Tasted with Eric Janin in Romanèche-Thorins, 11 February 2022.
Domaine Paul Janin & Fils
La Chanilière
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 3 85 35 52 80
www.domaine-paul-janin.fr
More reports with Domaine Paul Janin
Eric on 2021:
“18 hl/ha in 2021 – I didn’t even harvest my Beaujolais Villages red and white as it was completely frozen with -7.5°C. It was just a single night that did the damage – we had a strong wind for 4-5 days, the wind stopped, the stars came out and everything froze. It just froze everything with a little snow too.”
Eric on 2020:
“The commerce is going well. For the 2020s, just two wines are still to be bottled but that will be done in a couple of weeks. A vintage that was quite calm – just a couple of ferments that took their time – a vintage of satisfaction. That said the heat and the dry left us with 30 hl/ha.”
The wines…
What a brilliant set of wines from this domaine in 2020 – buy any that you can find!
2020 Beaujolais Villages Blanc Argiles
Vines planted in 2006, in a clay soil in Romanèche-Thorins. We had 25mm of rain just before the end of august a Friday – I hadn’t harvested the whites and waited another 7 days and I’m sure it really helped – I like the volume in the mouth…
Weighty, direct, some citrus bitters in the aromas. Mouth-filling – that’s really quite delicious and silky – there’s a generosity of flavour here. Excellent white!
2020 Moulin à Vent Empriente
A new cuvée made from the grapes of younger (25-year-old) vines.
Dark fruit – accented with a super graphite minerality – that’s really attractive. Open, accessible, modestly grained with ripe tannin. The flavour is mobile and interesting – completely delicious – and you could keep for a year or 5 if you wish. The finish is super…
A first bottling – done end of November – there will be two more bottlings, the next in two weeks and a last in April
That’s a beauty – silky, direct, more pure and much more perfumed – yes! In the mouth too – that’s got great class – open, fluid, beautifully textured. Great wine.
The two tank samples to finish:
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.
Also impressively perfumed – the depth of fruit is another level here – open and impressive aromas. This wine is a little more angular and structural – stricter but melts with so much delicious flavour and some obvious baseline of minerality too. Violet-infused middle flavours – vibrant flavours. A wine for patience – if you must – but all on another, extra, level – except accessibility today. Bravo!
2015 was the last vintage of this – just the 1940 vines of a bit more than 1 ha from this lieu-dit – in other vintages these grapes are in the Heritage cuvée
Deep, broad almost cushioned aromas that, again, are infused with floral tones. A little gas fades to reveal a slightly more generous wine than the Heritage but without losing any of that wine’s fluidity – indeed this has more – very open, more accessible – structured but less strict. Very broad, almost inky finishing. That’s another great wine!