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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.2 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 298 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by James Kim on 10/14/2022 & rated 91 points: This is the sulfured S version. Stood up for several weeks then decanted off fine sediment for 1.5h then back into bottle and drank over 4h. From memory. Just lovely stuff that got better throughout the night. Lovely ripe cherry fruit with a bit of bubblegum that said gamay but then also more pinot flavors come through such that the wine sits somewhere in between. Accented by some spices and herbs. Body is on light-medium but lacks a bit of depth. Nice finish. Overall, a lovely wine that was a pleasure to drink 91+ (1648 views) | | | Tasted by MarkLA on 7/13/2022 & rated 89 points: Dark cherry, rhubarb, sarsaparilla, black olive. High toned with black fruits, tapenade, balsamic vinegar, and herbs. Still displaying a carbonic signature, I found it more enjoyable after a good shake. Should maintain for the next handful of years. (1720 views) | | | Tasted by Enfant sauvage on 6/28/2021: My last bottle. Early on in its life, this was the best vintage of Lapierre in the early 2010s (along with '14 perhaps, but 14s have always been more prickly), and it still is. Pretty cherry fruit, now mellowed out, a few nice secondary notes (baking spice, earth). As with the other Lapierres of this era that I opened recently, needed air. Not great on opening, I'd recommend a short decant. (2580 views) | | | Tasted by L-C. on 5/31/2021 & rated 89 points: This has aged gracefully. Still dominated by light and fresh red berry and cherry fruit with only few tertiary notes, some floral and mineral touch. Light plus bodied, sweet fruit, nice length. I think it’s now time to drink up. (2425 views) | | | Tasted by Andydna on 4/4/2021 & rated 91 points: Fresh strawberry juice. Very tasty. (2509 views) | | | Tasted by YoRi on 1/1/2021 & rated 89 points: J'anticipais depuis plusieurs années la dégustation de ce vin.
J'ai en cave plusieurs bouteilles sous différents millésimes que je conservent pour une verticale.
Apparence rouge cramoisi assez dense.
Nez de framboise mûre, brioche grillée.
En bouche, bel équilibre sucrosité-acidité, tanins structurants et souples. Framboise, légèrement floral, rose-pivoine.
Persistance moyenne.
Un peu en deca de mes attentes mais tout de même bon rapport Q-P et le vin a maintenu sa fraicheur fruité. (1998 views) | | | Tasted by JVG on 9/12/2020: Limpid cherry red color. On the nose, it's lifted, perfumed and heady, with an alluring mixture of dried flowers, sweet spice, cedar, underbrush, baked cherry pie, and kirsch. With a bit of air as it sits in the glass, it gets a bit earthier with the tree-bark / wet forest floor aspects gaining in intensity and the fruit receding. On the palate, the main impression it leaves me with is one of vitality, with great energy in the fruit, intense spicy lift, and a sort of weightless texture. Compared with an average Beaujolais, it stands apart not by virtue of its flavor profile, but rather due to depth, balance, and tension. It seems very alive, and very harmonious. The finish is also particularly noteworthy for its length and intensity, without feeling at all heavy. It just lingers pleasantly on, inviting you back to the glass. (1613 views) | | | Tasted by tazerowe on 5/24/2020 & rated 93 points: Lapierre traditionally trades at a premium, and I admit I have often passed in favor of better "values" in cru beaujolais. This bottle suggests that has been a mistake, as it is lovely. Youthful color, nice cherry and herb flavor, zippy acidity and a long finish. This comes off as elegant but is distinctively gamay. Really nice. (1715 views) | | | Tasted by Putnam Weekley on 4/26/2020: A shocking turnaround after 24 hours open. Yesterday it tasted too old, with a bitter, desiccated finish. James was able to guess that it was Beaujolais. I was ready to lump it in with mismanaged Pinot Noir. Today it is as it should be: a gliding, savory, weightless mouthful of black and red, impelling little, curled harmonics of all the berry fruits. Yesterday I allowed that it might be good served with food; but as I finish this there is none on the table. Yesterday I allowed that it might be good while engaging in conversation with a cigarette-smoking lady; but as I finish it today there are only kitty-cats! (2122 views) | | | Tasted by dsamuel on 3/28/2020 & rated 91 points: Medium ruby - unfiltered
Medium aromas of candied cherry with earth/rock and touch of mint
Very Pinotish at this point and quite gorgeous
Rather broad and beautiful palate of red fruit and fresh herbs
Medium plus acidity and medium well integrated tannins
I love my Beaujolais young but this wine reminds me why I always stick some bottles back in the cellar
This has lost its crunch and morphed into a beautifully balanced wine
Not sure any further development lies ahead but could safely age for another 3-5 yrs - this was version with sulfites (1678 views) | | | Tasted by dke on 3/26/2020 & rated 88 points: N-version; some barnyard and cherries, lighter style with strong acidity. Good but not as fresh as previous bottle... (too late?). (1680 views) | | | Tasted by nzinkgraf on 12/21/2019: Still some light tannin. Lots of structure still and loadedly primary. Dark red fruit, rather than red. (1730 views) | | | Tasted by drrobvino on 11/29/2019 & rated 92 points: Last of 6 bottles. Consumed with some leftovers on Black Friday, as well as a freshly roasted turkey.
The Morgon popped with strawberry goodness, showing flavors of woody stems and wet earth.
What a delicious Bojo, for $26 USD, an amazing value, and a case-purchase for me in the future. (1533 views) | | | Tasted by jkline on 10/17/2019: Mellow light simple yummy refreshing (1821 views) | | | Tasted by tbriggs on 7/22/2019 & rated 91 points: Still very good. Mellowed a little. (1725 views) | | | Tasted by winchester-xi on 7/9/2019: Tannins and youthful angularity resolved, now just showing pretty fruit with some floral overtones. Sulphered version. (1675 views) | | | Tasted by pjhr on 5/8/2019 & rated 92 points: Delicious juicy red cherry, currant, and mineral notes on the nose and palate with tasty acidity and resolving tannins on the finish. (1753 views) | | | Tasted by pjhr on 3/12/2019 & rated 92 points: As tasty as the last bottle! (1939 views) | | | Tasted by tomlee on 2/16/2019 & rated 91 points: Ruby red in color. 12.5% ABV. Sublime nose of red fruits, damp forest floor, earth and minerals. Light to medium body with bright acidity. Elegance and grace defined. Cherries, cranberries and earth on the palate. The finish is long, delicate and seamless. Another really nice bottle from a winery that delivers year after year after year. Delicious with and without food. A wine that can be enjoyed shortly after bottling or after 10 years in the cellar. Well done! This version will drink well for years to come. (1930 views) | | | Tasted by slanum on 1/28/2019: (N) Brett-infected. (1902 views) | | | Tasted by pjhr on 10/20/2018 & rated 92 points: Delicious juicy red cherry, currant, and mineral notes on the nose and palate with tasty acidity and resolving tannins on the finish. (1939 views) | | | Tasted by pbaek on 10/8/2018: I’ve had this going for 4 days now and it hasn’t budged a notch. Opens up with distinct barnyard notes that blow off after a while and gives way to cranberry fruit, bitter and dusty, and earthy marks (not unlike a Jura). Light with good acidity, I believe this will age extremely well. (1994 views) | | | Tasted by L-C. on 10/7/2018 & rated 89 points: Drunk with dinner, no formal notes, but from memory: intense nose of red fruit and fresh cut grass, great liveliness, round, intense. Maybe not the greatest of depths, but still very good. (1753 views) | | | Tasted by Raage on 9/23/2018 & rated 91 points: Magnum chez P.
Quel beau gamay! Etonné par la maturité de ce 2011! le vin est assez riche, solaire, épicé et ne manquant évidemment pas de fraicheur, il aura sa place à l'automne sur un plat de caractère. (1966 views) | | | Tasted by James Bornn on 4/17/2018 & rated 91 points: A flight of 09,10 and 11. The 09 initially showed a meaty, dark quality - it was frustratingly dense and dull but the pure, easy soft fruit of the 10, or the classic length, structure and balance of the 11 seemed more appealing. By the end of the night, the 09 caught up and passed them as it opened up, as it showed it has more depth than 10 and more appeal than the 11. A reminder of why we praise these warm vintages. (2720 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2014, Issue #52, A Visit With Vintages 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 At Some of My Favorite Beaujolais Estates
(Morgon- Domaine Marcel Lapierre (served from magnum)) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, Jul-13, IWC Issue #10148 (7/1/2013)
(Domaine Marcel Lapierre Morgon) Subscribe to see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jan/Feb 2013, Issue #43, Another Pass Through The 2011 Beaujolais Vintage (and Friends)
(Morgon- Domaine Marcel Lapierre) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Richard Jennings
RJonWine.com (3/23/2013)
(Marcel Lapierre Morgon) Dark cherry red color; fresh, ripe red currant nose; tasty, fresh, ripe red currant, red berry, mineral palate; medium-plus finish 92+ points 92 points |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of View From the Cellar and Vinous and RJonWine.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| Marcel Lapierre Producer website
U.S. Importer (Addt'l Info)
Marcel Lapierre, Beaujolais Producer, Is Dead at 60
By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: October 11, 2010
Marcel Lapierre, a Beaujolais grower and producer who played a leading role in rejuvenating the diminished reputation of the region’s wines, died Sunday in Lyon, France. He was 60.
The cause of death was melanoma, said Kermit Lynch, the American importer of his wines. Mr. Lapierre was a rigorous, relentlessly experimental winemaker. He and a group of three other producers were instrumental in demonstrating to the world that Beaujolais had far more to offer than its often insipid mass-market nouveau wines.
Rather than these fruity, happy-go-lucky concoctions, Mr. Lapierre and his colleagues, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton and Jean-Paul Thévenet, produced wines of depth, nuance and purity that nonetheless retained the joyous nature of Beaujolais.
Mr. Lynch remembered the first time he tasted a Lapierre Morgon, from the 1989 vintage. “That bottle was so convincing to me,” he said on Monday. “He and his gang were so different from everything going on.”
Mr. Lynch long ago called Mr. Lapierre and his like-minded colleagues the Gang of Four. The name stuck, even as the loose group of friends came to include many more than four.
Mr. Lapierre was born April 17, 1950, into a country exhausted by two world wars. When salesmen appeared, offering new, labor-saving technologies, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, many vignerons did not require much convincing to cast aside the labor-intensive traditions of generations. The result was a sort of banalization of Beaujolais.
The problems for the region were eventually made worse by the growing popularity of Beaujolais nouveau. When Mr. Lapierre took over his family’s domain in Villié Morgon in 1973, the quaint harvest custom of making a new wine for immediate consumption was about to explode into a worldwide phenomenon. By the end of the 1970s, with the aid of aggressive promotion, cities from London to New York to Tokyo would be counting the minutes until the third Thursday of each November, the official release date, when wine shops could unveil the stored cache and proclaim, “Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé.”
The popularity of nouveau tilted the priorities of the region. As more and more Beaujolais production went into nouveau, growers no longer made a pretense of striving for quality. When the market for nouveau diminished, growers in the lesser regions of Beaujolais were stuck with an oversupply of poor wine, and the public was stuck with an image of vapid wine meant to be drunk immediately.
In the 1970s, Mr. Lapierre made his wines in the conventional manner of the times. But by 1981 he had come under the influence of Jules Chauvet, a Beaujolais wine dealer and scientist who advocated avoiding the use of chemicals as far as possible. Mr. Lapierre adopted organic viticulture, decided he would no longer add yeast to induce fermentation, and reduced or eliminated the amount of sulfur dioxide he would add to the wine.
Sulfur dioxide has been used as a preservative in wine for centuries, but can alter the experience of a wine, the way viewing a work of art through glass differs from a direct view. Used in excess, it can mask a range of sins, and many leading winemakers today try to use as little as possible. But to use no sulfur is risky and requires absolute rigor in shipping and storing the wines.
“It affects the very shape of the wine,” said Mr. Lynch, who does not buy wine without sulfur from any producer other than Mr. Lapierre. “The wine with no SO2 is very voluptuous and rounded. With SO2 it’s very squared-off to me.”
In recent years Mr. Lapierre’s son, Mathieu, had taken over winemaking duties for his father. Mr. Lapierre is also survived by his wife, Marie, and two daughters, Camille and Anne.
Why had he changed his methods in 1981?
“Because the wines I made didn’t satisfy me, and the wines from elsewhere that I liked weren’t made in the modern style,” he told the quarterly The Art of Eating in 2004.
“I’m just making the wine of my father and grandfather,” he said, “but I’m trying to make it a little better.”
GamayPlant RobezFrance Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)
Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings
2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.comBurgundy Les vins de Bourgogne (Bureau interprofessionnel des vins de Bourgogne) (and in English)
Burgundy - The province of eastern France, famous for its red wines produced from Pinot Noir and its whites produced from Chardonnay. (Small of amounts of Gamay and Aligoté are still grown, although these have to be labeled differently.) The most famous part of the region is known as the Cote d'Or (the Golden Slope). It is divided into the Cote de Beaune, south of the town of Beaune (famous principally for its whites), and the Cote de Nuits, North of Beaune (home of the most famous reds). In addition, the Cote Chalonnaise and the Maconnais are important wine growing regions, although historically a clear level (or more) below the Cote d'Or. Also included by some are the regions of Chablis and Auxerrois, farther north.
