Tasted in Fleurie with Olivier Chastel, 04 February 2021.
Domaine Romanesca
1172 Route de la Chapelle des Bois
69820 Fleurie
Tel: +33 6 33 84 72 68
domaineromanesca.com
This is a family domaine, extant for the best part of 40 years but has now swapped generations. The name, Romanseca, came from the old gallo-roman house in the area of Moulin à Vent which was the inspiration for the naming of Romanèche (-Thorins.)
Twin brothers Olivier and Antoine Chastel have taken on the domaine with Olivier’s wife, Lucrèce. All had jobs outside of the wine business before deciding to return to Beaujolais.
Despite their location in Fleurie, this was a 7-hectare domaine with its heart in Moulin à Vent. The team have, in a short time, managed to extend into multiple other crus too, such that they now produce from 12-hectares. As a young domaine, they are not yet commercialising everything themselves – their father sold his wine in salons and had a long list of private clients too – but right now they are keeping one-third of the production to commercialise themselves and the rest is split between the coop and grape buyers.
They hand-harvest all their grapes, vinifying with whole clusters and mainly making elevage in cement tanks though there are some barrels used too. 2019 was their first full year and also the year where they began the certification process of organic viticulture – all being well, they will have AB certification for their 2022s.
The wines…
My first visit to this new domaine. I liked what I tasted too – just a little oak was creeping into the final two wines – hopefully, that will be short-lived.
They will start bottling their 2019s in March:
2019 Fleurie La Chapelle des Bois
0.9-hectares of vines next to the domaine/house.
Open, a vibrant nose, quite floral too. The flavours are wide and concentrated, layered in the finish and slightly accented by the tannin. That’s a very lovely wine – the second vintage for this…
Olivier and Antoine’s father had always blended his parcels in Moulin à Vent but the brothers decided to make the parcel-selections:
2019 Moulin à Vent Champ de Cour
1.2-hectares. ‘Nicely placed, at the limit of the frost in 2019 so we only lost a little.’ A longer maceration than the Fleurie
Good colour, perfumed – that’s a super width of aroma. Concentrated again but never heavy or overly dense. Beautifully finishing, long and tasty. That’s excellent
2019 Moulin à Vent La Rochelle
Again, 1.2-.hectares. Older barrel elevage for this – a mix of 228-litre and larger formats.
That’s another very perfumed nose. Even more so on the palate – wide, beautifully flavoured though a little barrel vanilla creeps in at the finish. Rounder from the elevage, because of that I slightly prefer their Champ de Cour.
2019 Juliénas Les Fouillouses
1-hectare of vines, high in the Julienas hillsides with a blue-stone soil. Also with some barrel elevage.
Plenty of colour again. The nose starts slowly but opens beautifully with a floral perfume. Lovely direct wine, fresh, cool-fruited, super texture, great finishing. Another wine with a touch of barrel-flavour in the finish, but less, hopefully, it will be gone soon – it’s otherwise an excellent wine…