The lieu-dit Les Délys is part of the Corcelette climat located downslope from Bellevue and right behind Bouland’s residence and winery. Délys is Bouland’s back garden if you like. Again, Bouland splits his vines into two cuvées: an old vine cuvée raised in foudre and this younger-vine version raised in concrete. The vines were planted in 1978 and 1980 in the deep granitic sand typical of Les Délys, which brings roundness and Burgundian-like texture to the wines. It’s another super refined and comprehensively delicious Morgon, redolent of succulent wild berry and nettle spice, topped off by a vibrant, racy close with just a hint of tannin.

Dominique Piron is one of the benchmark producers in Beaujolais, producing balanced and thoughtful wines. The wine offers abundant fruit but also strucutre, resulting in a very rewarding Bojo.

Juliénas is among the 10 best Crus of the Beaujolais région, offering velvety textures, peppered red fruit aromas and a soft tannin structure. Our vineyards (2.85 Ha.) are situated on the eastern side of the village of Juliénas, on the mid-slope, enjoying a southern exposure. The soils are deep, well drained and composed of granite rock sediments and slate. These optimal conditions allow the exclusive gamay varietal to express lots of finesse, good texture and concentration. The grapes are picked by hand and transported direcly into our cellars in Fuissé (15 min.). The key elements for our wine-making is the health of the grapes and their phenolic maturity as we priviledge whole cluster fermentation and partial barrel/tank maturing. We focus on the terroir expression allowing our wines to affine and develop in the bottle. The Château-Fuissé controls and runs this property since 2010 and puts everything together to make a “Great” Cru of Juliénas” in the pure tradition of Beaujolais…

This unique Beaujolais comes from one of the highest vineyards in Beaujolais. Aux Gauthiers is located at the top of the slope and 520 metres above the Col du Truges and the commune of Villié-Morgon. The vines here were planted in the 1940s and 1970s and are picked one week later than Benoît Moreau’s cuvées in Chassagne-Montrachet. The winemaking encompasses 30% whole clusters, and no oak is involved in the maturation.

Most of Daniel Bouland’s old bush vines are rooted in the Morgon climat of Corcelette, in hilly Haut-Morgon to the northwest of the appellation. Within this area, there are several lieux-dits that Bouland now bottles separately, and Bellevue is one of these. It’s a particularly stony (cailloux means stones) southeast-facing site, with plenty of schist running through the granitic, sandy base soil, much like in Côte du Py. The plethora of rock on the surface traps and radiates warmth, and, as a result, this is typically Bouland’s earliest-ripening site. The vines were planted in three stages in 1937, 1951 and 1967. This cuvée is largely made the same way as the Bellevue Sable wine—natural, whole-bunch ferment and no fining—though the vines are on different rootstocks (420A rootstock in this case, specifically designed for terroirs that are very stony and have no topsoil). Also, the vines are a touch older than in the Sable cuvée below. It’s another deep, inky expression of Morgon with layers of creamy red cherry and blue fruit flecked by blue flowers, graphite and the earthy spice of the vintage. It has more pucker and tightening tannin at this stage than the broader Sable cuvée below.

As mentioned, Bouland’s Bellevue soils are split into two cuvées—one for the sand (Sable) and one for the stones (Cailloux). These two parcels are only separated by a small track, yet, as Bouland points out, the soil is completely different. Terroir! Not only does the weathered sandy granite differ from the Cailloux parcel, but the slope is steeper, and the 40- to 50-year-old vines are on a specific low-yielding rootstock called Vialla—a stock well adapted to sandy, granitic or deep argilo-siliceous soils. Tasted side-by-side, the Sable cuvée is the more yielding of the two wines, with a greater width and juicier tannins than the Cailloux bottling. Regardless, the wine retains superb, juicy drive and finishes with superb, pour-me-another-glass intensity.