Burgundy Report | Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne - na stejné téma od Heleny Baker
# 2013 Vintage Notes:
* "2013 is a vintage that 20 years ago would have been a disaster." - Will Lyons
* "low yields and highly variable reds, much better whites." - Bill Nanson
* "Virtually all wines were chaptalised, with a bit of sugar added before fermentation to increase the final alcohol level." - Jancis Robinson
# 2014 Vintage Notes:
"We have not had such splendid harvest weather for many years. This will ensure high quality (fragrant, classy and succulent are words already being used) across the board, up and down the hierarchy and well as consistently from south to north geographically apart from those vineyards ravaged by the hail at the end of June." - Clive Coates
# 2015 Vintage Notes:
"Low yields and warm weather allowed for ample ripeness, small berries and an early harvest. Quality is looking extremely fine, with some people whispering comparisons with the outstanding 2005 vintage. Acid levels in individual wines may be crucial." - Jancis Robinson
# 2017 Vintage Notes:
"Chablis suffered greatly from frost in 2017, resulting in very reduced volumes. As ever, the irony seems to be that what remains is very good quality, as it is in the Côte d’Or. Cooler nights across the region have resulted in higher-than-usual acidity, with good conditions throughout the harvest season allowing for ripe, healthy fruit." - Jancis Robinson
# 2018 Vintage Notes:
"The most successful region for red Burgundy in 2018 was the Côte de Beaune. The weather was ideal in this area, with just enough sunlight and rain to produce perfectly balanced wines naturally." - Vinfolio
Beaujolais Vins du Beaujolais (L’Union des Vignerons du Beaujolais)
The vineyards on weinlagen-info
Wine Scholar Guild Vintage Chart & Ratings
# 2009 Vintage Notes:
"There will be a lot of absolutely delicious Beaujolais to try in 2009, as it is indeed a very good, atypically ripe and opulent vintage for Beaujolais. As others here have mentioned, the Louis-Dressner and Kermit Lynch portfolios cover many of the very best estates (with an honorable mention for importer Weygandt-Metzler), and just choosing from their strip labels is a very good jumping off point. As a quick primer, the three best Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages producers that I regularly cross paths with are the aformentioned Jean-Paul Brun and his Domaine Terres Dorées, Pierre Chermette of Domaine du Vissoux and Domaine Dupeuble from the Kermit Lynch's portfolio. I also find the Beaujolais-Villages from Joseph Drouhin consistently excellent and very classic in style and like all of this firm's Beaujolais, a completely underrated source for very top drawer Crus and B-Villages.
Amongst the Cru Beaujolais, it is important to keep in mind(again as folks have mentioned already) that certain villages tend to produce much more structured wines, and this will be very evident in a powerful vintage like 2009. In general terms, the wines from Moulin-a-Vent, Morgon and Cote de Brouilly are going to demand a bit of bottle age to really start to drink well in 2009, and these may not be the best growers to focus on when tasting through the vintage to draw your own conclusions. But in these appellations, if you keep in mind that what you are tasting is likely going to need five years of bottle age to really blossom from these crus, you cannot go wrong with Kermit Lynch's "Gang of Five" producers- Thevenet, Lapierre, Foillard, Breton are four of the five- as well as Georges Descombes and Louis et Claude Desvignes from Louis-Dressner. I also like very much the Morgons made by Louis Jadot and Joseph Drouhin for the big houses, and Jean-Paul Brun also makes a very good example of Morgon.
In Moulin-a-Vent, Louis Jadot's Chateau des Jacques makes a very good range- though always structured when young- and Bernard Diochon is excellent year in and year out. Pierre Chermette also makes superb Moulin-a-Vent and the Drouhin version is consistently exceptional. In Cote de Brouilly, the two most exciting producers are Nicole Chanrion and Chateau Thivin (both represented by Kermit Lynch). The Chanrion is usually very accessible out of the blocks for this very stony terroir (it is an extinct volcano), while the Chateau Thivin bottlings demand time and are usually tight and structured when young. Better to try the delicious straight Brouilly from Chateau Thivin if you want to drink one of their wines out of the blocks, as that never demands patience and is lovely.
In the less structured Cru villages, wines I particularly like are the aformentioned Clos de la Roilette in Fleurie (they are the Chateau Yquem of the village- though their vines are right on the Moulin-a-Vent border and the wine used to be sold as Moulin-a-Vent before the AOC went into effect, so they are a bit more structured than most Fleuries), Cedric Chignard, Jean-Paul Brun and Pierre Chermette are all very, very good sources. Domaine Diochon in Moulin-a-Vent also makes a good Fleurie, as does Joseph Drouhin. In general these will be more floral, open and sappy bottles of Beaujolais out of the blocks and they will be delicious from the get-go.
In St. Amour, Domaine des Billards makes absolutely brilliant wines and is one of my favorite producers in all of Beaujolais. In Julienas, Michel Tete is the star producer, but I also like the Drouhin bottling from here very well indeed. There are many more outstanding bottlings to be found scattered thorughout the crus and I am sure that I am forgetting several worthy estates, but this at least will give you a good "to do" list to get started with the vintage. The only '09s I have tasted thus far are the Joseph Drouhin wines, which I tasted through in Beaune in March, and they are deep, sappy and beautifully soil-driven. If all the other top estates have made wines in this style, then this is indeed going to be a very special vintage for the region. But with the wines from Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent, you may do better trying a few bottles from either the 2006 or 2007 vintage if you can find them well-stored, as these are less structured vintages and both are beginning to really drink well from these villages." - John Gilman
# 2014 Vintage Notes:
"The 2014 vintage in Beaujolais is absolutely terrific and probably, along with 2011, the best vintage in the region since 2005. The region has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the last few years, with an absolutely phenomenal vintage in 2011 (particularly for those of us who like to age our Beaujolais for several years prior to serving), one of the most difficult growing seasons in recent memory in 2012, a good, solid classic vintage in 2013, and now, again, another truly outstanding vintage in 2014." - John Gilman
"2014 [...] vintage is a return to the mineral-cracked freshness and explosive low-alcohol red fruit the cru level wines of this region are famous for but have lacked since 2010/2011 (without the potentially hard/green/diffuse/underripe character found in many 2012/2013's)." - Jon Rimmerman
"the 2014s exhibit lively berry and floral character punctuated by zesty minerality. The wines are concentrated yet not heavy, and show good structure without coming off as outsized. Many producers I visited in June described the wines as a hybrid of the 2010s and 2011s, combining the structure of the earlier vintage and the fruit intensity of the latter. As such, the 2014s, as a group, are hugely appealing right now but I have no doubt that they will reward another three to five years of aging. Many of the brawniest 2014s have the material to see them through a decade or more of life but by that point they’ll have little resemblance to most peoples’ notion of Beaujolais, so I’d advise drinking almost all of the ‘14s before they hit their tenth birthday." - Josh Raynolds
# 2015 Vintage Notes:
"Vinification will not be straightforward and the 2015 vintage will be a reflection of the quality of the winemaker." - Jean Loron
"the wines have the potential to age and evolve beautifully" - Michael Apstein
# 2016 Vintage Notes:
"a harvest of soft, amply fruity wines, though without the depth and density of the outstanding 2015 harvest." - Wine Scholar Guild
# 2017 Vintage Notes:
"Trade body InterBeaujolais has said the 2018 harvest in the region will “go down in history as a legendary vintage” alongside the likes of 2017, 2015 and 2009." - Rupert Millar
#2018 Vintage Notes:
"The heatwave of July and August led growers to anticipate rich, high-alcohol wines akin to the excellent, but atypical, 2015s. However, probably due to the reserves of groundwater accumulated prior to June 20th, the 2018s are, as a rule, fresher, with slightly higher acidity and considerably lower alcohol than their counterparts from 2015. There is, nonetheless, an appealing fleshiness or rondeur to many 2018s, which suggests they won’t keep for as long as the more mineral 2017s – which are really hitting their stride now – but makes them highly seductive from the word go.
Another interesting theme, which we encountered in wines from various domaines across different crus, is a Cabernet Franc-like leafy character towards the back of the palate, which contributes an extra degree of freshness and buvabilité." Will Heslop Morgon The vineyards on weinlagen-info
With 1100 ha of vines, Morgon is the second largest Cru after Brouilly, producing wines that are only marginally less powerful than those of Moulin-à-Vent. Certainly Morgon’s are the firmest in the region, with a bouquet of great purity and compact Gamay fruit. Morgon needs more time than other Crus before it can be broached - normally 2-3 years for its most serious exponents – and develop its rich, savoury flavours which lead to a Pinot Noir-like maturity. The ‘Classico’ heart of the Morgon region is the Mont du Py, just south of the commune of Villié-Morgon. The finest wines almost exclusively come from its Côte de Py slope, whose aspect and rich schistous soil contribute to greater ripeness, and yield wines that are denser than anywhere else in the appellation. As you would expect from a region of this size the character and quality of Morgon can vary considerably, but the best are as good, and as sturdy and long-lived, as any other Beaujolais you will find. Recommended Producers: François Calot, Maurice Gaget, Louis-Claude Desvignes.
See also Morgon Details |
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