2015 – most of that vintage is already sold.”

On 2016:
“2016 was a later vintage with a wet and difficult start to the season. Directly the flowers opened in Julienas we had 14 days of lovely weather. Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon all saw some hail again but the biggest problem of the vintage was the late developing maturity and the possibility of too much crop. Some green harvesting was required not to exceed 50 hl/ha. We finished in October so a month later than in 2017. The colours are a little lighter so we made more delestage. Most of the wines from 2016 are now beginning their commercialisation.”

The wines…

So-far, I have always tasted a great set of wines chez Trenel, and once more some very covetable bottles – and in both colours.

2016 Beaujolais Cuvée Rochebonne
Vines that average more than 80 years old. The vines are near Villefranche on an east-facing soil with lots of limestone – from Lucenay – just one location.
Medium colour. A nose of decent width and a slightly more evident herb vs fruit. In the mouth, however, this is broad with plenty of well-textured volume, and an edge of sucrosity to the acidity that makes this very tasty – particularly with a little saline complexity in the finish. Mineral but without rigour – a good finish. Not the brilliance of the 2015, but for the label this is very good.

2016 Fleurie
Almost exclusively from Les Morriers near Morgon. About 5% saw elevage in barrel.
Less weight of aroma, but no less interest – there’s clearly a little more complexity. A hint of gas. Like the last there’s a really engaging line of freshness that carries you through the wine from start to finish, but without aggressive acidity. It’s only the last finishing complexity that differentiates this wine from the fabulous villages. This is very fine though.

2016 St.Amour
Vinified here, a single parcel in Paradis.
Rather a deep nose, perhaps a faint reduction and it’s less open than the previous wines. Hmm – this has the beautifully wide flavour panorama – fresh, not so profoundly deep as the previous wines, but with a mouth-watering complexity. There’s a lot of potential here, but as it’s showing today, I find it a little behind the last two wines…

2016 Côte de Brouilly
One parcel for the last years – le Pave.
There’s some reduction here – to the extent that nose has some rubber content… Round in the mouth, beautifully textured layers of super, almost voluptuous fruit. The nose is not easy to get past but there’s none of that on the delicious flavours. Very slowly there’s a floral note lifting from the glass – it tastes super, so if you drink this young, carafe and wait half an hour.

2016 Juliénas
Two parcels including Capitains and Feuilluses.
Like the palate of the St.Amour, here is a very lovely width – subtly complex, fine red fruited, tending toward floral. A little more structure, the extra architecture allowing a more open width of clarity and complexity to be displayed. This has a fine finishing intensity – to wait a little time for, but excellent.

2016 Julienas Les Capitans
Vinified here. Nice wax-topped bottle. Half the elevage in old demi-muids was a 28 day maceration, about 40% destemmed. 30% barrel fermentation, also a tank sample.
Reductive like the Côte de Brouilly. Large-scaled and silky in the mouth. Layers of mouth-watering, concentrated flavour here. Like the Côte de Brouilly – the reduction is relatively absent from the flavours – here a little more base of tannin and quite a wide finishing flavour with a little of that grain. Long. I would certainly use a carafe with this if you are opening one in the not too distant weeks. The nose does clean up a little faster and become more and more interesting. The potential to be excellent, maybe even great!

Les blancs…
“Also a very difficult vintage for the whites with hail in St.Véran and Pouilly-Fuissé – at least it came very early in the season. The harvest was very hard because there were a mix of ripe and unripe clusters on the vines. The Mâcon Villages and Viré-Clessé were untouched. It’s a good vintage in the end, a little exotic in places in terms of the fruit, but the marker of the vintage is a very good acidity. This vintage marks the real beginning of vinification of white here at Trenel.”

2016 Viré-Clessé
About 20% barrels and some of those were 400 litre barrels.
A little more gold in this colour. The fruit here has more depth and little exoticism. A little gas. Some exotic fruit for sure but always with a sure-footed freshness and good width of flavour. Very tasty wine again – with a little more mid-palate concentration in the middle and finish – really persistent. Excellent.

2016 Saint-Véran
Forced, due to the hail, to buy from all over the appellation – so this has all the 5 villages included.
A nice freshness, and it’s quite a mineral, faintly saline width too – none of the exotic of the last wine. Also width, open good clarity – so it’s easy to see the oak here. Still this is mouth-watering and tasty wine – I’d prefer less oak but maybe in 12 months it’s just right – the wine is very nicely mineral.

2016 Pouilly-Fuissé
Principally from Vergisson and Solutré – tiny amounts from other places. 40% barrel elevage some 400 litres – about half of the wood.
Deep, yellow-fruited, plenty of oak but not too overtly vanilla (thankfully). Fresh, wide, mineral, vanilla but great texture and fabulous width of flavour. Really complex in the middle. Wait 18 months (plus…) but here is very fine blend of balance and concentration.

2016 St.Véran En Terre Noire
From Davayé at the bottom of the Rock of Vergisson, all barrel elevage – 580 bottles from half a hectare in this vintage! A bio wine.
Not the widest nose but deep – faint yellow citrus, coated with oak. Ooh – a very fine focus in the mouth, sweet, concentrated, beautiful texture but also a pure fruit – there is plenty of oak, but this wine is concentrated and composed yet mouth-wateringly fresh – with imposing length. I hope it has a long life as there is much to wait for here – but wait 2-3 years! This could be really great.