Browse Tag

morgon

Freemon

[guignier]Michel Guignier 2013 Morgon (Beaujolais) — Dark berries, ultraviolet light, dark stones. There’s a litheness to this wine that’s a little atypical for Morgon, yet it’s balanced and persistent. Drink or hold. (5/16)

Pygmalion

IMG_8292Jean-Marc Burgaud 2005 Morgon Côte du Py (Beaujolais) — From magnum. The knock against Burgaud is that they start hard and stay hard. (Insert your own joke here.) That’s somewhat true, eleven years down the road, but then a Côte du Py should be structured. Still, it’s only somewhat true; the wine’s aromatically accessible, its darker reds softened to an early autumn sunrise, showing half gamay freshness and half pinot noir sophistication, with aged underbrush imbuing the fruit. Will it age longer? Almost certainly, though note the bottle size. Will it get better? I’d wager on another five years with confidence; after that, it depends on one’s taste. (4/16)

Pressel

Lapierre 2007 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Tense. It’s really a very attractive wine, but there’s an overt nervosity beyond the usual Lapierre liveliness…so much so that I’d consider drinking it sooner rather than later, because it seems like it’s about to fall from its tipping point. I could easily be wrong, of course, and since I’m still holding bottles of this from the much-earlier 2000s that are doing fine, history suggests that I am. (8/12)

Colonel Potter

Brun “Terres Dorées” 2009 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Surprisingly open, given that from this year, site, and producer I’m expecting little other than a dense wall of go-away. Instead, there’s dusty morel and sappy blackberry, an almost shockingly nervy structure, and the promise of more insight as the glasses pass into digestive oblivion. (Well, you know what I mean….) I don’t know that it couldn’t go longer, but I do know that it’s nothing to be scared of at the moment. (6/12)

Pause, Undo, Repeat

P·U·R 2010 Morgon Cote du Py (Beaujuolais) – Hmmm. Like half a Morgon – the brawling (for Beaujolais), muscular part – without any of the rest that makes it a complete wine. It’s chalky, angular, and void. There’s hesitation from the staff as I’m served this, hesitation as we (“we” including folks who’ve had it elsewhere, with better results) drink it, and a post-consumption questioning by the server that indicates to me none of the involved parties were entirely happy with this bottle’s performance. So I’m going to guess this is unrepresentative until presented with evidence to the contrary…especially as I can’t believe that so many of my like-palated friends have simultaneously lost said palates. (11/11)

Cast the last stone

Lapierre 2002 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Brett, volatility, fizz, and particulate sludge through which a strobe light is pulsing its vivid signal. Were the fruit identifiable any longer, it would be bright red and cranberry-ish, but the various natural-wine bugbears are on full display. And yet, not impenetrably so; despite not much liking brett and loathing volatile acidity, I kind of like this. No reason to hold it past about three years ago, though. (10/11)

Burgaud meister

JM Burgaud 2002 Morgon Côte du Py (Beaujolais) – From magnum…and, I should note in terms of recording Beaujolais’ recent ascendancy, sold for a price that would be a the lowish side for a 750 of quality Morgon (Côte du Py or not) these days. So, anyway, Burgaud is known for what seems a surplus of muscularity and burl, and they haven’t receded a whole lot. What has receded is the fruit, so that the whole picture is rather smoky at the moment, and fairly ungenerous. Normally I’d be confident that this is just a closed phase, and there’s no reason not to maintain that confidence other than my unfamiliarity with older Burgaud. (8/11)

Stanley

Thévenet 2001 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – Corked. (12/10)

Thévenet 2001 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – Very light and soft, a slow-flowing river of memories. Minerals and earth are to the fore, with wood ear mushrooms lingering. Gentle and entirely lovely. (1/11)

Prudential

Lapierre 2007 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Always light, getting lighter. It’s not quite scrawny yet, though the bones are just beginning to protrude. I’m not sure this has a future that’s better than its present or its past, but I’ve been wrong about this wine before. (8/10)

The rock

Lapierre 2007 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Pretty delicate for a Morgon, it’s sweet-natured smallberry fruit dusted with soil and slowly immersing itself in a creamy black trumpet mushroom texture. But the shoulders, bones, and muscles of Morgon are not here. As such, I’d drink this vintage sooner rather than later. (6/10)