M. Lapierre Morgon 2012

Domaine M. Lapierre epitomizes everything that we try and capture in our beloved maxim "Wines of People, Place, and Time".  If the reputation of 'le vrai Beaujolais' has never been higher, no producer has done more to revindicate it and emphatically demonstrate that there might be life after the debacle of Beaujolais Nouveau.  M. Lapierre Morgon is the essence of gamay grown on decomposed granite, devoid of the artificially manufactured aromas of bubblegum and banana that typify commercial Beaujolais brands.  It reveals that Beaujolais - especially from old vines grown on the Beaujolais Crus - can combine structure and minerality with lusciousness and charm in a magical '1 + 1 = 3' equation, creating a wine truly worthy of its Burgundian pedigree.

Marcel Lapierre (who sadly died of cancer at the age of 60 in 2010) was one of wine's great characters, a renowned bon vivant and raconteur, full of vitality, wit, and generosity. He was the nominal leader of the informal group of vignerons known as the 'Gang of Four' (including, but never limited to, Marcel, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thenevet, and Joseph Chamonard), who were disciples of Jules Chauvet,  the 'Father of Natural Wine in France' who had begun making wine without the addition of sulphur in 1950. Inspired by Chauvet, Marcel began farming organically in 1981. Since then Lapierre Morgon has come to be regarded as a global reference for natural wine.  It is produced without herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic chemicals of any kind; no inoculation of artificial yeast or addition of sulphur during fermentation; and no chaptalization.  It is aged on its fine lees for 9 months in old oak, and bottled with minimal sulphur and minimal if any fining or filtration.

Marcel's son Mathieu began working with his father in 2003, and together they made the transition to biodynamic farming.  Today he carries on the Lapierre legacy, continuing to produce complex and powerful wines capable of great age.  Typically for natural wines, while possessing a dimension of fullness and depth which conventional wines normally do not, they can be closed at first when opened young. Consequently they benefit enormously from decanting; intriguingly, in the unlikely happenstance that a portion of an opened bottle is left undrunk, the wine will develop beautifully over a period of days or even weeks.