Thillardon Chènas Chassignol 2020

Chènas, Beaujolais

Domaine Thillardon is a magical, crazy winery whose wines carry the wisdom of the Great Fathers of natural wine.

Starting from Beaujolais, these wines have conquered the world, also thanks to the likes of Jules Chauvet and Michel Lapierre.

The winery is owned by the Thillardon brothers, Paul Henri and Charles, and has 12 hectares of vineyards, in organic and biodynamic regime since 2008, and a huge ecosystem of horses, cows, chickens, pigs and bees.

The largest portion is the 10 hectares of Chènas, a small and lesser-known cru, but characterised by fabulous soil, composed of marl and granite, clay and quartz. In addition, the Chassignol vineyard just above the winery is considered one of the best terroirs in the whole of Beaujolais, with a slope so steep that it can only be ploughed on horseback.

The Domaine's turning point came in 2009, when Paul Henri met Yvon Mètras and Jean Louis Dutraive, who changed his typically Burgundian winemaking idea by steering him towards the lightness of semi-carbonic maceration, now fully adopted since 2015.

Harvesting is obviously always manual and the grapes arrive in the cellar cooled to temperatures between 7 and 10 degrees. Vinification of the whole grapes moved by gravity takes place in cement, maceration varies between 15 and 28 days depending on the cuvée. Vertical pressing takes place by means of a wooden press and ageing takes place in various containers, cement tanks, enamelled steel and old barrels of 228, 400 and 600 litres.

All this contributes to making Thillardon's wines lively and beautiful, fresh and tasty, smooth and infectiously drinkable.