Tasted with Frédéric in Lantignié, 28 February 2024.
Domaine Frédéric Berne
150 Chemin des Vergers
69430 Lantignié
Tel: +33 6 83 46 05 06
fredericberne.com
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More reports with Domaine Frédéric Berne
Frédéric on 2023:
“2023 wasn’t easy – in August we were hit by hail – 11 of my 13 hectares were affected. In the end, it was ‘only’ about 25% losses but there was a lot of work required to triage the crop – I even bought a sorting table to help! In the end, we still produced 40 hl/ha and the wines taste fine.”
Frédéric on 2022:
“In 2022 we only managed to produce 28 hl/ha; mainly this was due to the combination of the dryness and having a lot of young vines. The wines fermented well though, only one a little slower but the sugars were done in the Springtime – all the 22s are now bottled.”
The wines…
Another top range from Frédéric – in the main you should keep a year or two of patience before opening bottles but there are some great wines here.
2022 Beaujolais Villages Lantignié Granit Rose
A small but fine red nose. Supple, beautifully textured with an equally subtle fruity generosity. Lovely texture and finishing flavour – directly an excellent wine – yum!
Also a smaller nose but a little more airy in the higher tones. Extra width – a more incisive style – the tannin present but without grain. Extra juicy finishing – that will be a great wine in a more direct style. Delicious finishing – bravo!
2022 Beaujolais Villages Lantignié Les Vergers
This on the bluestone next to the chateau des Vergers. 12 months elevage in barrel – essentially 228s right now but have some 500-litre barrels for higher wines which will probably trickle down to these wines too – ‘but I’m only buying 1 or 2 per year!’
Also a smaller nose today – but it’s clean and delivers with precision. Larger scale in the mouth – a subtle barrel note too – bringing an extra depth to the finishing flavour. Delicious but wait a year…
2022 Regnié Aux Bruyères
Fourth vintage. A small layer of alluvial soil and then rose granite.
The small glass is, perhaps, to blame – but here’s another small nose. Good scale and a more evident structure, all framed with a small tannin, slightly dry but without grain. An extra finishing intensity of flavour – of quite some width – that’s a really lovely finish – but give this wine 2 years of patience – to start with! Super wine.
2022 Morgon Corcelettes
A modest nose again – this showing a trace of barrel with the red fruit. Extra juicy – full of energy – the flavour hiding the barrel very well. The tannin slowly rises and gives a texture of velour. The barrel flavours resurface in the finish – but here is good depth and super persistence. I’d wait a couple of years again but this will be a delicious wine – super again!
2022 Chiroubles Les Terraces
Only small volume of this in 21.
This nose is slightly more open and certainly more direct. Wide, airy – there’s a certain fluidity to this wine – balancing the structure and the accent of dryness brought by the tannin – again there’s no grain here. Only a little creaminess in the finish from these barrels. The standard 2 years waiting time I think for this – quite common in the 22s…
The blend of granite rose and pierre bleu – elevage for 12 months mixed.
Still a small nose but with a seamless style – that’s very attractive. A fine scale to these mouth-watering flavours – architecturally large too with a little drying tannin again – also not grain – but with a similar fluidity to the Chiroubles but at the same time slightly more generous in style. The finish is composed, wide and textured at the end with the tannin – really long and textural in this case. Simply excellent – who knows – maybe a great one.
And for the road – to freshen up !!:
Half press, half saignée
A nice depth of pink for this. The broadest nose of all – pretty crushed red fruit aromas. Wide, precise, complex – and importantly, delicious – there’s almost a little passion-fruit acidity to these middle and finishing flavours. Really juicy finishing. That’s a great rosé.