Morgon : Carbonic Awakening

Morgon is one of our favourite and most-visited wine appellations sitting in the Beaujolais region of France which lies between the cities of Lyon and Beaune, at the southern end of the official Burgundy region. 

The Morgon appellation is famous for deeply-coloured red wines from the Gamay grape. The wines are crafted exclusively in the small commune of Villié-Morgon.

The character that is so evident in the wines is imparted to the grapes by the ageing schist and crumbling granite soils in which the vines thrive. The vines are cropped close to the ground because the vines of the Gamay grape - the only red grape permitted in this region - are fragile and need to be pruned aggressively. There is also a well-known affinity between the Gamay grape and the soils leached from granitic rocks and ancient schist.ough the Gamay grape is the only one ever mentioned here, wine makers are permitted to belnd up to 15% of white grapes into the red wine if they want to. The white grape varieties that are permitted are Chardonnay, Aligoté, Melon de Bourgogne and Pinot Gris. The most popular red grape of the Burgundy region, Pinot Noir, can also be added provided the total of its usage and the white grapes added do not exceed 15%.

The wines in this region are all made using a method of carbonic maceration in which the grape is starved of oxygen and goes into an anaerobic state which results in some of the most beautiful and silky wines we have tried; and it goes f**king well with asian food.

Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet, Jean Foillard, and the late, much-lamented Marcel Lapierre are famile supréme of Morgon winemakers that Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate once famously dubbed “The Gang Of Four”. Renowned for there minimal intervention approach, they helped spawn a movement of natural wine making and "nothing added, nothing taken away" vinification. 

Check out some of our curated selections from this awesome region: