À From 1981, under the leadership of Jules Chauvet, Marcel Lapierre relied on an understanding of the microbiology of soil, plants and wine. He died in October 2010.
In 2004 for Mathieu Lapierre, then in 2013 for Camille Lapierre, Marcel's children took over the family estate (certified by Ecocert since 2004).
He today extends over 18 ha planted with Gamay noir. white juice mainly in the Morgon appellation, and in Beaujolais on a few plots.

Like the majority; colleagues, Camille and Mathieu practice a « in a cup » in order to contain the vigor of Gamay and its potentially high yield. Density planting is 10,000 vines per hectare, in order to provoke competition between the vine stocks, for better control of production and quality.
Since the 1980s, all plots have been worked without chemical fertilizers, synthetic products or weedkillers. A preference for composting and carrying out surface plowing in the vines to keep the soil alive. Likewise, to protect the vineyard, they use non-aggressive treatments, thus preserving the native yeasts living on the grapes and the soil organisms.

Once we arrive at ripe, the grapes are harvested exclusively at the same time. by hand, in small containers so as not to damage the fruit before vinification. The bunches are then sorted, because a clean harvest and maturity are sufficient. Adequate training is essential. And this is how the grapes leave the vine towards the vatage…

Drive quickly – but carefully – from the vines to the cellar, then cooled in refrigerated trucks, the Gamay bunches are vatted whole and intact. Camille and Mathieu practice a maceration called « carbonic », that is to say in which the whole grapes are found in a saturated environment. in CO2. In this atmosphere, activity enzymatic arrives at gradually mortify the fruit. This mortification will have the effect of transmitting the red color of the grape skin to the skin. the bay which was white at first glance the origin. This action will also cause a degradation of the grape acids and develop a broad aromatic spectrum.
All this activity takes place even before the fermentation of sugars into alcohol!

Camille and Mathieu accompany all stages of winemaking with the only interventions being the physical movements of the grapes and the juice. On the other hand, they check the temperatures and densities several times a day in order to understand the behavior of each tank.

The grapes come from organic farming. Winemaking takes place using native yeasts and without oelignological input.

During the vinification and part of the aging, observation of the activity of the winemaker is carried out. microbiological fermentation is carried out at the same time. Using a microscope and analyzes are carried out daily. The vatting is constantly under close surveillance: constantly checking, smelling and tasting each vintage!
Once the vatting is finished (from 9 to 35 days, depending on the plot and the vintage), Morgon finishes its fermentation then its aging in barrels, never new. The aim of this stage is mainly the natural clarification of the wine because the shape, material and volume of the barrel make it one of the most effective tools for complete sedimentation.

The wines will be drawn off then put into vats for bottling. The blends are never filtered so as not to strip the wine of its color and aromas. A certain batch will be bottled without SO2, the rest slightly sulfated. to more easily accept temperature variations and different storage locations.

Photo credit: Loïc Terrier.