THEVENET - Jean Paul - Morgon

Alongside Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Thevenet is one of the top producers in Morgon. The third generation of Thevenet's to produce wine in Morgon, but the first to break with tradition. Beaujolais used to be mass-produced, commercial plonk until Jean-Paul and three other vignerons, Jean Foillard, Marcel Lapierre and Guy Breton decided to follow Charles Chauvets “natural wine” movement. Kermit Lynch called these guys the 'Gang of Four', and the name stuck. The four horseman of the Beaujolais apocalypse returned to the old practices of viticulture and vinification: starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalization and filtration. These techniques allow the character of Morgon to express itself naturally, without any cosmetic surgery: rustic and spicy yet also refreshing and loaded with the minerality of the granitic vineyards.