92 Points:
“Quite some depth and ripe red and black berry aromas for the 2021 vintage, but also gentle tannins and lively mineral acidity. With aeration delicate herbal nuances develop. Long licorice finish. From 4 hectares of vineyards with 45 to 70-year-old vines. 100% whole cluster and matured only in concrete tanks. Drink or hold.” – Stuart Pigott, James Suckling.com (March 2023)
91 Points: “Now labeled as the 2021 Beaujolais-Lantignié rather than as Beaujolais-Villages, with a view to further
foreground its Lantignié origins, this cuvée is once again a notable success. Offering up aromas of smoky berries, spices and petals, it's medium-bodied, supple and seamless, with lively acids and a charming, giving profile.” – William Kelly, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (August 2022)
More from William Kelly:
For several years running, I've observed that Jean-Marc Burgaud is a winemaker at the peak of his powers, and the success with which he has met the challenges of the 2021 vintage are only further evidence in support of that contention. These are some of the most consistently delicious wines being produced in the region today, and they're all the better for the fact that Burgaud has abandoned new oak in favor of seasoned wood and pursues gentler extraction than in the past, with his classical semi-carbonic macerations ranging from between seven and 15 days in duration, depending on the cuvée. And there's just one bottling of each wine, making for rare homogeneity—even for his 4.3-hectare holdings in Beaujolais-Lantignié (one of the
region's finest values, incidentally). 2021 marks a return to a succulent, perfumed, lighter-bodied style of Beaujolais at this address, as elsewhere, and Burgaud has capitalized on its possibilities to produce a portfolio of purity and charm.
FROM THE IMPORTER
WINEMAKER: Jean-Marc Burgaud
APPELLATION: Beaujolais-Villages
VARIETIES: Gamay
VITICULTURE: Vineyard age, 40 years
SOIL: granite soil
VINIFICATION: maceration of the whole grapes for 5, 6 days
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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