2016 Beaujolais

This 12.5 hectare, organically farmed estate, which can easily be confused with the also-excellent Michel Guignier a Vauxrénard domain, was established at Villié-Morgon in 1989. Guignier’s wines are finely detailed and elegant in style, generally light in body but with surprising depth of flavor and intense mineral character. They’re made via carbonic maceration, with no added yeasts or enzymes and raised, mostly, in concrete tanks, with some neutral oak barrels employed for certain lots. A slight amount of sulfur is added following the malo-lactic fermentations are complete, but none is introduced at bottling, which takes place without fining or filtering. I find Guignier’s wines to be extremely approachable in their youth and while their balance bodes well for graceful aging I like them best soon after release, for their freshness.