Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2020 Fleurie “Les Moriers”

Domaine Chignard
Discount Eligible $30.00
SOLD OUT

Given the similarity in sound, it might seem cliché or contrived to describe reds from Fleurie as among the most floral of Beaujolais, but they truly are! This is one of Fleurie’s signatures, a main way its wines stand out from those of Beaujolais’s nine other crus. Cédric Chignard’s Les Moriers cuvée is not just irresistibly floral, though. Despite being light on its feet, it bears a soupçon of savory smoke as well as a spine of minerality and staying power more commonly associated with Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie’s neighbor.
      That makes sense in this bottling, since the Moriers parcel—a historic lieu-dit that ranked as a first growth in an 1874 classification of the region’s vineyards—is directly next door to Moulin-à-Vent. A bottle of Beaujolais that bears mesmerizing finesse, depth, stamp of terroir, and also happens to stand tall as one of the region’s great values? Put me down for a case!

Tom Wolf


Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2020
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Gamay
Appellation: Fleurie
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Producer: Domaine Chignard
Winemaker: Michel & Cédric Chignard
Vineyard: 60 years, 8 ha
Soil: Granite
Aging: Aged in old foudres (large oak barrels) for 13 months
Farming: Lutte Raisonnée
Alcohol: 14.1%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Beaujolais

map of Beaujolais

After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.

The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.

Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.

More from Beaujolais or France

Discount Eligible $46.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $19.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $20.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $49.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $68.00
SOLD OUT
Discount Eligible $27.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $49.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $46.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $47.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $48.00
AT CART MAX
Sampling wine out of the barrel.

When buying red Burgundy, I think we should remember:

1. Big wines do not age better than light wine.
2. A so-called great vintage at the outset does not guarantee a great vintage for the duration.
3. A so-called off vintage at the outset does not mean the wines do not have a brilliant future ahead of them.
4. Red Burgundy should not taste like Guigal Côte-Rôtie, even if most wine writers wish it would.
5. Don’t follow leaders; watch yer parking meters.

Inspiring Thirst, page 174