The debut vintage of the first white Beaujolais Elisa has made. 100% Chardonnay from an organic parcel she rents and works herself in the very north of the region, close to Lancié. Being just a stone's throw from Burgundy there is a long history of cultivating Chardonnay here and the soils differ from those over which the Gamay is grown in the nearby crus. The ground is dotted with white pebbles, born from the rocky soils of chalk and clay beneath them, with a smaller percentage of limestone, giving the wine some good flesh, robust structure and minerality.
Aromatically the wine has some detailed aromas of wild herbs and flowers, with golden chamomile notes, nectarine and apricot. Honeyed and full on the palate, with clean acids there is almond among the citrus and stone fruits. Rounding out with some creaminess it tails into fennel bitters in the finish.
The grapes were direct-pressed and raised in a mixture of old Burgundy barrels and fibreglass cuve, left on their lees for the duration.
Unlike many of the better-known dynasties of natural winemakers in Beaujolais, Elisa Guerin is not being passed the baton of established family tradition, she is forging a new path. The Guerins, based in Chénas, farm 4 hectares of vines across the Moulin-à-Vent and Chiroubles appellations that have been in the family since the early 1900s. Elisa, a trained agronomist, is the first generation to break out to pursue her vision of chemical-free viticulture over these sites and natural methods in the cellar. Very much at the beginning of what promises to be a fascinating journey, in 2019 Elisa began the long process of converting the land, with the long-term goal being to have the estate completely turned over to organics. With a strong focus on environmental impact, the plan extends to diversifying the landscape and encouraging biodiversity with the planting of hedgerows and fruit trees, and to experiment with new methods of fertilisation, using plant-based extracts and treatments. There will also be some white grapes popping up alongside all that Gamay, with plantings of Aligoté and Melon de Bourgogne. She has begun with a small production of Beaujolais-Villages, from 50 year-old vines in conversion - the first to be bottled under her own name - as well as a couple of other cuvées from a mixture of small parcels in Moulin-à-Vent, plus a wine from the higher elevation cru of Chiroubles. As the reins are, piece by piece, handed over from her father, Philippe, Elisa is also changing the way the wines are vinified; fermenting only with native yeasts, raising the wines in concrete rather than barrels and scrupulously minimising any additions, seeking to create expressions of Gamay that reflect this varied terroir of granite, limestone and schist. The wines themselves are a real labour of love and make for compelling representations of the region; a precise balance of elegance, concentration and purity of fruit, with an underlying mineral aspect. They are, above all, a real pleasure to drink and we’re so happy to be bringing them all to the UK for the first time. We can’t help but feel Elisa is destined for great things.
