George Descombes Morgon Vieilles Vignes 1.5L

Georges Descombes is the unofficial fifth member of the iconic "Gang of Four": Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Guy Breton. In his teens, Georges worked with his vigneron father in the vines as well as a local bottling company. Hopping around from cellar to cellar gave him a chance to try a large amount of different estates, and the first time he tasted a Lapierre wine, young Georges was blown away by its purity and elegance. Then and there, he decided he would try to make wines like Marcel's.

100% Gamay. About half of Georges Descombes' 15 hectares of vines are in the Morgon cru, spread amongst a number of different, mainly hilly parcels that are rich in decomposed-granite soils. This one is from the older vines (from 50 to 100 years old). The farming is organic, though not certified, and the harvest is manual. The vinification is traditional: whole-bunch, semi-carbonic maceration in large vats (cement, fiberglass, stainless steel) with native yeasts and no sulfur. The vieilles vignes wine is aged in used Burgundy barriques for a year or more, making Descombes' release generally quite a bit later than those of his fellow vignerons.