Tasted with Marine & Kevin Jandard in Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières, 07 February 2022
Vins Descombe
462 Rue du Beaujolais,
69460 Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières
Tel: +33 4 74 03 41 73
www.chateau-de-pougelon
With domaines also in Chablis and the Rhône – this is the third-leg of Vins Descombe.
The château is is part of their holdings since 2017 but Vins Descombe here in Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières since 1905, Marine Descombe (together with her brother) is already 5th generation here. This domaine includes both the vines of the Descombes and vines from Kevin’s family in the south of Beaujolais in Liergues and Theizé too. They have been planting plenty of chardonnay here – 2022 will be the first vintage for young vines.
A significant part of their Beaujolais villages is planted around the château, including 6 hectares in a singly block – 4 of which are currently planted. They are planning to add trees too as part of their organic approach – already HVE3 certified – the new vines will be trained and have a planting density of a little over 5k per hectare versus nearer 10k plants per hectare in the goblet-pruned plantings. They hope that the mix of trees and training will help mitigate some of the frost issues that the château is renowned for – ‘We’re hoping that the roots will be more resistant to dry periods too.‘ The domaine has ‘lots of older – more than 100-year-old – vines,’ so are making some massale selections too. This ‘test-bed’ is not just for their Beaujolais Villages, they are planning a similar approach for a large block that they have in Brouilly too.
It’s a far from small domaine, with 17 hectares of Beaujolais Villages plus 13 hectares in the Brouilly Clos Reisser – a plateau with a vue of Côte du Py – plus their vines in Morgon and Fleurie. All their vines are manually harvested.
Marine and Kevin on 2020:
“2020 – very warm, very dry – 22 August, 10 days of harvesting. Despite the heat, we have good acidity and a nice balance – of course, maturity too. Manual harvesting here – and in 2020 very little to triage. Like to destem here 90-95% – quite long macerations for the crus – nearly 3 weeks. Mainly (80%) in concrete tanks. The Beaujolais Villages was bottled in May, the first Brouilly at the same time too, the rest were done around August. They are currently short of space while doing some updating – they plan to extend their elevage time. 2019 is the currently commercial vintage. About half of the production is exported from France.”
The wines
More than competent – a range of good to excellent wines from this address.
2020 Chateau Poujelon Beaujolais Villages
The other side of the road from this is Brouilly – some of the most northern BJV here
Plenty of colour. Modestly compact, faintly spiced nose. This is bright, energetic, juicy. I would say completely classic. Easy drinking. If the nose was more open I’dsay excellent for a tasty clichéBeaujolais style. A long, delicious wine with a faint bitter in the finish.
2020 Brouilly Clos Reisser
A nose that’s a little more open – red-fruited. Nice shape – faintly reductive, more depth but a little less delicious energy visible today. The finish is another class though – here it’s excellent…
2020 Brouilly Voujon
More open, more floral, certainly more attractive aromatics. Extra in all directions – depth, concentration but also mouth-watering energy. This has fine middle density of flavour and an equally fine finish – very good!
2020 Fleurie Grille Midi
1.25 ha – ‘It’s hot here – like the name’
The most attractively perfumed yet – lovely fruit and flowers. Mouth-filling – open, so juicy too – a suggestion of herb in the complexity – but this is absolutely delicious – really excellent wine.
2020 Juliénas Beauverney
Actually from Julié
A more composed width of pure red fruit – this is a pure and attractive nose. Much more direct, mineral, rather mouth-watering too. I like the growing intensity here, faintly framed with a modest tannin but no grain. Always red-fruited. The finish has good persistence and a little salinity too. That’s very good!.
2020 Morgon Corcelette
Finer but still concentrated cherry fruit aroma – more red than black. Wide over the palate – mouth-watering, juicy flavour. I love the vibrant flavour here – that’s very approachable for young Morgon and absolutely delicious – without lacking in concentration! Excellent!