Tasted in Villé-Morgon with Louis-Benoît & Claude Emmanuelle Desvignes, 08 February 2022.
Louis-Claude Desvignes
135, rue de la Voûte
69910 Villié-Morgon
Tel: +33 4 74 04 23 35
www.louis-claude-desvignes.com
More reports for Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes
On 2020:
“21 hl/ha in 2021 but fortunately a little better in 2020 – 39 hl/ha. Actually, that’s really good for us – we’d take it every year. Despite such an early start for our harvest, it was still 3 days later than in 2003 – 25 August 2020.”
The wines…
I’ve been tasting at this domaine since their 2014s – and my early visits showed wines that began with a certain austerity that began to bloom after 2-3 years in bottle. The last couple of vintages have been great right from the start – and in 2020, this is one of the best sets of wines in the whole of Beaujolais!
Bottling normally done between March and July – ‘We like to catch the freshness of the wines:’
2020 Morgon La Voûtre St.Vincent
From 4.5 hectares of vines in the climat Douby and vines in the direction of Fleurie. Average 60-year-old vines, usually the first to be harvested. Made with a 14-day maceration in cement tanks, with some destemming for this cuvée since 2008.
This starts tight but blossoms quickly in the glass – rounder, textured, an ultra-inviting perfume. Round, with depth to its flavour and texture- ultra-silky texture too. Insistent and delicious – quite mineral finishing…
2020 Morgon Château Gaillard
The vines here from the end of 2019 – just over a hectare – also (like another of their cuvées) in Douby but these are old vines so vinified separately.
A small reduction quickly lifts – becoming a more focused beam of perfumed invitation. Again round, supple, here there are fine waves of flavour – extra intensity and concentration in the middle but never heavy – a finish that’s persistent and really fine – I love the clarity of this finishing flavour – that’s simply excellent!
2020 Morgon Montpelains
Another quite new cuvée but in the domaine for a long time, was made in 2005 too but is normally blended into the St.Vincent – some clay here so a little like Javernières.
Another wine with a focused line of aroma – no reduction this time – growing more and more floral. More lithe, direct but still with a couple of mm of depth to its texture. Exactly my style of wine – broadening out in mouth-watering layers. A little more strict for sure – but I like strict!
Very close to Javernières but ‘Beaujolais’ – it’s a cooler terroir but still with 13° and not really a different approach to vinification.
Hmm – that’s a lovely nose too – wide, highly attractive. Ultra silky, a little direct, layered, complex – this is certainly a Morgon blind. Almost a juiciness as you head to the finish, slightly graphite – great wine for the label – it would be a very excellent wine for a Morgon – but for a Beaujolais…!
East-facing bottom of Cote du Py. A different soil, so separated. There’s more clay here, and the grapes are a little slower maturing – here needs more time.
Not as large an aromatic as previous wines but still open and more airy and elegant. Really mouth-filling – no space is left out – fresh and also almost juicy as the flavour develops. More spherical than direct but there’s a certain fluidity to this wine. Bravo!
90-year-old vines.
A punchy nose – some reduction to start – growing airy and perfumed once more. Wide, cool fruit, almost an austerity to this flavour profile yet wrapped in silken texture. Really impressive concentration but effortlessly delivered. For keeping, for sure. But Bravo!
A new cuvée – 0.61 ha acquired the same time as the Beaujolais. High in Javernières an old massale selection here.
Wide, fresh, open and complex – small red fruits but also a suggestion of menthol. In terms of the cool fruit, this resembles the last wine but the drive and complexity is different here as is the depth of flavour. What a great wine – a peacock’s tail of a finish too! Great wine.
A black sheep on the label. This additional cuvée of Javernières is made from a much older parcel of vines than their Côte du Py – ‘Les Impenitents’ – more than 100-year-old vines.
Another dimension of perfume again. Similar to the last. More a cool accent to the fruit than ‘cool’ but here is an extra weight of flavour too. Despite that weight of flavour, the fluidity is remarkable – the flavour gorgeously flowing over the palate.