Tasted in Le Perréon with Jean-Luc Longère, 28 February 2023.
Domaine Longère
Le Duchamp
69460 Le Perréon
Tel: +33 4 74 03 27 63
www.domaine-longere.com
More reports with Domaine Longère
Work is still underway to accommodate Jean-Luc’s daughter who will come to the domaine – Jean-Luc remains theoretically retired now, so it’s his wife who is still an employee!
Jean-Luc on 2022:
Yes, absolutely happy with 2022 – and the quantity too. We harvest later than our (lower) neighbours and between them starting and us starting we had 35 mm of rain – and what a difference it made – not just to the volume but to the balance too as the grapes were suffering from the dry – after everything they were all 13.3-13.5 – I adore!
Jean-Luc on 2021:
“Of course, less volume. We were only slightly touched by the frost – and only in the whites. I didn’t feel that I had the sufficient concentration to make a number of my normal cuvées – but there was something to make a good Beaujolais! We had maturity, we had nice grapes too but I wasn’t going to try to find something that I didn’t think was there… The rain that hardly stopped between May and July was balanced by good weather at the end of the season and that allowed the grapes to properly ripen.”
The wines…
JLL is always dependable for thoughtfully made, precise wines. He wasn’t confident in the 2021 vintage but still has some nice things.
2021 Beaujolais Villages Poivre & Sel
You need to work the glass because it starts with a faint, slightly metallic, reduction, but then there’s darker red fruit followed by a very attractive floral – it’s becoming beautiful. Nicely direct but never hard – the flavour spreading very well over the palate, mouth-watering with intensity – this is simply excellent but I’d wait a while as the finish is just slightly serious today – not quite austere but serious. Excellent BJV…
‘For the pleasure…’
More aromatic generosity – almost textural – growing deeper and darker fruited. Hmm – now that’s very classy – a ripe vintage but beautifully controlled, shaped and delivered. This will live in your cellar for years – it’s young for sure but has a bell-clear clarity of flavour and length – it’s a great wine for its level. So complex and mouth-watering in the finish…
Absolutely open and with a fine freshness and purity of fruit. Supple but with a lively energy – still a faint tannin. A top BJVR!
Les Whites…
2022(!) Beaujolais Villages Blanc Nos 2 Elles
2 parcels in Le Perréon on granite-rose. All tank elevage. In 3 weeks it will be bottled.
A nice clean freshness. Broad in the mouth, a slight cushion from the creamy barrel? Nope, it’s all tank elevage. Finishing discrete and faintly tannic. Very good.
2021 Beaujolais Villages Blanc En Verchères
Have made whites here since 1995. This is the name of the parcel – half a hectare of vines on volcanic rock with some bluestone. 40-year-old vines. On a vein of blue granite, plain south but high up – over 300m. This was bottled in August.
Freshness – a small cushion of fruit but neither extra ripe nor exotic – this is fine. Hmm – this hums along with a very nice energy/minerality. Hard for me to decide the type of fruit here – not exactly citrus not exotic either. But a fine 2021…
2021 Beaujolais Villages Blanc Nos 2 Elles
A deeper nose – direct, slightly reductive. There’s concentration and impact – the finish is modest but correct.