Description
“** producteur des très grande qualité Le Classement, La Revue du Vin de France 2020″ (One of only six domaines with two stars or above in the Beaujolais)
“These were absolutely superb expressions of traditional Beaujolais: serious wines that I suspect will age as well as their more expensive counterparts further north in the Côte de Nuits. They represent outstanding value in the current market…” Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate
Bouland is a fourth-generation Morgon grower and his tiny (only 8 ha!) vineyard is now recognised as one of Beaujolais’ yardstick addresses.
“… this estate is one of my personal reference points for the Beaujolais. Concentrated and succulent, Bouland’s wines are beautifully differentiated by site and age gracefully. At this address, 2019 has turned out beautifully: generous and elegantly fleshy but also finer-boned than the exuberantly fruit-driven 2018s. With 2017, 2018 and now 2019, Bouland has produced a trio of fine vintages, and I suspect that determining a preference between them will be easier in a decade than it is today.” William Kelley, The Wine Advocate
Surrounding the small town of Villié-Morgon, the vineyards of Morgon are divided into a seven climats: Côte de Py, Les Micouds, Javerniere, Les Grands Cras, Les Charmes, Corcelette and Douby. The majority of Daniel Bouland’s old bush vines lie within Corcelette, in the hilly Haut Morgon to the northwest of the appellation. Bouland farms a number of old-vine parcels in this terroir, where (in general) the sandy granite soils over weathered schists tend to result in wines of great perfume and finer, rounder tannins than those of the nearby Côte de Py.
Bouland portrays the artisanal Beaujolais vigneron in perhaps its purest form. He works alone in his vineyards where most of the material is gnarled, old goblet vines. His young parcels have been planted with selections massal from his older vineyards. Nothing is sweetened and nothing is taken away from the raw, visceral goodness of the juice. Hand-harvesting, very low yields, old wood, wild yeast fermentations, 100% whole bunch (open) ferments and non filtration, places him very much in the back-to-basics-dirt-under-the-fingernails camp.
About this wine: This wine used to be known simply as Morgon Vieilles Vignes without the name of the vineyard or lieu-dit (it is now labelled Morgon Les Délys Vignes plantées en 1926). It comes from a single hectare of 100-year-old vines located on the Morgon-Chiroubles border at the end of the Corcelette valley—a terroir historically known as Délys. The old, gnarled vines sit on a southeast-facing slope, planted at 10,000 vines per hectare.
Humming like an idling V8 engine, it’s always deep and chewy when young—built for long aging in the cellar. The 2023 is saturated with blue and wild berry fruits underscored by cracked pepper and cardamom spice, liquorice root and forest floor complexity. The palate is infused with unstoppable velvety fruitiness and length of flavour rare for the region. Bouland admits that if he could find the grafting materials he needs, he would start to replant this ancient parcel—it yields too little juice for his liking. Just as well he can’t: this is one of the greatest single-vineyard wines in all of Beaujolais.
RRP $69 Our Price $59.99 – Last of this vintage!
