J-M Burgaud’s Cuvée James and his Javernières 2018 both showed very well lately - pretty serious wines, bit very nicely balanced and definitely less lavish and fruit-driven than Bouland’s 2018s.
Robert - is that your picture? If so, that looks like the regular cuvee, not the Tardive.
My short note from last August on the regular Clos de la Roilette:
Clos de la roilette 2018. Found this open upon arriving home. Ripe cherries and cassis on the first whiff. Medium length with a decent amount of tannins, lower acidity. Ripe but not 2015 ripe. Drinking very well and a steal at direct pricing from the estate. Glad I bought a couple of cases of this and the cuvee tardive. Once the glass is empty, it invites you for a second revisit, which I course did.
My short note from last August on the regular Clos de la Roilette:
Clos de la roilette 2018. Found this open upon arriving home. Ripe cherries and cassis on the first whiff. Medium length with a decent amount of tannins, lower acidity. Ripe but not 2015 ripe. Drinking very well and a steal at direct pricing from the estate. Glad I bought a couple of cases of this and the cuvee tardive. Once the glass is empty, it invites you for a second revisit, which I course did.
I think I will open a Tardive over the next few days.
LOL, you are right!
Now here is the funny part: I never bothered to check as I never order the regular cuvee. The Tardive is always worth the few extra bucks. So, a retailer must have sent me the wrong bottle. Now off to go check the rest of them puppies in my fridge . . . .
Just poured a glass of the 2018 Lapierre Cuvée Marcel Lapierre. Definitely heavier than some other recent vintages I have tried (14 & 16), but not a bruiser (pic for color below, you can see it’s relatively light). No sharp streak of acidity, but it is certainly balanced. VERY aromatically intense. Good tannic structure and nice spice on the finish. Delicious, and a very “correct” Morgon.
If you still have access to this I don’t think you’ll regret grabbing a few bottles. Best 18 bojo I’ve had so far.
Fantastic, Jason! I might just grab a couple - sounds like something I’d enjoy and maybe I’ll put one away for a couple years to see how it develops even if it does seem like 18 might be an early-drinker of a vintage.
Thanks for the update, hope you’re enjoying!
Update: bought a bottle, opened it tonight and…corked.
More like Cuvee XXX! Going to see if the restaurant has another bottle.
I opened a bottle of the 2018 Daniel Bouland Corcelette Sable tonight. While I would not call it too ripe, I did find it a bit out of balance. Very fruity, to be sure, but also with a streak of what seemed like green or unripe tannins. I loved Bouland’s 2015 Corcelette, which, despite being higher in alcohol and probably “bigger” than this wine, was just a lot more put together. We’ll see where this goes.
William nailed this one, flat out fantastic:
Louis-Claude Desvignes Morgon Côte du Py Javernières 2018
Loved the powdery quality to this wine, like an earthy, dusty coating to an array of crisp red fruits. Fruits perfectly ripe, right at peak. A bitter dark chocolate finish. A powerful, intense, decadent wine that is delicious now but will clearly grow with age. Lots of structure here. An amazing value, I think this is sub-$30.
(94 pts).
Just got the 2019s to taste here, quite excited!
William, I don’t see the Delys over here, but I see a 2018 Morgon Corcelette VV Sable and a straight 2018 Morgon Corcelette, any of these a good pick to drink now?
Haven’t had those, but as a whole 2018 Bojos seem to be more for drinking now than laying down since so many of them are pretty monolithic in style with relatively high levels of alcohol and low acidities. Most 2018 Bojos I’ve tasted have tasted more like Rhône Grenache than Gamay.
If you’re interested in good Beaujolais, I’d skip 2018 altogether or just taste them out of academic curiosity.
VV Sable for sure! Pace Otto, I think you can still get a good sense of the old-vine concentration and classic winemaking that distinguished Daniel’s wines even in the warmer vintage. Pair it with some rare grilled beef, perhaps.
Recent satisfactions, even for very ripe wines :
_Arnaud Combier Fleurie 2018 : 15,5/20 – may 2020
14,5°. Bien fait, très mûr mais sans lourdeur obsédante (opulent mais fin). Fait pinot noir (fleurs, cerise confte).
Louis-Claude Desvignes Morgon Javernières Côte du Py 2018 : 16/20 – may 2020
Très mûr, floral, fruité, croquant à souhait. Net et longuement savoureux.
Château de Grand Pré Fleurie Cuvée Spaciale 2018 : 15,5/16 – July 2019_
I really hope that is the case. Although Bouland makes wonderful wines, I’ve had some 2015s that were way too ripe and clunky for my taste. You could taste the quality of the winemaking there, but the wines lacked precision and came across as overtly sweet for my ideal of classic Bojo. I haven’t had that many 2018s yet, but based on those that I’ve tasted, I can draw some parallels between 2018 and 2015. Of course one shouldn’t generalize, but seeing how I’ve tasted only one fresh and precise wine from a few handfuls of 2018 Bojo, it’s quite hard not to.
Oh, and pairing it with grilled beef can be quite tricky, since I cook only vegetarian food in my home kitchen. 
2015s across the board have certainly rarely aged with grace (I’ve tasted some outright oxidized '15s recently, from producers that I guess are doing thermovinifcation), though I do have some in my cellar for the long haul that I’m pleased with. I think 2018s as a set are better balanced than that: partly because producers learnt the lessons of 2015; and partly because the very high yields buffered ripening. Personally, I very much share you preferences for the more fragrant, racy expressions of Gamay that nod to Pinot rather than Grenache. But, these warmer vintages are part of the region’s authentic voice, too, and I do find they have interesting things to say—beyond any professional imperative to be “fair” to different styles, which can be taken too far. This is the most southern region of greater Burgundy, after all, and with its terra-cotta roofs, head-trained vines, granitic soils, distinctive flora and different patois it makes sense that it should nod to the Rhône as well as the Côte d’Or in the style of its wines. And some of those ripe vintages of yesteryear—1929, 1937, 1945, 1947—have aged so brilliantly that I’m convinced that ripe Gamay has the potential to do amazing things. Whether much of the region’s winemaking is at a level where repeating the successes of those years is a possibility is another question, of course.
Interesting observation re: Grenache v. Gamay…in retrospect, I am placing 2018 Beaujolais at the table in situations where I would have reached for a Rhone Grenache, so I subliminally agree completely.
Cheers,
fred
We got into that a bit upstream, and in some other threads IIRC.
I think it’s a useful analogy, even down to how both grapes were traditionally vinified before the 1970s: whole bunches, foot trodden, submerged cap, maturation in neutral foudres or barrels.
I opened the 2018 Foillard cote du py last night and found it undrinkable. I couldn’t choke down a glass. Searing alcohol and no balance. Just heat and weight. I once tried a bottle of sine qua non and this was almost as bad. One of the worst wines I’ve had in a while. The Lapierre Morgon was less bad, but still something I wish I had no more of. Fingers crossed on all those 2018 burgs I bought blind. The future of the traditional foillard and lapierre style seems very bleak.
A