Fabien Collonge

Update 16.7.2016(14.7.2016)billn

DSC00310Tasted almost in Villé-Morgon with Fabien Collonge, 19 May 2016.

Fabien Collonge
Le Truges
69910 Villé Morgon
Tel: +33 6 30 02 63 18
www.fabien-collonge.com

I say that my visit was ‘almost in Villé-Morgon’ because the lieu-dit of Les Truges is way up the hill past Bellevue – if you want to walk from the town-centre then give yourself at least 45 minutes – but let me tell you – the wines here will make it worthwhile!

Fabien, the current responsible for this family domaine, is the 5th generation of the family to be so. 1892, in Truges, is the earliest mention of the family locally that Fabien knows of, “but certainly we were around much longer.

This domaine is essentially about vines in Chiroubles and Morgon. “Chiroubles very small, after Chénas the smallest of the crus and all on granite. We have 3 hectares in Chiroubles plus another 7 hectares in Morgon. With some vines classified as Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages we have 15 hectares in total.

The principal market for the domaine is France but there is some export to USA – I would buy lots!

The wines…

These Chiroubles are some of the most memorable wines of my visit to Beaujolais!

2015 Chiroubles l’Aurore des Côtes
A small vintage in volume, a big vintage in quality – hyper-concentrated, lots of sugar. A grand millésime de garde – references are 2009, 2005… Harvested 1st September, destemmed about 40% which allows me to lengthen the cuvaison while avoiding anything vegetal from the stems. The lieu-dit is called Côte Roti with a direct south-facing exposure.
Beautiful, vibrant dark fruit. Dark flavour but with vibrant acidity and fine line – beautiful wine in this dark-fruited vernacular.

2014 Chiroubles l’Aurore des Côtes
Slightly shorter cuvaison and a little less destemming this year – about 25%. A bit of a risk so harvested a little late though the cleanliness of the grapes helped!
A deep nose, like the last very dark fruited. Beautiful in the mouth, just gorgeously textured, layered delivery of flavour, dark fruit but with nice vibrant acidity. This is just a beauty – the nose has opened a little almost bringing a red-fruited edge to the dark notes…
2013 Chiroubles l’Aurore des Côtes
A slow to open nose, but it does, offering faint floral notes and a lovely depth of dark fruit – perhaps a little less dark than the the previous wines… Like the 14 this has a texture to die for with slowly growing intensity of flavour but never too much – it’s always a considered delivery, ending with a very fine mouth-watering, fruited finish – encore bravo!

2014 Morgon Vieilles Vignes
From various sectors in Morgon, so this represents a parcel selection, from vines aged between 45 and 80 but averaging about 50 years. ‘I allow the temperature during fermentation to go a little higher than for the Chiroubles to extract a little more and like that wine there is also some destemming – it depends on the year how much…’
Really a tighter nose – at least to start with – fine violet notes but that’s all. Big in the mouth – really plenty of volume – the flavour is a little redder and there is a little more tannin in the bass-line. Nice, slowly opening dimensions of flavour too. Not quite the fineness of texture of the Chiroubles, but really a super wine that I find a little rounder than many in the appellation…

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