Georges Descombes may not be as famous as his neighbors (and friends) Jean Foillard and the Lapierre clan, but his Cru Beaujolais are every bit as elegant, energetic and delicious! Georges grew up in the vines, working with his vigneron father and taking jobs at various cellars as a teenager. It was during this time that he first tasted the wines of a young Marcel Lapierre and was inspired to make wines as close to that experience as possible.

Fast forward a few decades and Georges is now an elder statesman in Brouilly, helping to mentor young winemakers like Damien Coquelet and his son Kevin Descombes. But he still makes some of the best, most elegant and age-worthy Beaujolais himself.

The key to his success, as he will tell you, is the special parcels he possesses. His Morgon plots are some of the steepest and highest elevation vines in the village. His Brouilly vines are very old (some over 100) and all of his farming is done organically, which is hard work given the steep terrain. In the cellar, the approach is gentle and “neo-classic” in the sense of partial carbonic, mostly neutral barrel aging and patience during elevage.

What importer Bowler Wine has to say about this wine...

100% Gamay. About half of Georges Descombes' 15 hectares of vines are in the Morgon cru, spread amongst a number of different, mainly hilly parcels that are rich in decomposed-granite soils. There are two Morgon bottlings: one from the younger vines (ranging from 5 up to almost 50 years old) and this one from the older vines (from 50 to 100 years old). The farming is organic, though not certified, and the harvest is manual. The vinification is traditional: whole-bunch, semi-carbonic maceration in large vats (cement, fiberglass, stainless steel) with native yeasts and no sulfur. The vieilles vignes wine is aged in used Burgundy barriques for a year or more, making Descombes' release generally quite a bit later than those of his fellow vignerons. It is bottled with a very small amount of sulfur and without fining or filtration. Note that the label does NOT indicate the old-vines factor--it is distinguished from the regular Morgon label by its stark white background, conservative black script and red wax cap.