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This is the first vintage of “Terrain Rouge”, a Beaujolais Blanc by the father-son team of Jean-Paul & Charly Thévenet. This wine was part of a wine shipment from one of our favorite importers, Kermit Lynch. If you’re familiar with Lynch’s wines, then you know he has access to some amazing, harder-to-acquire French producers. And while we typically enjoy the wines that Lynch recommends, he is, after all, one of the most respected wine importers in the US, we just couldn’t get onboard with this white Beaujolais.
As you’ll see below, the Thévenets haven’t quite worked out the kinks with this one…
Charly Thévenet has some big winemaking shoes to fill. You see, the Thévenet family is a fourth-generation winemaking family, and his father, Jean-Paul, is partially responsible for changing the style of wine production in Beaujolais. Back in the 1980s, the region favored quantity over quality, and like any other major agriculture industry, they achieved these huge grape yields with the help of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and other farming practices that favored the final product – mass-market Gamay – at the expense of the soil and quality of the grapes.
Jean-Paul, along with Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean Foillard, whose names you may recognize, pushed a winemaking philosophy that put the quality of the grape, and the health of the terroir, at its core. In other words, the family has been making natural wine in France before making natural wine was cool.
Beaujolais is famous for its easy-drinking, approachable, and largely affordable Gamay wines.
But, what many wine drinkers don’t realize is that Beajolais also produces a small amount of Chardonnay – we’re talking between 1 – 2% of the region. For comparison’s sake, its sister region, Burgundy, produces roughly 60% white wine, 34% red wine, and 6% cremant.
Part of the reason Beaujolais produces so few bottles of its Beaujolais Blanc, aka Chardonnay, is that by law a vineyard can contain no more than 15% white grape varieties. It seems like the growers in Beaujolais know they’ve got a good thing going with their reputation for Gamay and don’t want to rock the boat with winemaker experimentation.
Chardonnay vines do well in the clay and limestone soil in the northernmost part of Beaujolais. The Chardonnay grapes in this bottle of “Terrain Rouge” were grown just outside of Morgon, which is one of Beaujolais’s ten cru regions. Interestingly, there are no white wine grapes grown Beaujolais’s crus; those coveted vineyards are reserved solely for Gamay.
For this reason, Beaujolais Blanc wines are categorized as Beaujolais Villages wines or just Beaujolais. These wines are meant to be enjoyed young, although some of the Villages wines can age for several years.
France, Burgundy
Beaujolais Morgon
Chardonnay
14.2
49–55°F / 9–12°C
Chardonnay
Not Necessary
We Can't Think Of a Good Time :(
We gave the 2020 Jean-Paul & Charly Thévenet Morgon Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge” a 1 out of 5 on the value scale, and a 72 point score – and even that was generous.
As we mentioned above, winemaker Charly Thévenet, is considered a rising star in Beaujolais, owing to his family’s rich viticulture background. But, despite the family history, and the winemaker’s rising talent, this Chardonnay is a miss. It’s not a case of the price point being too high for the quality of the bottle, it’s more like we would avoid this Beaujolias Blanc at any price.
This wine is $40 a bottle, and at that price, even below that price point, there are so many other options to consider.
In the glass, this Chardonnay is a pale lemon color, clear and brilliant – so far, a good start, or so we thought. On the nose, we got graphite, wet gravel, lemon, celery, and a bit of passion fruit.
The problem with this wine is definitely on the palate. Although we did pick up strong aromas of lemon, green apple, a lot of wet gravel and slate, and hints of beeswax, cream, and peach, the 2020 Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge” had absolutely no finish, and what flavor it did have left us wanting.
Beaujolais Blanc wines are known for their light, refreshing citrus and green apple qualities, minerality, and aromatic noses, and this one just didn’t measure up to our expectations. We don’t doubt Charly will continue to grow as a winemaker, but this bottle just wasn’t for us.
