Frederic and Chantal Lafarge – Chantal was a Vial – have a new(ish!) small domaine of 4-hectares in the Beaujolais. They have vines in Fleurie and Chiroubles, and quite old vines too. The vines were already, ‘very well cared for, mainly organic’ but, as you would expect, they immediately set out on a biodynamic course.

Frederic describes the vinification as de-stemming, concrete tanks, and older barrels. The first vintage being 2014. I thought I’d give you my first ‘Beaujolais Report’ here 😉

2014 Chiroubles
From 45 year old vines. 1 year elevage, no new oak, some larger barrels, one racking in April, bottling in October.
Perfumed wine, of modest gamay impression. Round, nicely textured, an almost creamy aspect to the flavour. Good length too. Very tasty wine.

2014 Fleurie ‘Bel Air’
45 and 65 year old vines, Bel-Air is the lieu-dit.
A little more aromatic scale, some flowers. Supple, a hint of tannin but a layered delivery of flavour too – fine length too. This is excellent!

2014 Fleurie ‘Clos Vernay’
A Clos of 1.3 hectares, near the border with Moulin-à-Vent – near Bouchard’s Château Poncier. 40-45 year old vines here.
A pyrazine element to the nose. In the mouth this is supple and nicely textured. Also a similar pyrazine component in the flavours – minerality or bugs? – yet still very tasty, and obviously very young, wine.

A weekend in the mountains – plus some clear ‘wine-joy.’

2010 Francois Mikulski, Meursault 1er Charmes
I’ve never yet had a problem, but I see reports of advanced bottles from François – which is a shame because I love both the man and his wines – but this was in fine shape. A fresh wine of line and intensity with a rather classic, faintly gingerbread nose. The finish edged with a little salinity – it just drank beautifully – yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Patrice Rion, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
Deep of colour, deep of nose… The aromas are dark-fruited, faintly oak-spiced but with sumptuous fruit and a suggestion of florality. In the mouth there’s real presence – concentration and very fine texture. Yum-flavoured with some modest spicy, faintly bitter oak artefacts – but really nothing of concern. A lovely bottle.
Rebuy – Yes

2001 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Corton-Charlemagne
Ouf – this is good! A floral note twists through complex aromatics that mix citrus fruit, a hint of secondary development and some salinity. Really plenty of concentration and fat in the mouth – and I normally consider this to be one of the more direct Charlemagnes – with fine balance and just a fabulous mid-palate and finishing complexity. This really is one of the best whites I’ve drunk for a long time – Bravo!
Rebuy – Yes – like a shot!

1993 Louis Jadot, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Corvées
Ouf – again! A clarion of gorgeous, dark fruit – cherry – that slowly melts into a floor of dried leaves – just a beauty. In the mouth it’s a super wine with (today!) only modest tannic structure. It’s lithe, complex and oh-so-tasty – the palate is almost as good as the nose – and that’s saying something! Young, but ‘ready’ – great!
Rebuy – Yes

2011 Au Pied de Mont Chauve, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Vergers
A barbecue in the mountains – this bottle kept cool by burying it in the snow – let’s be honest – almost anything would have been good in this context. Yet this is a beautifully put together wine of fine aromatic, and a balanced palate with concentrated waves of fine flavour. I won’t aggrandise my recollection further as we certainly weren’t using tasting glasses – but a resounding ‘yum’ came from all who partook…
Rebuy – Yes

Belated, I know – but places to go, people to see – et-cetera 😉
It was a long-weekend, with an added Monday – so an extra bottle or two….

Louis Picamelot, Crémant de Bourgogne Les Terroirs
I love their blanc de blancs, but the shop had run out! This started in very anonymous fashion – okay, but certainly not special. With time in the glass it took on a little more interest – never anything particularly wrong with the wine, but completely un-involving. Some way behind the very fine BdB…
Rebuy – No

2013 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Beauroy
A bright wine – indeed quite perky aromatically and on the tongue too. A certain extra vintage sweetness, but no overt apricot or anything like that. It drank well for its modest price.
Rebuy – Yes

2013 Françoise André, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Vergelesses
Super wine. The nose is fine – not amazing, but fine. In the mouth there’s fine intensity, balance and freshness, but really the mid-palate to the finish are very distinguished indeed – a super, layered delivery of finishing flavour. Super wine. And with quite a few tartrate crystals left on the inside of this empty bottle too.
Rebuy – Yes

2013 des Chezeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin Clos des Chezeaux
Their 13 Lavaux was dark, very impressive wine. Their 13 Cazetiers was much lighter – good but a little modest for such a cru. Here we are back to deeply coloured wine with lots of interesting flavour dimension. Very good wine here – the nose has something a little powdery about the fruit, but half an hour after opening that’s fading in the memory. Very good!
Rebuy – Yes