2014 Piron Beaujolais Chénas Quartz

Domaine Dominique Piron

France / Beaujolais / Domaine Dominique Piron

Chénas is the smallest Beaujolais cru by surface area. This comes from a vineyard that Piron runs with the three Michelin-starred Lameloise restaurant in Chagny. The nine-hectare parcel comprises vines of more than 60 years of age on a steep, east-facing slope between 310 and 380 metres up. Soils of granite covered by quartz crystals lend a pronounced minerality. This to me is the most exciting wine of the entire tasting. A really quite full-on nose of spice, earth and prettiness is mirrored on a palate that seems to bring together notes of Cornas and Chambolle-Musigny. Supple, generous and vibrant, with graphite and deeply scented red fruits.

January, 2017

Jamie Goode

Jamie Goode's Wine Blog

95 points

From Dominique Piron. Very fresh red fruits nose with some peppery spiciness. Detailed and fresh with some raspberry too. Lovely elegance on the palate, which shows focused red cherry and raspberry fruit with some peppery detail. Floral, fresh and delicious.

August, 2016

Josh Raynolds

Vinous Media

92 points

Brilliant ruby-red. A sexy, highly perfumed bouquet evokes fresh red and dark berries, potpourri and smoky minerals, and a subtle hint of game emerges slowly. Juicy, impressively concentrated black raspberry, bitter cherry and violet pastille flavors tighten up and become spicier on the back half. Powerful but graceful, finishing very long, sappy and precise, with no rough edges and a repeating floral quality.

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About Domaine Dominique Piron

Dominique Piron’s family history in Beaujolais spans more than four centuries, with his oldest known ancestor born in Morgon in 1590. Since then, there have been 14 generations of winegrowers in the family. Dominique seeks to create characterful terroir wines that are fruity, subtle and elegant from his sloping vineyards of fragmented granite and schist. These are wines that showed us what we’d long been looking for from Beaujolais but had almost given up hope of finding. They display extraordinary depth, freshness and verve, with real terroir-specific differences between the various crus. Morgon wines tend to be racy and elegant, and always have a slight hint of black cherry, bright spicy notes and great structure, which lends them great ageing potential. Dominique also makes wines from six other Beaujolais crus, alongside his excellent Beaujolais-Villages, sparkling and still Chardonnay and fresh, crunchy Gamay rosé.

About

“[Dominique Piron] has been one of the architects of the revival of Morgon, tackling with boundless energy the expression of wines of terroir, vinified in the pure tradition of Beaujolais,” declared Le Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France. And there it is; Beaujolais flows through this man's veins. Dominique Piron’s oldest known ancestor was born in Morgon in 1590. Since then, there have been 14 generations of winegrowers in the family. His own wine knowhow dates back 40 years. His philosophy revolves around sustainable winegrowing, observing the watchwords of natural balance and biodiversity as he works land strewn with broken-down granite and schist.