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| The lovely Marie-Eloide and her adorable son |
The estate is called Clos de Mez and today I have the 2010 Morgon for $19.99 (drinks like $30-$35) and also magnums of said wine for $44.99. I just got chills writing that as it is absurd how great these wines are for the price. They have the traditional wonderful Beaujolais fruit but that fruit is interlaced with acid balance, complexity and soaring aromatics. These are incredibly serious, structured wines that are built for aging and will soon be added to the canon of top Beaujolais producers that Beaujolais lovers and even serious Burgundy lovers must own. Just like every Beaujolais wine dork I have a rotation of Beaujolais that I drink. Roillette, Brun, Desvignes, Lapierre, Breton, Metras (when I can find it), Vissoux and Lapalu. The usual suspects. There are also other Beaujolais dorks that have rotations such as mine. One of those said dorks is Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac. Jeremy has a love of German Riesling (how we met and became friends), which is a bit unusual in Burgundy and also a love of great Beaujolais, not as unusual in Burgundy.
My business partner and I arrived at Domaine Dujac as our first stop in Burgundy. We had a wonderful lunch and many bottles were opened. Now that Jeremy was in a slightly altered state of consciousness I decided to ask him what, if any, new producers were in his Beaujolais rotation. Jeremy immediately blurted out Clos de Mez and pronounced it as his favorite Beaujolais. Our ears perked up and we listened.
Jeremy told us that Marie-Elodie is married to the owner of the Confuron-Coteidot estate in Vosne-Romanee. She has been making small amounts of Morgon and Fleurie since the 2005 vintage and splits her time between Beaujolais and Burgundy. He gave us her e-mail and we went back and forth with her playing e-mail tag. We were leaving our last appointment on our last day in France (with a daunting drive from Burgundy to Frankfurt ahead of us), and Marie Eloide got back to us and said we should stop by the Confuron-Coteidot estate and taste on our way back to Frankfurt.
After we left our last appointment we were beat. After over 3 weeks on the road, we both were stanky, had laundry on the back window drying, were wined out and had a 6-7 hour drive back to Frankfurt to fly back home. But we decided we had to go see her. It was Jeremy's favorite Beaujolais, she was waiting for us, and no matter how spent we were, this is what I signed up for and I had to embrace it no matter how bad I smelled. We arrived at the beautiful, picturesque estate of Confuron-Coteidot in the heart of Vosne-Romanee and there was Marie-Eloide waiting for us with her enchanting smile and profoundly adorable son.
She first poured us the 2008 Morgon and the 2008 Fleurie. 2008 was a very difficult vintage in Beaujolais and these wines absolutely were the best 2008's I had. Nothing else was even in the same league. Blind I would have picked 2010 or 2011.
No carbonic maceration here, but traditional Burgundian elevage and wow....did these wines have glorious structures. Amazingly pure and precise fruit, sweet, ripe tannins and a lovely acid spine. The length was amazing and the aromas kept revealing new nuances. I was stunned and I was that person who talked almost as much smack about 2008 Beaujolais as 2003 Germany. I could not not stop obsessing over these wines.
We then tasted the 2009's and the 2010's. The 2009's were fresh, vibrant and showed no '09 overripeness and/or caricature that '09 is so well known for. The 10's I swooned over. I am offering these first as they just were released (she ages her wines longer than most producers in Beaujolais). Concentrated and pure with amazing finesse while also being a big wine. What every great red tries to achieve is power with lightness.
This was like a poster child for "the iron first in the velvet glove." Beaujolais is awash in values but the familiar names are creeping up in price and I am psyched to offer this wine for $19.99 ($18.99 on a 6 pack) as I think it drinks like a $20-$35 dollar of Beaujolais. Mags of this are priced at $44.99. No typo here. I love and prefer the Burgundian elevage style over the carbonic maceration style. Not that I don't like carbonic, just a preference.
She first poured us the 2008 Morgon and the 2008 Fleurie. 2008 was a very difficult vintage in Beaujolais and these wines absolutely were the best 2008's I had. Nothing else was even in the same league. Blind I would have picked 2010 or 2011.
No carbonic maceration here, but traditional Burgundian elevage and wow....did these wines have glorious structures. Amazingly pure and precise fruit, sweet, ripe tannins and a lovely acid spine. The length was amazing and the aromas kept revealing new nuances. I was stunned and I was that person who talked almost as much smack about 2008 Beaujolais as 2003 Germany. I could not not stop obsessing over these wines.
We then tasted the 2009's and the 2010's. The 2009's were fresh, vibrant and showed no '09 overripeness and/or caricature that '09 is so well known for. The 10's I swooned over. I am offering these first as they just were released (she ages her wines longer than most producers in Beaujolais). Concentrated and pure with amazing finesse while also being a big wine. What every great red tries to achieve is power with lightness.
This was like a poster child for "the iron first in the velvet glove." Beaujolais is awash in values but the familiar names are creeping up in price and I am psyched to offer this wine for $19.99 ($18.99 on a 6 pack) as I think it drinks like a $20-$35 dollar of Beaujolais. Mags of this are priced at $44.99. No typo here. I love and prefer the Burgundian elevage style over the carbonic maceration style. Not that I don't like carbonic, just a preference.
2010 Clos du Mez Morgon $19.99 ($113.94 per 6-Pack)
2010 Clos du Mez Morgon Magnum $44.99
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