Tasted in Charnay-lès-Mâcon with Baptiste Duc & Barbara Cueille (right) pictured together with Laurence Malois, 22 February 2021.

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

Barbara Cueille has completed her first year with Trenel without problem, despite my tasting last year being her first with the maison!

Barbara on 2019:
“Well, it was a complicated vintage – frost, hail, small harvests – but also one of good quality. The wines show a fresher vintage – we lost two-thirds of our Macons due to frost – so we have much, much less than in 2018. We are quite a restaurant-focused business here, so it’s no surprise that 2020 was a difficult year for our sales but are working more and more with online sales now – it’s a great engine for sales for everyone at the moment.”

The wines…

Not the multiple highs that I often find here, but still a range of very good to excellent wines – the Beaujolais Blanc being a clear standout today…

Les Rouges:
we started with a 2018:

2018 Beaujolais Cuvée Rochebonne
Screw-cap _ very easy! From Pierres d’Orée, 70-100-year-old vines with goblet training.
A deep nose, faintly reductive, slowly opening and freshening with air. This is quite a silky wine, decently concentrated and grows wider over the palate too, slightly mineral finishing – not losing that reductive impression though. Good.

2019 Beaujolais Villages
From Perreon, sandy and granitic – 45-50-year-old vines, 25% destemmed, bottled November.
Less reductive, fuller fruited, slowly adding some floral notes. Great freshness and directness of flavour – again with a lovely texture – that’s a super wine with small waves of finishing flavour. More clarity and weight of flavour. That’s very good for the label.

2019 St.Amour
Part Capitans the other Paradis. Vines about 60-year-old, whole cluster, elevage in cement. This bottled in May.
Needs a bit of aeration but here is a little extra aromatic complexity. Incisive but not acidic, direct again but even finer texture – here is an excellent wine, with character and quite some class too. Delicious, excellent wine.

2019 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Various plots, mainly hillside location 30-70-year-old vines.
A much rounder nose, red-fruited, a riper impression. Lovely in the mouth again – fresh, mouth-filling, ripe red-fruited but not over-ripe. The finish slowly fading, no hard edges – another delicious wine and an excellent Bourgogne

2019 Morgon Côte du Py
Plain-south facing, all destemmed with a longer maceration. Conrete plus 25% barrel elevage.
A width of concentrated red fruit, here with a little creamy depth. Mouth-filling both direct and with good width, a subtle tannin but hardly any dryness, certainly no grain. There’s a creamy barrel accent in the middle and finishing flavours, but only an accent. A wine that’s very classy – very good.

2019 Moulin à Vent
Bois Marechaudes and Thorins. About 15% barrel elevage.
A wine that really appreciates aeration – the aromas growing and freshening. Plenty of flavour impact and a little more overtly structural too – no obvious oak flavours in this case. Supple heading into the finish, faintly lingering with a little dryness too – but very modest. Finely-crafted wine – very good.

2019 Fleurie Climat La Madone
Domaine vines – 1 ha… Again with some barrel elevage after cement fermentations.
The first nose that pops from the glass – that’s lovely – good depth of aroma too. Silky, direct, lovely structure, no tannic grain. Strong finishing too – it could improve by opening out more in the finish, but here is a wine that is excellent as a minimum, potentially with more to come. Lovely!

2019 3° Fleuve by Daniel & Denise Trenel, Fleurie La Levrattière
A small parcel of 0.50 ha, 30 hl/ha, all tank elevage. A wax-topped bottled.
The nose a little tighter again, with some saline highlights, starting a little reductive, but slowly becoming fresher and more open. More concentration and more depth to this slightly cushioned texture. A fuller, richer, impression in the mouth, long and tasty too. In shape and style I prefer the last but if you like the richer style – completely balanced – then this is also excellent.

Les blancs…
Never made with bought yeasts, very little barrel for elevage too. All is ‘classic’ cork here:

2019 Mâcon Villages
Vines in Igé, Viré and Charnay – they don’t make a separate Charnay cuvée anymore – 80% tank elevage for this wine – all the malo was done. Bottled in January
A nose with a little musky depth and a faint salinity. This is open, concentrated, quite rich wine. Mouth-watering but more of an opulent style than a wine of energy. At the same time this is delicious and releases a fine wave of nicely balanced, indeed mouth-watering, finishing flavour – it’s excellent here in the finish.

2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay
New cuvée, mainly south-facing hillsides, mainly tank elevage. Bottled only a month.
Hmm, that’s a lovely nose – of freshness and quite a floral aspect too. Still a little gas, but not too much. Nicely sherbet impression like a Montagny but with a bit more concentration. That’s a fine finish too – Excellent Bourgogne!

2019 Viré-Clessé
Old vines, 80, in Viré. Fermentations in tank, then 30% of elevage in older barrels.
A narrower nose but of good depth, faintly inflected by the barrels. Mouth-filling, fine shape and texture here – a growing insistence of flavour with a noticeable accent from the barrel – but this will fade. This is excellent, I’d give it a year or perhaps 18 months for the barrel to fade further, but lovely…

2019 Saint-Véran
Chasselas, Leynes and Davayé – 3 terroirs – 20-60-year-old vines. Tank fermentations then 40% barrels.
At the base a faint oak but also top notes that are developing in a more overtly floral way – a nice blend. Easy over the palate – cooler fruit which I like – holding a very tasty finishing line of flavour – that’s rather long and fine finishing. Give this 2 years in your cellar and you will be rewarded.

2019 Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Quarts
Average 80-year-old vines – 400-litre-barrels for fermentation and elevage.
A rather perfumed wine, subtly reductive – that’s an interesting and very attractive invitation to take a sip. Vibrant, faintly tannic – growing in intensity. I love the cut of this wine. So mouth-watering and so delicious despite the accent from the barrel. Give this 1-2 years in the cellar – but I think it excellent! Very long too…

2019 St.Véran En Terre Noire
From Davayé at the bottom of the Rock of Vergisson, 12 months elevage, barrels of 1-year-old, 400-litres.
Deeper golden colour. Here the nose is of a more golden-style of fruit – think Fourchaume in a Chablis context. Extra richness of flavour – but plenty of width and balance. Undoubted concentration of decent balance, but to my taste doesn’t compare with the energy and fresh intensity of the previous wine. I’d wait a bit longer for this one.

2019 St.Véran Clos des Poncetys
‘Plain south-facing with exotic fruit usually.’
Also quite a deeper colour. Less golden-fruited than the previous wine but a similar weight of ripe fruit. Extra zip and freshness – a cooler style to the fruit here. Fine texture – a wine that sit’s in style between the two poles of the last two wines. Beautifully textured, not overtly golden-fruited like the last but still with plenty of richness. Super finishing – almost a synthesis of the previous two wines. Excellent.