Jean-Marc Burgaud, Beaujolais Villages, Les Vignes de Lantignie 2022

The highly respected Burgaud family has vines in Lantigné, high up in the hills above Brouilly and one of the best sources of Beaujolais-Villages.  The Gamay vines are over 55 years old and planted on clay soils, which lends excellent concentration to the fininshed wine.  This is a deeply coloured, serious-but-approachable wine with lovely dark-fruit perfume and layers of supple, soft-textured fruit.

The Beaujolais Villages is a masterclass in balance. An attractive deep ruby in the glass, the nose boasts bright aromas of crunchy red fruits and violets. On the palate, the wine has a superb structure, with grainy tannins, concentrated red fruit flavours and excellent acidity lifting the finish.

Pre-fermentation maceration usually lasts for seven days. The Gamay is whole bunch fermented at 23 to 28°C, with only one pump over per day. In order to achieve perfect balance in this Beaujolais Villages, the fermenting wine is tasted every day to judge when the tannins extracted are in balance with the acid. “Judge a domaine on its entry point wine,” says Jean-Marc. “I do as much work in the vineyard and cellar on this wine as I do on my Côte du Py.”

91 points JamesSuckling.com "Lovely forest-berry and black-cherry aromas gently introduce you to this medium-bodied beauty that has just enough tannin to be gently warming and properly dry. Very good minerality, spice and length. A good argument for giving Lantignié Beaujolais Cru status."