Domaine Louis-Claude Desvignes

Louis-Claude Desvignes was of the sparrow-type Beaujolais vigneron: raven-black hair that was, more often than not, standing in various directions, bright eyes and prominent nose, and a well-pitched, humorous cackle. His energy level was also twittery, barely standing still for a minute during a tasting in his cellars, offering a bottle of this and a bottle of that: various experimentations, filtrations, perhaps an older vintage of something educational. The seriousness of his winemaking, however, was never in doubt.

Louis-Claude passed away in 2021; at that point he’d been long retired, having passed the estate to his children Claude-Emmanuelle and Louis-Benoît, the eight generation to work this land. Emmanuelle joined in 2001 and Benoît in 2004; while little has changed stylistically, their their arrival has brought some major shifts. 100% of the production is now estate-bottled and the estate is now certified organic.

The family’s historic vineyards have been within the Morgon cru for generations. Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s Louis-Claude began picking fruit later than the other vignerons in the area with a mind to get fruit at optimal ripeness. As the planet continues to grow hotter, his children have re-evaluated these methods without sacrificing the grapes’ full potential. The wines are vinified by the traditional cru Beaujolais method with a grille to keep the cap submerged. Recently, the fermentation has been longer and more controlled than in the past in order to extract the color and material that are the most obvious virtues of this wine.