A rather gamy, slightly reductive nose on Piron’s multi-village 2009 Beaujolais Villages Domaine de la Chanaise led to a promisingly juicy mouthful of ripe mulberry and cassis, underlain by a (for its appellation) surprisingly dense sense of fine-grained tannin, which results in a slightly stiff finishing impression, though one to which animal and herbal elements certainly add some complexity. This should benefit from its inevitably aerating filtration at bottling, and is likely to be worth following for a couple of years. Dominique Piron – for more about whom consult my report in issue 184 – did not begin harvesting his 2009s until September 7 and then worked at it for two weeks (even though his crop was radically reduced by the hail that afflicted nearly every commune in which he grows grapes). Despite the warm weather and reduced crop, only a few of Piron’s individual lots – and none of his finished blends – exceeded 14% alcohol. He segregated an unprecedented number of different Morgons from 2009, but this isn’t merely a case of his next-door neighbor Jean-Marc Burgaud’s practices rubbing off: the distinctive quality of Piron’s five cuvees justifies their number – indeed, this represents far and away the finest Piron collection I have tasted (granting that the assembled wines were still all in tank when I visited in April) and a confirmation that this is among the region’s outstanding, top value-delivering addresses.Importers include Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA, tel. (510) 559 1040 and Williams Corner Wine, Charlottesville, VA; tel. (434) 566 7079
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