2024 Domaine Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet, Morgon, Vieilles Vignes, Cru Beaujolais, France.
The 2024 Thévenet old vines Morgon is an absolutely gorgeous wine, one of the finest I’ve had from this legendary Beaujolais producer, with supple and elegant pure palate of Gamay fruit, showing off plum, pomegranate, cranberry, tangy currant and strawberry layers, as well as delicate violet florals, a hint of baking spices, walnut husk, mineral and candied orange rind. This is silky smooth in mouth feel and has excellent balance and length with just the right amount of umami, crunch and lifting acidity that adds to the pleasures and complexity here. As noted before, the Thévenet’s just makes one wine and only 2,000 cases per year are made, making this a treat, especially with the demand for top notch Gamay, Cru Beaujolais, these days. The Thévenet’s, as noted in my prior reviews, employ long fermentations in cement cuve, with 100% whole clusters, for 15-25 days at low temperatures to allow for longest skin contact possible, delivering depth, extract and firm tannins. Made with all indigenous yeasts, with punch downs and pressing uniquely only after primary fermentation is complete and then it is aged on the lees for about 8 months in used Burgundy barrels. In modern times, Beaujolais has overcome a wide prejudice and the wines are just outstanding, and I highly recommend Thévenet for Gamay lovers and I think this 2024 with its poise and finesse will impress for many years to come.
DomaineThévenet farms this small five-hectare domaine with Jean-Paul’s son, Charly, who also makes his own fabulous Gamay from the neighboring Grand Cru Régnié, has taken over the helm here in recent years. Charly is more than a rising star with his huge charisma and talent, he is staunch advocate of natural wine just like his father, and since 2008 the two have taken the domaine to the next level by adopting all organic and biodynamic viticultural practices here, adding to the quality and intensity to this Morgon bottling.This old vine Morgon, the only wine they focus on at this famed Beaujolais estate comes from two parcels, one from 110 year old vines planted, as importer Kermit Lynch notes, before WWI and another plot that is 45 years old, set on decomposed granite and sandy soils. In the early 1980s Beaujolais was flooded with mass-produced, over-commercialized wine, destroying the reputation of this once highly regarded region that was once the equal to Burgundy, but the push back came when winemaker and viticultural prophet Jules Chauvet influenced a generation to return to more traditional holistic practices and love of their land. Jean-Paul and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean Foillard, as Lynch famously chronicled, soon took up the torch of this “natural wine” movement, with Kermit dubbing them the Gang of Four, and the rest is history!
($40 Est.) 95 Points, grapelive