Domaine Georges Descombes Morgon 2019
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A brilliant garnet color, this Morgon reveals intense aromas of jammy dark berries with hints of kirsch and spices. Fresh and clean on the palate, this is a powerful, well structured wine with firm tannins.
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Taking over the family winery in 1988, Georges took the farming in an organic direction (now certified) for its 15 hectares (some fruit is sourced as well). Grapes are hand-harvested in whole clusters and fermented with natural yeasts in a cold semi-carbonic maceration which is traditional in Beaujolais. The wine is raised in relatively newer barrels without using sulphur, except at bottling time, a style of wine which Descombes prefers drinking. Descombes tasted with Lapierre when he first started out and found Lapierre’s Morgons a model of lushness, purity and pleasure – he decided on the spot to work in a similar style.
What is different at Descombes is the lengthy aging of the wines. The wines often go through a year of raising and are then held back in bottle. Descombes feels that working without sulphur and filtration requires extra élevage to guarantee that the wines are not only delicious but also stable. The Régnié is the only early release, as it is vinified quicker to make a fruitier, more forward wine. The old-vine bottlings are Georges’ true passion and receive extra bottle aging before release.
Georges Descombes is not to be confused with Jean Descombes, a grower who sells his entire production to Georges Duboeuf. This is a totally separate estate which Georges Descombes took over in 1988 with ½ hectare from his father.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
The bucolic region often identified as the southern part of Burgundy, Beaujolais actually doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the rest of the region in terms of climate, soil types and grape varieties. Beaujolais achieves its own identity with variations on style of one grape, Gamay.
Gamay was actually grown throughout all of Burgundy until 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banished it south, making room for Pinot Noir to inhabit all of the “superior” hillsides of Burgundy proper. This was good news for Gamay as it produces a much better wine in the granitic soils of Beaujolais, compared with the limestone escarpments of the Côte d’Or.
Four styles of Beaujolais wines exist. The simplest, and one that has regrettably given the region a subpar reputation, is Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the Beaujolais wine that is made using carbonic maceration (a quick fermentation that results in sweet aromas) and is released on the third Thursday of November in the same year as harvest. It's meant to drink young and is flirty, fruity and fun. The rest of Beaujolais is where the serious wines are found. Aside from the wines simply labelled, Beaujolais, there are the Beaujolais-Villages wines, which must come from the hilly northern part of the region, and offer reasonable values with some gems among them. The superior sections are the cru vineyards coming from ten distinct communes: St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Any cru Beajolais will have its commune name prominent on the label.