M & C Lapierre Morgon 🦃 THE Wine for the Thanksgiving Season 🍽️
There is a bite to the evening air and even in sunny California, we’re beginning to question if it’s time for a fire? How did this holiday season cycle around so fast?
Gords and pumpkin spice latte season means it’s time for Vins Rare to fill boxes with wine for you! Yeah!... it’s shipping season ! If you’ve ordered anything from us over the summer, please check in! It’s probably ready to ship.
No fall season would be complete without the traditional release of the Nouveau Beaujolais. In so many households, it is THE wine for Thanksgiving holiday.
One’s perception or opinion about Beaujolais could easily be based on an encounter with Nouveau. In most vintages, it's not exactly doing the region any favors, and I fear the 2024 release is going to be probably one of the most difficult in recent memory.
Instead of buying the Nouveau for your holiday table, why don’t you step into the real thing? Cru Beaujolais made from one of the regions most recognized producers - M & C Lapierre Morgon (his STORY below). Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape, which when done correctly offers everything you like about Pinot Noir but with more body and depth.
Its a very versatile wine with the ripe red fruited flavors almost busting from the glass. I’d describe the Lapierre style as ripe and full-bodied with mouth coating concentration. I like serving the wine slightly chilled, maybe a touch warmer than they would be coming out of your fridge. It's an easy wine to pop and pour, but also a wine that has the ability to age and develop for up to 10 years in the cellar, if not longer.
This bottle of 2023 Morgon comes from the first bottling run completed in March 2024 (there will be five bottlings until September). Lapierre told me that this is destined for markets in Japan, Canada and a little for the US. The nose reveals dark berry fruit, sous-bois and light Indian ink aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins and crisp acidity, a little rustic in a good way with a slightly savory finish. Lovely.
- Neal Martin, 92
STORY
Marcel Lapierre took over his family's estate in Beaujolais at a time when not many cared about the region, except those that lived there. Over the next 4 decades Marcel was one of the vignerons, along with Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Jean Foillard, who spoke out for “natural wine” and a return to the traditional methods of the Beaujolais, to the old practices of viticulture and vinification: starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and disdaining chaptalization (the process of adding sugar to unfermented grape must in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation ). It was his passion and commitment that has forever changed our perception of Beaujolais.
It’s hard to believe it has been 13 years since his passing. Today his son Mathieu and daughter Camille confidently continue the great work that their father pioneered. They have introduced biodynamic vineyard practices that further enhance the traditional methods that has garnered such a following for these wines.
The methods at Lapierre are just as revolutionary as they are traditional; the detail and precision with which they work is striking and entirely different from the mass-produced majority of Beaujolais on the market today. Decomposed granite comprises most of their eleven hectares, and the vines are an average of 45 years of age. Grapes are picked at the last possible moment to obtain the ripest fruit, which is a trademark of the estate style. The Lapierres’ age their wines on fine lees for at least nine months in oak foudres and fûts ranging from three to thirteen years old. These wines are the essence of Morgon: bright, powerful, age worthy wines where fleshy dark fruit is the center of attention.
