2019 Morgon

Antoine Sunier’s older brother, Julien, inspired him to launch his own winery in 2014. Sunier’s low-impact wines quickly established a loyal following, first at local wine bars and restaurants and now worldwide. Antoine Sunier cut his teeth in the region working with his brother as well as Jean-Claude Lapalu, a natural winemaking pioneer of the region. With just over four hectares of vines spread across three crus, production here is predictably small. All the wines are made with whole clusters and carbonic maceration, with no added yeasts or enzymes, and raised for roughly nine months in mostly neutral oak barriques, with about 10% of the juice aged in concrete tanks. Unsurprisingly, there’s no fining and no filtration, and the only sulfur used is a tiny addition at bottling. The wines can have a wild, animal side to them, for sure, and because of their minimal sulfur treatment, keeping the bottles cool is a must, in case the funky side gains an upper hand. That said, I find these to be highly exciting wines and benchmarks of the “new/old” and natural Beaujolais school. These finely chiseled 2019s are Antoine Sunier’s best wines yet.