Tasted in Blacé with twins Bernard and Jacky Monternot, 16 February 2021.

Domaine Monternot – Les Jumeaux
Les Places 69460 Blacé
Tel: +33 4 74 67 56 48
www.domainemonternot.com
More reports for Domaine Monternot

Bernard and Jacky on 2020:
“2020 – A small harvest, again with dryness. We harvested at a good time with nice degrees – we had to be quick tough – all the harvesting was done in 5 days as the degrees grew by 1° in 2 days – the western sides of the clusters were grilled by the sunshine – particularly on the more granite surfaces so we pulled off the good grapes instead of cutting the whole clusters – we have about 35 pickers. But we’re very happy with the quality of what we have.”

Bernard and Jacky on 2019:
“This was another smaller volume vintage – but if we lose 2-3 hl/ha it’s nothing compared to having a better quality in the vines. We did well with three golds in the concours international for gamay. We did see a little frost, but not enough to make a large dent in our volumes.”

The wines…

A quick tasting but of excellent and even great wines – some of which are already in my cellar!

There are three different soils at the domaine; one that’s more sandy – where the white and rosé come from – another that’s also sandy with some clay and more stones for the VV, and the third on a more rose-granite for the Fruit et Terroir cuvée. There is no sulfur during the vinification, they say that they are using about half the dose allowed by organic certification (100mg). Demeter is 70 mg, and natural winemakers have 30-40 mg. “You anyway have 12-15 mg from the fermentation, we work at around 50-60 mg by bottling time.”

2019 Beaujolais Villages Rosé
Skin contact for a little colour – grapes pressed but only a couple of hours of contact.
Pale colour. Aromatic depth and freshness too. Mouth-filling with a nicely incisive character – open and attractive over the palate – this is a delicious wine and particularly attractive finishing too. I like this much more than their 2018.

2019 Beaujolais Villages Fruit et Terroir
Average 40-70 year-old vines.
A deep nose, vibrant, darker fruit – lots of complexity, perhaps a suggestion of pyrazine but positive at this level. Wide, tons of fresh energy – depth of complex flavour – this is so delicious again. So excellent.