2009 Fleurie Les Moriers

Michel and son Cedric Chignard’s unfined and unfiltered U.S. cuvee of 2009 Fleurie Les Mories (assembled from three different lots) features dark cherry, cassis, and purple plum tinged with mace, moss, wet stone, and bitterness of cherry pit. With a fine sense of richness but fine-grained tannins hidden beneath its surface, and an incipient sense of meatiness, this grips formidably and should prove worth following for at least 3-4 years. I tasted the barrique-housed potential lots for a cuvee speciale which the Chignards bottle in small quantities each year and sell inside France, but was not convinced that its material would withstand the greater exposure to wood surface without drying out a bit – as did the 2008 to some extent. Imported by Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

Cédric Chignard continues his father’s good work with their 8.5 ha of Fleurie in and around Les Moriers on the Moulin à Vent side of the appellation. The wine is made in large wooden foudres, but no barrels for the regular cuvée . Mineral nose. Quite soft and scented. Very flattering. Complete and quite forward even if there is a little tannin there. (JR)