94 Points: “The 2018 Morgon Côte du Py derives from both higher-altitude and lower-lying parcels, and it is a great success this year, offering up a lovely bouquet of dark fruits, cherries, smoked meat and licorice. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and layered, with a fleshy and concentrated core, fine girdling tannins and succulent acids, concluding with a long and sapid finish. Drink dates 2020 – 2035.” – Dr. William Kelly, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (August 2019)
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.”
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