I thought to share on top shelf the announcement of Marcel LaPierre’s 2022 Morgon Beaujolais celebrated by Anthony Lynch in the recent January newsletter from Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley. For those who have not had the opportunity to drink “Crus Beaujolais” (10 specific villages or areas within the Beaujolais region) this is not Beaujolais “Nouveau”, otherwise, this post would be well out of date. That festive wine released in France each third Thursday in November to fireworks and fierce hangovers is the Gamay grape in a different robe. Bottled and drunk within a few months of its cluster fermentation, Nouveau Beaujolais is pale but explosive, a party and a perfume to which some compare the candy scent of bubble gum. In general, wines from the Beaujolais region differ across the board from thin and vapid to pretty and refreshing to full-bodied, dark-fruited mouthfuls that can exhibit floral and spicy bouquets. I like the new young stuff as a wash-down to grilled sausage and stuffed pig’s trotters. The Crus Beaujolais, each with their unique terroirs, call for special treatment. But I stray…
There is something to say about “Natural Wines”, which the La Pierre family always avowed, but for a short, regressive period (See Anthony Lynch’s remarks on LaPierre wine in the ‘70s). Before modern methods of viticulture and vinification, all wines were natural. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, science ushered in the application of chemical warfare against weeds and pests and what became a conventional approach to vinification. Marcel LaPierre, third in the lineage of family vignerons decided to cultivate his vines without chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. In the mid-’70s, he began making what came to be known as “natural wine” from 17 acres (expanded currently to about 27) of organically farmed vineyards. He fermented his Gamay with indigenous yeasts, the wines were not sulfured or filtered, colored, or chapitalized; no reverse osmosis was employed to remove taint components. Gamay, grown on the “rotten rocks” (decomposed schist and magmatic soils of the Beaujolais appellation), developed just fine on its own. Until the end of the 20th century, winemakers producing natural wines were isolated, considered eccentric, and largely ignored by the media. It was Marcel LaPierre who led Kermit Lynch’s “Gang of Four,” the four vignerons who brought back the concept of traditional farming and winemaking to the region. His redress of conventional farming and vinification from his low-yielding, old vines was considered wayward and rebellious. I was introduced to LaPierre Morgon Beaujolais during my years as chef at Chez Panisse, where his Morgon was featured on the wine list. Each year’s vintage was a surprise in the bottle. Inconsistency is not a bad thing if it just means different. In this respect, LaPierre’s wine had a wild, what-you-taste-is-what-you-get character whose boldness stood in relief to those of his colleagues on the other side of the aisle, who were less inclined to risk letting wine be wine.
The first Association des Vins Naturels was founded in 2000. Soon, chefs, authenticity foodists, the recognition of terroir, and the emergence of wine blogs and social media made ‘natural wines’ trendy. In 2020, ‘natural wines’ were recognized and defined under the INAO, an arm of the French Ministry of Agriculture responsible for regulating French wine appellations. To qualify and be signaled to the consumer by a Vin Methode Nature logo, a wine must be made from certified organic hand-picked grapes, and fermented with yeasts found in the vineyard or the winery. Additives sometimes used to make up for shortfalls are forbidden as are interventionist physical procedures like the spinning cone, heating to extract color, or pasteurizing to render wine sterile. The Vin Methode Nature logo exists in two versions, one for no added sulfites (otherwise added for their disinfectant or antioxidant effects) and which are produced naturally in small amounts during fermentation, and another for wines whose level is guaranteed to contain less than 30 milligrams per liter added usually at bottling. La Pierre always stayed out of the naming fray and the wines under current management by his children have not adopted the new Vin Methode Nature logo. However, LaPierre’s Morgon, Beaujolais is released with the initial “N” (non-sulfured) or “S” (sulfured) on the back label available, it would seem, by the location to which it is shipped. Unsulfered wine shipped or sold to high-temperature climates or held in untempered storage can potentially excite wild yeasts to unanticipated ends.
The ‘natural wine’ movement has sparked controversy. The big questions are how to validate the designation and who will police it. Since it’s common for vintners to store yeast culture of their own, how will anyone know if it is natural or commercially produced? And who is going to inspect the harvest to verify that no mechanical harvesters were used? Natural wines may simply not be certifiable.
Below are Anthony Lynch’s fine notes on the 2022 Vintage, click here to purchase….
THE NEW (OLD) LAPIERRE MORGON
by Anthony Lynch
By now, with this thirty-fourth consecutive vintage of the Domaine’s Morgon we’ve shipped to American shores, many are familiar with the significance of the name Lapierre on a wine label. Kermit summed it up concisely in 1992…Marcel’s rejection of industrialized, production-oriented agriculture in favor of the labor-intensive traditional farming his father and grandfather practiced marked a turning point in the Beaujolais and beyond, as countless vignerons would later follow in his footsteps and embrace more natural ways of viticulture and winemaking.
One part of the story often left out is that a young Marcel Lapierre, back at the domaine following military service in the early ’70s, initially convinced his father to abandon the old-fashioned ways of working for the modern techniques he had just learned in winemaking school. Not only were the Lapierres assured a consistent crop from year to year, but they could wave goodbye to the laborious days spent tilling the vineyard soils when a quick pass spraying synthetic herbicides would easily do the job.
One little caveat, however: Marcel realized he couldn’t stand to drink his own wines, which he deemed insipid. He always found himself reaching for the bottles his late father had produced via those “archaic” methods. And so began, with the mentorship of an eccentric old biochemist named Jules Chauvet, a return to tradition: no more herbicides or chemical fertilizers, but also no more laboratory yeasts, massive doses of sulfur, acidification, chaptalization, or sterile filtration in the cellar. The 1978 vintage would be Marcel’s very first “natural wine.”
Forty-four harvests later, Marcel’s son, Mathieu, and daughter, Camille, manage the Domaine with the same sense of humility that their father learned in his early days. They have taken his life’s work and elevated it in the face of new challenges, namely a capricious and changing climate. The wines remain as good as ever: this is Gamay in its purest form, from some of the very best terroirs in the Beaujolais region. The newly arrived 2022 is a pleasure bomb, chock-full of silky ripe fruit, earthy tones, and a stimulating juicy energy. Kermit wrote of Marcel’s 1990 Morgon, “It is one of the most delicious young reds we have ever sold.” From a comparable vintage, this latest release makes me feel the same.
Afterword: On the difference between “S” and “N” bottlings:
“I typically find the N version a bit more supple and velvety, it is a real treat as far as the texture goes on the palate. The S version can be a little bit firmer and more tightly wound, with less of the purity and delicacy of the N. Aromatically, N is often more open and expressive in its youth whereas S takes a bit more time to come around. On the downside, N is more subject to slight variation depending on the day—atmospheric conditions, the moon, and other "energies" that can impact how it shows...and on some days it may not show as well, whereas S is more consistent from day to day. Both can age exceptionally well in a good cellar.”
Anthony Lynch
“Every vintage we try both side by side and the last few years we've tasted them blind and have tried to guess which one is “N” and which one is “S.” Last year there was good success in identifying the “N.” This year only one person guessed correctly. The “N” is typically much more fresh and forward. The “S” is typically more quiet and restrained.”