Michel Guignier Vieilles Vignes Morgon 2024

Profile & Story

Michel Guignier is a fourth-generation vigneron in Villie Morgon, in the heart of the AOC Morgon appellation in Beaujolais. Following in the footsteps of Morgon's famed 'Gang of Four', he is committed to producing wines in the most natural way possible, both to protect the environment and to make wines that are alive and transmit a sense of place; he has been composting and sowing grasses, herbs and wild flowers between the rows for many years while converting the estate to full organic certification. Morgon's soils are decomposed granite and crumbly schist, known regionally as roches pourries, or rotten rock. Many of Guignier's vines are up to 70 years old, all tended by hand with yields kept to a minimum, and he formerly sold fruit to respected vignerons in the region including Marcel Lapierre. Grapes are picked entirely by hand with rigorous sorting in vineyard and cellar, then vinified traditionally a la beaujolaise in cement vats with no de-stemming and only indigenous yeasts; his top Morgons macerate for up to 14 to 15 days, and he uses a vertical wooden press that works slowly and gently. Sulphur is used in minimal doses, added after the malolactic rather than at bottling. His importer describes the Morgon Vieilles Vignes as a rich and well-structured wine from 60 to 70-year-old vines.