2020 Daniel Bouland Morgon Corcelette V.V. Sable Organic, Beaujolais

Daniel Bouland's 2020 Morgon Corcelette Vieilles Vignes Sable is a generous, demonstrative wine bursting with aromas of plummy fruit, cherries, licorice and spices. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and textural, with fine concentration, velvety structuring tannins and succulent acids, it will offer a broad drinking window

Daniel Bouland had forgotten our scheduled appointment, but I knew where I would find him: in his vineyards. Making a quick tour of his holdings in Corcelette, I discovered him in the heart of his old vines in Delys, where he was applying a treatment with a backpack spray. Such are the efforts to which your correspondent goes to ensure uninterrupted Beaujolais coverage! And it was worth it, as Bouland's 2020s have turned out very well. As I've written before, Bouland works with almost seven hectares of predominantly very old vines in Morgon, Chiroubles and Côte de Brouilly, and he vinifies with whole bunches, pumping over twice a day, giving his wines a classical maceration of two to three weeks. After pressing, élevage is in foudre and cement tank. Concentrated and succulent, Bouland's wines are beautifully differentiated by site and age unusually gracefully. At this address, 2020 is reminiscent of a somewhat more structured version of the 2018 vintage, with brighter acids and more structuring tannin, and everything reviewed here comes warmly recommended.

93 points William Kelley robertparker.com

Most of Bouland’s offerings are technically old vine, but it’s only this and the Délys cuvée which celebrate the age of the vines on the label. This again comes from Corcelette but from vines on granitic sand soils (sable means sand). The vines were planted in 1926, so it’s truly a Vieilles Vignes cuvée. It is the sister wine, if you like, to the Cailloux (rocky) cuvée.

Unsurprisingly Bouland’s gnarled old trunks have over-delivered in this warm and dry vintage. Get ready for a symphony of cool raspberry and red fruits, delicate notes of currant, haunting wild herbs and smoke. It’s the purest, most concentrated and effortless of Bouland’s 2020 releases; the ripe, velvety tannins coating a core of electrifying acidity and culminating in a wine of lithe energy and elegance.