Tasted with Eric Janin in Romanèche-Thorins, 05 February 2020.
Domaine Paul Janin & Fils
La Chanilière
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 3 85 35 52 80
www.domaine-paul-janin.fr
More reports for Domaine Paul Janin
Eric on 2020:
“2020 was an easy year but also a fast year is my impression: We a very early start to vine growth – the start of April – and everything followed at great pace. 23 August was our harvest start but I think it might have been better to waited even longer. We saw low yields because of the dryness – but only the dryness. Each area in Beaujolais was different – we had 25mm of rain in Morgon but only 2 in Romanèche in August – so we had different styles of maturity.”
Eric on 2019:
“For us a small harvest because of the frost. Another dry season until 10 August after which we saw 50-60 mm of rain over 2-3 days. It was like the vines were liberated and grew, we even saw a little botrytis – it was a radical change. Harvesting began around 8-9 September. It’s a profile of wine that’s very Burgundian – not so intense colours but the wines have such finesse and elegance. Really from ripe grapes too.”
The wines…
A shorter range of wines due to the low yields, but nevertheless, and as I have come to expect, much class was on display here.
All the wines are bottled:
Vines planted in 2006, in a clay soil in Romanèche-Thorins
That’s a very attractive and inviting nose – rare for whites in Beaujolais! Wide, almost incisive, cool-fruited, mineral, citrus and saline complexity – all in place – nothing hard or showing rigour. Simply delicious white – bravo!
2019 Beaujolais Villages Piéments
Vines in the commune of Lancié, but only 1,200 litres of wine due to the frost
Open, bright freshly red-fruited – air adds floral perfume too. Mouth-filling, more structural wine than the nose first suggests – but with fine clarity of flavour, nothing hard, lovely red fruit. Slow waves of finishing flavour accented with a little graphite minerality. Excellent and completely delicious wine.
2019 Moulin à Vent Les Vignes Tremblay
The August bottling.
Here the nose starts with plenty of energy, slowly deepening with air. The wine is more silky and direct after the villages – open, complex, beautifully fresh – there’s concentration at the base but the wine retains an airy style. A very persistent finish. Not a wine with a punch, a wine with a caress.
The range of different geologies of the domaine, rather than just the oldest vines of the domaine. Still, these are old vines – the oldest over 100 years old – bought by Eric’s grand-mother in 1937 – the climat is Clos du Tremblay.
A nose that starts deeper but with flashes of pure, darker-red fruit – becoming more and more overt and subtly floral too. Extra concentration – a wine of width and silky texture – great freshness but never too much. A richness, a depth, of fine flavour in the middle. Elegant but with concentration too and some modest finishing bitters to tell that there’s more to come. Great wine.