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

A French variety planted predominately in Beaujolais where it is the grape behind everything from light and often acidic Beaujolais Nouveau through to the more serious and well-structured wines from the 10 cru villages. It takes its name from a hamlet just outside Chassagne-Montrachet and was at one stage widely planted on the Côte d`Or. However it was gradually phased out due to its poor yield and supposed poor quality of its wines.

A clear step up from basic Beaujolais, Villages wines are still light, with the same pear-drop hint to the juicy red fruit, but are richer with more personality; they are well worth paying a little bit extra for. Beaujolais Villages can come from any of 38 named villages, all of which are based in the northern, hilly half of the region on granite soils.

Coming from a winemaking family, it was almost inevitable that Jean-Marc would set up his own estate, which he did in 1989 with his wife Christine. Their 19 hectares are divided between Morgon (13 hectares), Régnié (one hectare) and Beaujolais Villages (five hectares) and Jean-Marc believes that this is the maximum area he can cultivate while still producing the quality he is after. The gobelet vines have an average age of 60 years, and are planted at high density (10,000 per hectare). Although not certified, he farms organically and all the work in the vineyard is done by hand.