Le Beaujolais 2023

The 2023 Le Beaujolais, which debuted after the devastating 2021 vintage forced Lapierre to introduce a new wine to his lineup, comes from 1.5 hectares dedicated to this new cuvée. It has a lovely, heartwarming bouquet with red cherries and just a faint hint of autumn leaf. The palate is well balanced with crunchy red fruit and a pinch of white pepper, vibrant on the finish. Delicious. Mathieu Lapierre, unofficially the coolest dude in Beaujolais, was sporting shades and a t-shirt that made him look as if he had just returned from an all-night rave somewhere around the M25 in 1989. He’s also one of the most erudite winemakers to speak to about all things Beaujolais and natural wines since his father, Marcel, was one of the movement's forefathers. Lapierre always expresses an open-mindedness that is lacking elsewhere. To that end, for many years, he has produced two cuvées of Morgon, with and without SO2. I always taste these blind, and on this occasion, I just sided with the non-sulfité iteration. His sister and co-owner, Camille, joined us briefly in the early spring sunshine. “The 2023 vintage was really hard,” he told me. “Camille was in the cellar, and I was in the vineyard. There was a lot of sunburn, and we suffered hail four times in Morgon, which bore the brunt. Consequently, yields were reduced from 65hL/ha to 40hL/ha. Some of the berries had a hard taste. I was worried about there being bad microorganisms, and I feared there might be Brettanomyces. Thankfully, there isn’t any.” Lapierre has a legion of admirers, some that have followed the Domaine since his father’s era. These are wonderful expressions of Morgon, transparent and characterful.

Score: 89

Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2024-2027 01 March 2024