2023 Domaine M. & C. Lapierre, Morgon, Cru Beaujolais, France.
The dark ruby/magenta 2023 Lapierre Morgon (Cuvée N) is a beautiful Gamay with dark berry, plum, cherry and candied guava fruits on the supple, but youthfully vibrant full bodied palate, along with bright snappy spices, mineral tones, minty herbs, geranium flowers and a touch of earthy truffle. Not as ripe as 2020 or 2022, but fuller and more complex than the 2021, this vintage has sweet fruit, a touch of savory whole cluster crunchiness and should continue to evolve nicely over the next 3 to 5 years. Continuing his late father and legend Marcel Lapierre’s traditions and faithfully following the teachings of Jules Chauvet’s natural wine practices, Mathieu Lapierre makes some of the best Gamay wines you can find. The Cuvée N or Sans Soufre is made exclusively for importer Kermit Lynch (for the United States) and is made without the addition of sulphur, which Marcel promoted, since Gamay is perfectly suited to allow this practice. Coming from organic head trained old vines set on granite based soils in the Cru Morgon region of Beaujolais, these Lapierre wines, as I’ve said many times before, are all about hedonism and pleasure, they are incredibly well crafted, but still has a raw playful quality, impossible to resist.
The famous Lapierre domaine, as mentioned in my prior reviews, was always organic the sister and brother team of Mathieu and Camille have converted to biodynamic. Marcel Lapierre took over the family domaine from his father in 1973, and according to Kermit Lynch, he was already on the road to becoming a legend, but In 1981, his path would be forever changed by Jules Chauvet, a man whom many now call his spiritual godfather (and the godfather of natural wine). Chauvet was a winemaker, a researcher, a chemist, and a viticultural prophet, in much the same way Nicholas Joly was with biodynamics in the Loire Valley. It was he who, upon the advent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the 1950s, first spoke out for “natural wine,” harkening back to the traditional methods of the Beaujolais. This wine, coming from mature 70 plus year old vines in sandy decomposed granite soils was made with 100% whole cluster fermentation, as Kermit puts it, à l’ancienne, with only native yeasts, mostly in conical wood tanks, with what the Lapierre’s call careful low temperature maintenance, and then age their wines on fine lees for at least nine months in old used oak, which are a combination of ex-Burgundy barrels, and neutral foudres and fûts, all ranging from three to thirteen years old, to promote transparency. Again, I’m a big fan of Lapierre and I highly recommend all of their wines, especially this Cuvée N bottling, it is really a joy in the glass and worth chasing down.
($40 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive