Domaine de Colonat Morgon Les Charmes-Grandes Terres 2022

This cuvée comes from Gobelet vines with an average age of 85 years. The vineyard is located on the ‘Les Charmes’ plateau which sits at 300 metres altitude. This south-east facing terroir is in Côte de Py the most prestigious lieu-dit of Morgon, and these vines are planted in the prized ‘Les Grandes Terres’ single plot within the lieu dit. The soil is made of the famous granite rock and sand, which results in the old Gamay vines producing low yields of very concentrated juice. The vineyard is in conversion to organic and is certified HVE sustainable. They promote a balanced eco-system; herbicides and pesticides are not employed, and only small, light vehicles are used reducing the impact on the terroir. To prevent disease in the vineyard, the immune system of the vine is stimulated by spraying the plants with infusions. The grapes are hand-harvested at optimum maturity.

The grapes were manually sorted and 90% were destemmed, leaving a proportion of grapes with stems for complexity and structure. Temperature controlled fermentation took place in concrete tanks with selected local yeast, which has been specially selected from the Gamay grapes in the vineyard. A slow and gentle extraction of fine tannins took place, with a soft maceration with few pump-overs lasting around 14 days. Traditional pressing took place before the wine was matured in traditional terracotta amphorae on the fine lees for six months.