Tasted in Emeringes, 24 June 2021, with Angela & Hugo Foizel.
Domaine des Jeunes Pousses
912 route de la Cime
69840 Emeringes
Tel: +33 3 80 61 51 16
jeunespousses
Located in the hills behind Fleurie and Juliénas is the village of Emeringes, the land here classified as Beaujolais Villages. Also here is the very interesting Domaine des Jeunes Pousses.
Here is a domaine of about 5.2 hectares that was set up as an ‘incubator’ or, better said, a step up on the ladder for potential young vigneron(ne)s. The domaine was the creation of Thibault Liger-Belair of Nuits St.Georges. Thibault had explained his concept to Angela, who comes from the Jura and together with her partner Hugo, who hails from the Champagne region, they were chosen as the first winemakers of the project. Angela and Hugo explain: “We got here in November 2019 and we will stay for three years before a new team come to take our place. We work independently of Thibault, also for the commercialisation – though, of course, Thibault helps to open some doors for us but it’s also our names on the bottles and we hope that the clientele that we build up will want to follow us in the future when we make our next steps. So have the domaine for 3 years and the single obligation that Thibault sets us is that we have to keep the domaine organic.”
The couple work from an old domaine cuverie but one that hadn’t been used for many years. They have overseen the addition of new electrics, a new floor and walls that have been added here and removed there- “It was still a lot of work and because of the early harvest in 2020 we only had one of our tanks installed just three days before the harvest!”
So it’s 5.26 hectares in total, of which 4.8 ha are in Emeringes – Angela & Hugo have the right to label the wines from here as Beaujolais-Emeringes (just like Beaujolais-Lantignié) ‘though nobody seems to do it.’ They also have a small clos of vines in Chénas – the only vines that had some significant effect from this year’s frost – “It’s the entrance to the Clos that gets the wind which was quite affected.” The pair have chosen to make parcel wines / climats and because their previous history was with making wine from pinot, they have chosen to make their wines ‘à la Bourguignone‘ – so with barrel elevage.
The wines…
Not just a great initiative from Thibault Liger-Belair, Angela and Hugo have really made some lovely wines in their first vintage too – well-done everybody!
About half the 2020s are now bottled:
2020 Beaujolais-Emeringes, Riplat de Vaure
0.9 ha with plenty of clay in the soil here. Already bottled (just a few weeks) all whole cluster and it was sulfured once in the elevage and again before bottling but the team here are also experimenting with no sulfur.
Medium-plus colour. A silky, well-fruited nose – actually deeply fruited. Hmm, that’s a mouth-filling wine, a touch of cushioning but also a nicely mineral delivery of the flavour that extends well into the finish. “Some people were saying that this was a parcel for crémant but we are happy with the result” – me too. It’s about 1/3rd barrel elevage but using older barrels.
2020 Beaujolais-Emeringes, La Croix
.70 ha – near Juliénas/Chénas – more granite rose here but still some clay that holds onto the rain for longer. This was partly hailed in June so it’s a low volume
A deeper nose, more energetic too, that’s very inviting and almost suggesting a little floral note with air. Wide, concentrated, fresh – just a suggestion of tannin – made without sulfur until bottling ‘as was so clean’ – but no grain just a suggestion of dryness. Slow waves of finishing flavour, a very nice and quite charming red fruit aroma from the last drops in the glass.
2020 Beaujolais-Emeringes, Au Chânes
This not yet bottled but they don’t have their labels yet, so… A warmer terrior, with more granite though still some clay. 50% barrel elevage for this one.
A little deeper colour despite a slightly lower level of alcohol vs the last two. Less forward but silky and dark. More attack to the flavour here, perhaps a suggestion of pyrazine but very subtle, indeed attractive at this level. Some structural tannin that’s reminiscent of the last wine – fine kirsch/cherry finishing.
2020 Beaujolais-Emeringes, Cuvée Vieilles Damme
Old vines and bottled only in magnum, made from pre-phylloxera vines and the grapes are very small so were destemmed in the style of Leroy
A wider palette of aroma a little more herbed complexity here too. More structural but concentrated and impressive – this is a wine that’s certainly for keeping a while. Very impressively finishing, almost a juicy, mouth-watering effect. Serious, young but covetable – as a minimum an excellent wine possibly even better with some ageing!
2020 Chénas
0.46 from Brureaux
A big, inviting nose, slightly graphite-mineral in style but with a faintly cushioned invitation. There is an extra depth to this flavour but it’s also fresh and energetic too. Really a super wine and it really shows why it’s a cru.