Tasted in Morgon with Sebastien Gutty, 17th May 2016.

Château Gaillard – Gutty Père et Fils
69910 Villié-Morgon
Tel: +33 6 80 20 80 35
www.chateaugaillard.com

A domaine, indeed more of a 19th century farmstead, at the end of an improbable unmade road that runs first through the vines – it would be impossible to drive there in my Ferrari (if I had a Ferrari.)

We are actually at the base of the Morgon hillside, surrounded by vines. The exploitation was bought by Sebastien’s father, Michel, in 1972, but for 7-8 generations this is a family of vignerons. Sebastien is the 3rd generation in this location. Michel was already doing some bottling when Sebastien arrived, but Sebastien recollects semi-chaos at the time.

Today the domaine covers a total of 12 hectares, including a little Beaujolais Villages that can be seen from the house, just over the border between the communes of Morgon and Ancie…

These wines are mainly sold in France – a large part to restaurants – a larger part, still, heads to the négoce each year. Approximately 20,000 bottles are currently commercialised from here. I’m almost surprised that there is a tasting room given challenge of navigating to the domaine 😉

The wines…

Another domaine chosen blind from the big tasting. Sebastien says that given the hail of August in 2014, he’s actually very happy with the results!

2014 Beaujolais Villages
The work is exactly the same in these vines as in the crus.
A deep nose, some vibrancy. A growing width of floral notes. Classic Beaujolais with a hint of bubblegum in the flavours, yet a growing weight of flavour too – I like the layers of finishing flavour. Really super length here. A good wine.

2014 Fleurie
2 sectors one in ‘Champagne’ with a more sandy soil.
A deeper nose with a growing floral impression. Bigger, more fruit, ingraining flavour that grows and grows – there’s a little jamminess to the fruit but also a salted caramel aspect – I like! This is very tasty wine….

2014 Morgon
From all around the house.
Beautiful clarity and vibrancy of dark fruit – what a nose! Slowly adds a small pyrazine aspect – but really, who cares? Lithe and fresh, a little direct but it moves gracefully over the palate, again with a faint suggestion of caramel, though much fainter than the last wine – wide in the finish and with a faint dry tannic edge. Again really fine length. A great start and a great finish with, perhaps, a hint of work in progress in the middle.

2014 Morgon Vieilles-Vignes
And really old vines – 100 years – 12 months elevage, the barrels are 2-3 years old. Usually not commercialised in the first 2 years.
There’s more weight of fruit aroma here, but the same beautiful clarity – round, supple, encompassing, but fresh too – eventually the freshness of line takes over and its got a very fine line into the mid palate and the finish beyond. A growing salinity into the finish in tandem with more flowers on the nose. Yum!

2011 Moulin à Vent
0.9 hectares here.
This nose is tighter, the palate too – more direct, but there’s weight and intensity here. Really rather closed wine – almost surprisingly so for an 09…