2019 Jean-Marc Burgaud Cote du Py Morgon, Beaujolais

The 2019 Morgon Côte du Py has turned out beautifully, delivering an inviting nose of smoky black cherries, cassis and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, bright and lively, it's deep and concentrated, with a fleshy core of fruit underpinned by tangy acids. This is another of Burgaud's real successes this year.

The more I taste Jean-Marc Burgaud's wines, the more I find to admire. He celebrated his 30th vintage last year, and he has much to be proud of. A winemaker at the peak of his powers, Burgaud has abandoned new oak in favor of seasoned wood, and extraction is more measured than in the past, with his classical semi-carbonic macerations ranging from between seven and 15 days in duration, depending on the cuvée. And there's just one bottling of each wine, making for rare consistency—even for his 4.3-hectare holdings in Beaujolais-Lantignié (one of the region's finest values, incidentally). While my planned vertical of Burgaud's Côte du Py had to be postponed due to COVID-19, I was delighted to be able to taste all his new releases.

94 points William Kelley robertparker.com

Jean-Marc Burgaud owns seven hectares on the Côte du Py slope which makes him the largest owner of vines on this most famed hill of Morgon. The slope is one of the few outcrops of schist and decomposed blue rock in Beaujolais. It produces wines of intense power and greater structure than most associate with this region. Jean Marc's vines were planted in 1960 with a massal selection and are gobelet trained and planted at a high density to reduce the Gamay's natural vigour and increase concentration. The Morgon Côte du Py displays intense aromas of fresh red cherry and plum fruit and a rich and deeply concentrated palate with finely-tuned tannins and a long mineral finish. This wine's intensity, coupled with its freshness and balance, shows why this hill is so famous, and why Burgaud is held in such high esteem.