If someone didn't tell you this was a Beaujolais, you might never know. 

Beaujolais, like many French regions, ranks its vineyard sites. Ordinary vineyards can produce simple "Beaujolais," while vineyards in higher-ranked villages can label their wines "Beaujolais-Villages." Those wines tend to offer more than the basic Beaujolais: more complex flavors, more structure.  Best of all, the vineyards in the 10 Beaujolais Crus can label their wines with the Cru name only (so, "Morgon," rather than "Beaujolais"). These wines represent the best of the Beaujolais: serious, delicious, and often age-worthy wines.

Located in the heart of the Fleurie cru, Domaine de la Chapelle des Bois comprises nine hectares of vines, primarily in Fleurie, but augmented by smaller holdings in Chiroubles and Morgon. We began our work with this charming traditional domaine in the early 2000s with Chantal and Eric Coudert-Appert, the seventh generation to work the land and produce wine here. In the vineyards, Chantal and Eric followed the principles of lutte raisonnée, treating only when absolutely necessary in order to rescue a crop, and their tried-and-true no-fuss cellar methods—spontaneous fermentation, traditional semi-carbonic maceration in cement vats, and aging in large 50-year-old wooden casks—produced Beaujolais of vivid fruit, terrific freshness, and structure enough to develop well in bottle. Chantal and Eric retired after the 2017 vintage, and their successor Frederic Montangeron—a local with years of experience at his own family’s winery—continues in the very same vein as Chantal and Eric, producing honest Beaujolais using skilled farming and a less-is-more approach to vinification and aging.

This wine has been consistently well-received when we've shown it at various events.