Tasted with Jean-Claude Lapalu in Saint-Etienne la Varenne, 20 February 2024.
Domaine Jean-Claude Lapalu
Les Quatre Croix,
69460 Saint-Etienne la Varenne
Tel: +33 4 74 03 50 57
Domaine Instagram
More reports with Jean-Claude Lapalu
Jean-Claude on 2023:
“23 was fresher and gave wines with less alcohol than 22 – a bit more yield too.”
Jean-Claude on 2022:
“For the 2022 harvest we started 19 August. Our vines are mainly on sand and the grapes just kept getting smaller – 13.5-14° but that’s less than in 2020! We had some grape contracts at altitude – and I needed those here was a bit too hot. I make 9 hectares’ worth of wine with the contracts on the side… A couple of cuvées are already sold out – including my white. The slower market of the moment, though, will allow me to present some wine at salons that are actually ready to taste! It’s a complex market at the moment: Lots of bulk wine in France is priced at under 1€/litre but is still not selling – so price is not the most important driver! 2022 was Perhaps the hardest year to vinifiy that I can remember – but when all was done, when I stopped scratching my head – my first impression was – the wines are really much better than I was expecting! ‘Honourable!’ – and I’m starting my 42nd year of making wine!”
The wines…
Not just delicious wines in 2022 – there are also many properly great wines here in 2022 – bravo!
2022 VdF Syrah Tentation
Perfumed and with some density of aroma. Large scale in the mouth – some sweetness and a perfumed finish. Delicious and I’m not sure that I’d guess it was Syrah!
2022 Beaujolais Villages Vieilles-Vignes
Higher toned – broad, inviting aromatic. Hmm, a wine of depth and concentration that melts over the palate – such a delicious wine – broad finishing, faintly saline accent to the sweetly moreish finish.
2022 Brouilly Vieilles-Vignes
Also tank elevage. Bottled – ‘but really for drinking towards the end of the year.’
A more vibrant scale of darker fruit in this aromatic – quite floral perfumed with air. A little more direct and freshly structured. Extra intense – in the finish – vibrant and almost mineral. – That’s really a great finish! Simply excellent wine.
2022 Côte de Brouilly
North-facing on blue-stone and clay.’
Lots of colour – as all! Like all, it’s a nose that starts with some impact but slowly opens with more perfume. Direct but silky – slowly more velevet as the tannin rises – I love this energy and fresh flavour complexity though I find this wine a little sweet in the finishing flavours – completely delicious at the same time though.
Hmm – that’s a vibrant nose – then overlaid with a very elegant perfume – that’s a great invitation. Wow! in the mouth – so perfumed – that’s a wine with a depth of velvet texture and gorgeous flavour – you should wait 3-4 years but I’d understand if you drank this now – bravo!
Mainly planted in 1900 – ‘always dense but never with hard tannins’
More direct but cushioned with an almost chocolate coating. Large scale, velvet textured flavour again – here more generous – an even finer finish – more clarity to this fruit – great too but keep this at least 5 years in your cellar.
VdF. Vines in the BJV behind the cuverie. Similar vinification to previous, organic, older vines of 35-50 years old. Wax-topped bottle
Hmm – that’s got a lovely width of perfume – it’s an absolute beauty. Fluid, complex plenty of delicious flavour energy – a great wine – and you can drink it already today, fine and mineral in this finish.
2022 VdF Alma Mater
This made in the jars – all destemmed with an open fermentation for a month, then closed – pressed in April
A silky depth of aroma. Ooh, that’s wonderful in the mouth a grain of tannin but what depth of great flavour – great dimensions of finishing flavour too, faint spice in the finish of this great wine – this one I would wait at least a couple of years for – but again I’d understand if you had insufficient patience 😊