LAURENT PERRACHON BEAUJOLAIS BLANC
Unexpected and delicious, Beaujolais Blanc wine is becoming increasingly popular. Made from the chardonnay grape, known locally as the “Perle Blanche” (white pearl), this wine develops subtle perfumes of white blossom with a touch of citrus fruit.
$14.99 in our FRANCE section
LAURENT PERRACHON JULIÉNAS “ROCHE BLEUE”
90 points from WINE ENTHUSIAST: A blend of different parcels with vines grown mainly on blue granite (Roche Bleu), this wine has structure and minerality. Its firm young texture is dense, the generous cherry flavors still developing. This wine will be at its best from 2021. — ROGER VOSS
$19.99 in our FRANCE section
LAURENT PERRACHON MORGON CÔTE DU PY
93 points from WINE ENTHUSIAST: From a single vineyard on the Côte du Py, this oak-aged wine shows powerful structure and strong minerality from the granite subsoil. All this texture balances the wine’s rich black-cherry and black-currant fruits, fresh acidity and solid density. Drink from 2022.
About Laurent Perrachon
The Perrachon family settled in Juliénas (one of the “cru” villages of Beaujolais) in 1601 and established the estate of Laurent Perrachon & Fils in 1877. Today, the seventh generation of winemakers carry on their ancestors’ tradition with the same aim: to express the essence of the terroir. Laurent Perrachon runs the domanine with his wife Martine, and with a hand from his older children (he has four). In his youth, Laurent cultivated a passion for rugby, but eventually headed to winemaking school, after which he completed an internship at Château Ausone in Bordeaux, then worked harvests in California and South Africa. Upon taking the reins of the family estate, he embarked on a program of expansion and today in addition to Juliénas, they also farm in the “cru” villages of Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chénas, and Saint-Amour, as well as a little Chardonnay in the Mâcon, from which they produce a Crémant de Bourgogne.
The 23 hectares of vineyards are managed with a sustainable farming philosophy. By keeping grass between the vines and using mechanical rather than chemical methods to care for the soil, Perrachon makes good use of vines that are an average of 45 to 60 years old. The estate has recently embarked on a project of eliminating chemical treatments altogether. Yields are kept low at an average of 45 hl/ha for the standard crus and much lower for the wines produced in delimited climats. The winemaking process is similar to a classic Burgundian style, with a large portion being destemmed (the exception being the Beaujolais AOP). The wines are aged in the estate’s vaulted cellars that were built in 1701. Perrachon uses indigenous yeasts and a long maceration time to extract the broadest palette of flavors, complexity and structure.