94 Points: "The 2020
Morgon Côte du Py is one of the region's most dependable classics, unfurling in the glass with notes of cassis, sweet berry fruit, spices and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, with lively acids, powdery tannins and a seamless, complete profile, it concludes with a long, mouthwatering finish. Drink dates 2021-2035." – William Kelly, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (August 2021)
94 Points: "The 2020 Morgon Côte du Py represents a blend of six hectares from around the climat, each with its own attributes. It has an intense bouquet of black cherries, black olive and saline notes, all very well defined with wonderful focus. The palate is medium-bodied with silky-smooth tannins, superb mineralité
and a harmonious finish featuring black cherries, blueberry, blood orange and citrus fruit, full of nervosité and admirably persistent. Burgaud said that he had been advised to bottle the various plots separately, but I think this blend represents more than the sum of its parts. Drinking window 2025 – 2045." – Neal Martin, Vinous (August 2021)
"I have adored Burgaud’s wines since my first foray into Morgon. If anything, Burgaud is fine-tuning his craft, as evidenced by the fabulous showing of his 2020s. "We had 25mm of rain in Lantignié but nothing in Morgon," he told me as we settled down for a lengthy tasting in his barrel cellar. "That gave me very good maturity in difficult soils. The Beaujolais Village has just 12.8° alcohol with perfect skins. Sulfur was only used after the malolactic in order to have 15-20mg/L of free SO2
and 50-60mg total SO2." I would serve one of Burgaud’s Morgon wines to anyone unconvinced that Beaujolais can make world-class wine. He just has that "touch". Consistency runs through his range, although his Morgon Côte du Py is blessed with je ne sais quoi and, as proven by my recent "Mature Burgundy" piece, inbuilt longevity. Burgaud told me that one of his importers tried to persuade him to bottle his parcels separately, but I agree with him: the blend is greater than the sum of its parts. However, he does make a special cuvée under the title of "James" from a small parcel close to the cross at the summit that is only produced in the finest growing seasons. His mineral-driven 2019 shimmered with nascent energy and should age well over the next couple of decades. The good news is that Burgaud has just purchased another hectare in La Coucelette. I cannot wait to see what he can conjure from his propitious vineyard." – Neal Martin, Vinous
WINEMAKER: Jean-Marc Burgaud
APPELLATION: Morgon
VARIETIES: Gamay
VITICULTURE: This is a wine to keep; its character resulting from the soil composition (The cote du Py hillside near the tiny village of Morgon).This is the most typical wine of this appellation, thanks to its rich soil of blue stones coming from the
disintegration of schist.
Vinification: maceration of the whole grapes for 7-12 days
Vineyards’ age: 50 years
ABOUT JEAN-MARC BURGAUD
Jean-Marc Burgaud started in 1989, the same year he married his wife, Christine. Both sets of parents were winegrowers, so there was
clearly something in the blood. They have built up their vineyards to 19 hectares: 13 ha in Morgon, 5 ha in Beaujolais Villages and 1 ha in Régnié, which is "the maximum for me" Jean-Marc said, adding, while "it’s always possible to grow bigger, it’s important to stay precise" and it’s that attention to detail that is reflected in his wines.
In the vineyard Jean-Marc works traditionally, ploughing the soil. He’s not certified organic, but his philosophy is both traditional and manual. He hasn’t used chemical insecticide for 10 years, and only once in that time has he been forced by the vintage to resort to using a non-organic product in the vineyard.The traditional high vine density of 10,000 bush vines per ha is an important feature for quality, said Burgaud "it is important for gamay to have competition in the soil so you get little grapes with concentration." There has been a trend in Beaujolais to reduce planting densities to
around 5,000 vines / ha, but, he said "the yield per vine goes up, so you have the fruit, but not the complexity and concentration."
Vinification is by traditional semi-carbonic maceration, the same method for all his wines, though the length of maceration varies – seven days for the Beaujolais Villages and up to 15 days for his best Morgon parcels in the Côte du Py.
Grapes are put into his cement tanks and the temperature controlled to between 22 and 24°C. The bunches have been pre-sorted in the vineyard "so we never have perfect bunches and bad bunches in the same box."
|
