Domaine Chamonard, Fleurie 'La Madone', 2023

Jean-Claude Chanudet aka Le Chat and the late Marcel Lapierre were close childhood friends; they used to spin a globe, pick a country and travel the world together, working their way wherever they went. The two friends also set up Château Cambon which Jean-Claude still vinifies along with Marcel’s wife. Following his father-in-law’s passing in 1990 the discreet but charismatic Le Chat decided to settle down and took over Domaine Joseph Chamonard. He was part of the clique which first spoke out for natural wine although he is now vehemently against the dogma of the movement that he derides as a new religion. Jean-Claude and his wife Geneviève have 5ha of vines in Morgon and 0.5ha of 60yo vines in Fleurie on the mythical slope of La Madone. The wines are vinified with stems through carbonic maceration and aged in a mix of foudres, fûts and stainless steel, whose proportions are adjusted every year according to the qualities of the fruit. They believe gamay is not a grape suited to over extraction and make long-lived wines of great finesse, that are pale in colour with a wonderful texture and minerality.