From the 2007 vintage, Burgaud held aside only a single barrique to bottle separately from the Javernieres portion of Cote de Py; from 2008 be bottled all four barrels; and his 2009 Morgon Cote de Py Javernieres will consist of three of the four barrique he harvested this year from that site. (I helped Burgaud decide to kick back one of those barrels – none of which was new – so include me in the blame if your search comes up empty handed!) Scents of violets and intensely-ripe blackberry and elderberry, walnut oil, and a hint of game haunt the nose. Palate-staining intensity and seductive richness of fruit – a velvet-like texture I can’t recall from any previous Beaujolais – are allied with similarly super-saturating and intriguing stony and saline minerality as well as upwelling inner-mouth floral persistence. Terrific energy and lip-smacking sheer juiciness cap all of this richness and mineral intrigue in a finish that leaves you panting for the next sip. One has to attend carefully to realize how much fine-grained tannin underlies this phenomenal Morgon, which will be worth following for at least a decade. If there were any doubt that Jean-Marc Burgaud’s talents match his considerable ambitions, his 2009s should put them to rest, as few if any finer collections of Beaujolais are likely to have been rendered in this or any other vintage. “They tasted good on the vine, good in the fermenter, good before malo, good after malo, and, so far, good in the bottle. Good balance, fine acidity, perfect maturity, zero grams of unfermented sugar, and alcohol from 13% to 13.5% – excellent but not excessive,” is the way Burgaud laughingly litanizes his results, but the wines are far more colorful – indeed, exciting – than that summary suggests. Given their quality and distinctiveness, one has to forgive Burgaud his proliferation of cuvees – indeed, anybody lucky enough to latch onto a share of his limited bottlings from this vintage will want to profusely thank him! Burgaud elected to give his early bottlings a light filtration – and was contemplating the same approach for his (“regular”) Cote de Py – because he said he wanted to preserve their vivid fruit, whereas they would have had to stay in barrel through summer to clarify sufficiently on their own. (If there were any ill-effects of that filtration on his early bottlings, I clearly couldn’t discern them.) Except for his three rarest cuvees – aged entirely in demi-muids or barriques – elevage of each Burgaud wine is spread between tank and demi-muids.A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (781) 395-3300 and Langdon Shiverick, Los Angeles, CA; tel. (213) 483-5900

The Burgaud 2008 Morgon Cote de Py Javernieres displays a resinous hint of oak but beyond that a more fascinating aromatic complexity of cassis, blackberry, bacon, and herbs. Palate-staining in its sappy intensity and persistently bright and smoky, this impressive bottling nonetheless confirms my impression that extended barrique elevage did not – and he agrees – pay additional dividends with Burgaud’s raw 2008 material in the way that I feel confident it will with his top 2009s (which, as noted in my account of them, he plans to bottle earlier than he did their 2008 counterparts). Incidentally, the same individual barrels were employed for the maturation of Burgaud’s 2009 Javernieres, the contents of one of which exhibited an overtly resinous overtone, leading it to be culled from the final assemblage. I wonder how this 2008 will age, but would cellar some watchfully. If there were any doubt that Jean-Marc Burgaud’s talents match his considerable ambitions, his 2009s should put them to rest, as few if any finer collections of Beaujolais are likely to have been rendered in this or any other vintage. “They tasted good on the vine, good in the fermenter, good before malo, good after malo, and, so far, good in the bottle. Good balance, fine acidity, perfect maturity, zero grams of unfermented sugar, and alcohol from 13% to 13.5% – excellent but not excessive,” is the way Burgaud laughingly litanizes his results, but the wines are far more colorful – indeed, exciting – than that summary suggests. Given their quality and distinctiveness, one has to forgive Burgaud his proliferation of cuvees – indeed, anybody lucky enough to latch onto a share of his limited bottlings from this vintage will want to profusely thank him! Burgaud elected to give his early bottlings a light filtration – and was contemplating the same approach for his (“regular”) Cote de Py – because he said he wanted to preserve their vivid fruit, whereas they would have had to stay in barrel through summer to clarify sufficiently on their own. (If there were any ill-effects of that filtration on his early bottlings, I clearly couldn’t discern them.) Except for his three rarest cuvees – aged entirely in demi-muids or barriques – elevage of each Burgaud wine is spread between tank and demi-muids.A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (781) 395-3300

While we’re off on a Javernieres tangent, Burgaud generously permitted me to taste his 2007 Morgon Cote de Py Javernieres, of which he separately-bottled only a single barrique (i.e. 25 cases), and I am not about to leave my impressions unrecorded, even if very few of us reading this will ever have an opportunity to actually drink one of the rare bottles, nearly all of which were sold to Burgaud’s Swiss importer. Gamey, alkaline, and faintly sweaty notes dominate somewhat over black fruits on the nose, but the wine’s sense of oxidative development proves entirely felicitous on a palate that is smoothly polished in texture and hauntingly suffused with game, forest floor, crushed stone, and sweetly-saline, crustacean-marine mystery. Furthermore, there is ample sweetness of black fruits left in the long finish of this elegant and fascinating wine. The 2008 might well “l(fā)ive” longer than this 2007 – which owners would certainly want to cellar with caution – but I am dubious that it will ever compare for intrigue.If there were any doubt that Jean-Marc Burgaud’s talents match his considerable ambitions, his 2009s should put them to rest, as few if any finer collections of Beaujolais are likely to have been rendered in this or any other vintage. “They tasted good on the vine, good in the fermenter, good before malo, good after malo, and, so far, good in the bottle. Good balance, fine acidity, perfect maturity, zero grams of unfermented sugar, and alcohol from 13% to 13.5% – excellent but not excessive,” is the way Burgaud laughingly litanizes his results, but the wines are far more colorful – indeed, exciting – than that summary suggests. Given their quality and distinctiveness, one has to forgive Burgaud his proliferation of cuvees – indeed, anybody lucky enough to latch onto a share of his limited bottlings from this vintage will want to profusely thank him! Burgaud elected to give his early bottlings a light filtration – and was contemplating the same approach for his (“regular”) Cote de Py – because he said he wanted to preserve their vivid fruit, whereas they would have had to stay in barrel through summer to clarify sufficiently on their own. (If there were any ill-effects of that filtration on his early bottlings, I clearly couldn’t discern them.) Except for his three rarest cuvees – aged entirely in demi-muids or barriques – elevage of each Burgaud wine is spread between tank and demi-muids.A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (781) 395-3300