Tasted with Fabien Duperray in Romanèche-Thorins, 30 October 2023.
Domaine Jules Desjourneys
Clos des Bernoux
38 rue des Jacques
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 3 85 33 85 88
www.julesdesjourneys.fr
Fabien Duperray Intagram
More reports with Domaine Jules Desjourneys.
Fabien:
“New in the domaine, 1 hectare each of Rochelle and La Roche – and 2 ha of Le Mont (all in Moulin-à-Vent!). In the 19th century cadastres, Rochgrès doesn’t exist. It’s a particular place – it’s called Le Mont as it was a volcano – so three particular styles – you could say Cros Parantoux, Romanée St.Vivant and La Tâche. I have to be cunning, or I’d have no chance – transactions are rare – it’s 37 years since you could buy three parcels at the same time, much from the hands of people living in Chénas.
“2021: the lack of maturity was offset by the very low volumes – possibly some ripeness by concentration – it was a very difficult vintage and that’s coming after what I think is a great vintage for both colours in 2020. The 2021s have less density, core or constitution you can say but they remain worthy wines.”
The wines…
You will know of my historic enthusiasm for Fabien’s whites – I don’t say that he is the best producer of ‘Mâcons’ but I do think that there’s no-one better from low to high. It’s not just that x or y is more intense it’s about the wine also having personality a wine that can dance or sing – sometimes both! I have always loved his Beaujolais too – a super producer – but for the first time, with these 2020s, I also see no better producer – at least since the Comtesse de Vazeilles has left town after her magnificent 2019s and 2020s. It’s a question of seduction – and all seduce! Here made from lower than the average Côte d’Or rendements for Grand Crus – ie below 30 hl/ha. Extraordinary wines of both colours !!
‘Everyone thinks Beaujolais is for glou-glou but if it’s in front of me I can’t help myself I want to try to make something great. ‘
Freshness with darkness of fruit – showing more and more depth with air – certainly cleaner too. Fresh, direct, gorgeously textural and a little mineral. Top fluidity – that is a super wine, floral in the finish. Beautiful wine – and that’s before we get to the label – great, great wine for that label. 20 k bottles… it’s €1.5 cork too – of course!
Bottled end of July – ‘just for an idea – we had just 1.5 months of nice weather.’
Width but still a little less open than the previous. Slightly graphite accented… Direct, intense, beautifully direct and wonderfully textured – I love this intensity too. Long and suave! Top!
Hmm – that’s a different profile – deeper but with a fine frame of freshness – both fruit and flowers – very cherry style. So direct, so juicy, so floral a great finish too – the best baby Chénas I ever tasted…
‘It’s the wine that we sell the most easily!’
Broader and very perfumed. More architectural, cool and intense but the width of that intensity is broader so it only seems less intense but I find this great
2020 Fleurie La Madonne
Just under Deliene’s ‘Avalanche’ cuvée.
Hmm – a more direct nose. Depth of flavour again, so complex, so mouth-watering. Broader in the finish, wonderful wine…
2020 Moulin à Vent Le Styx
Ooh – now that’s a perfume – so floral. So wide, all great silky texture and fluidity. The hidden structure. The resonance of finishing flavour today rather than amplitude. Certainly excellent wine, potentially more…
‘It’s one of the greatest terroirs of Beaujolais – I compare it to Amoureuses and others.’
Deeper, flashes of dark-fruited energy. Concentrated, so fluid – how?! A tiny beam of finishing energy – that’s beautiful!!
1.24 hectares
Wonderful aroma. Dark fruit – energy but not excessive – serious structure despite much still hidden – the finish is great – faintly saline but with a haunting dark-fruit sweetness. Seamless wine.
Extra velour yet the nose is also extra complex, ethereal with freshness – slowly becoming perfectly floral. Direct but still with a certain width. This explodes in finishing width – wow! Haunting in this finish too…
Dark aromas again – super freshness – ‘from here there are days we can see even further than Mont Blanc.’ Serious depth, wide and juicily mouth-watering, easily the most concentrated of all these wines but without weight! How long do I have to wait for this to enjoy it as much as the previous wines? – No time at all – but it will improve upon all of them!
Les Whites:
No barrels…
A little golden accent to this fruit. The gas is still present, but then with the precision and intensity of the reds, this explodes across the palate – fading ever-so slowly… It’s really wines like this that emphasise why I don’t like Beaujolais Blanc from almost all addresses… Grand, Grand for label.
A little typical ripe green citrus, then slowly wider and finer. Mouth-filling & vibrant – really extra in the finish and chalky finishing too – wow!
Larger, more floral – yellow citrus and florals here. Hmm, a touch of gas – but wow, wow, fluidity, cool, fruit, juicy but not in a gauche sense. I only (slightly) prefer the finish of the last – the rest it’s this wine.
Hmm – a calmer, more sensual nose – yellow citrus – a great invitation. Mouth-filling, so wonderful, complex, orange zesty – normally I find this only in rare Chablis – but here today in Macon too! Brilliant wine – not just great wine!
Fizzing complexity across this aroma – yellow citrus – heading deep. Here is a more strict structure – but I like strict – then great, great finishing – tons of citrus bitters here… Great Mâcon!
Vertical but wide too – a freshness of complex yellow citrus with a small cushion at its edges. Hmm – here is vibrant wine, a wine with tension – more interesting than a lot of Puligny. Great wine…
Wide, vibrant then taking on more and more focus – here is great aromatic precision, faintly floral. Large scale, there’s energy here and here is also a slowly growing faint tannin. A wine who’s personality is based on its scale but remains complex with yellow fruits – hauntingly long. Wine with density. Yet, my taste defaults to the extra personality of the previous wines – at least today – as undeniably great as this is…
Whilst there’s a hint more barrel here, there’s also a wonderful perfume of fine, airy, citrus. Lots of CO2 – wow structure – the style of the wine is more Bâtard than Chevalier despite this energy. Massive finishing. You would lose this in a blind line-up of Puligny 1ers, maybe gcs too!
Fuller more aromatic oak is visible. Ooh, here is almost the structure of the strict – the extra impact in the saline finish – and then it fades oh-so slowly. This wine promises what the previous wine already delivers…
Directly this is like the flashes of the paparazzi – such fireworks – then it calms in the width. Vibrant, complex, orange, lime, Id say agrume but that’s too common – then there’s a large finishing wave to ride – wow wine! There are 50 bottles the rest are magnums – for the whole world.
We should have tasted this before the last but I’m still not going to turn it down!
Here the aroma is growing more and more – of course, starting smaller than the last. Ooh, but more direct and strict. I sense of the barrel but it’s never in excess. I love the intensity of this finish. Wonderful wine.