Description
Domaine Grégoire Hoppenot, Fleurie “Origines”
It was just a few years ago that we were announcing Grégoire Hoppenot as the brightest rising star in the Beaujolais firmament. After repeated offerings of his pitch-perfect reds from Fleurie and Morgon, there’s no longer a need for the “rising” qualifier—the guy’s at the top, having firmly established himself as a supernova. His wines continue their red-hot streak with the critically revered 2020 release of “Origines,” a $29 cuvée assembled from a selection of Cru Fleurie’s finest parcels.
Both the farming and winemaking are as rigorous and detailed as the site selection, between working organically in the vineyards and in the cellar where he crafts a style described as being sans fard (“without makeup”). I can’t resist repeating that in just about every Hoppenot offer we do since it’s abundantly clear that the focus is on seamlessly marrying the incredible purity of fruit and primacy of terroir. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you should go deep on this offering—at just $29, this is among the greatest, most transparently delicious values in Cru Beaujolais!
Beaujolais native Grégoire Hoppenot knows the region like the back of his hand, and spent years scouring vineyards and sourcing fruit for other producers, including Domaines Chermette and the Chapoutier-backed Maison Trénel. So when he set up his own winery, he chose Fleurie, right across the road from one of our all-time favorites, Clos de la Roilette. And when it came to the raw material for the wines, he assembled a small but enviable collection of climats, including prime sites in Fleurie and Morgon.
For “Origines,” Grégoire turned to three of Fleurie’s top vineyards, all clustered in the northeast part of the appellation. The majority of fruit is split between “Les Garants” and “Les Roches,” rounded out with fruit from “La Roilette,” a site that needs no introduction. Garants is densely planted, with the old gobelet-trained vines soaking up the south-southwestern exposure. Soils are pink granitic sand, underpinned with pure quartz and outcroppings of bedrock. Like Roilette, this was once classified as part of Moulin-à-Vent, so it shares that deep and powerful fruit. The soil at top of Roches is similar, with more recent plantings of close-spaced cordoned vines; as the slope falls away, half-century, head-trained vines grow in richer soils. Grégoire largely works with the relatively newer vines here, bringing bright fruit into the mix.
When ready, the fruit is hand harvested, and it came in early this vintage, picked between the 25th and 30th of August. Once in the cellar, he prefers the more “semi-carbonic” approach: there’s no sealing up of the fermentation vessels and pumping in CO2, but rather a natural fermentation/maceration of the whole clusters occurs in temperature controlled 60-hectoliter concrete vats. Daily pump-overs offer a gentle extraction, and minimal sulfur is added only after fermentations. Aging exclusively in concrete helps keep freshness while providing a little oxygenation to develop flavors.
The end result is a glorious deluge of plummy red fruit and pretty wildflowers. This is not “simple” juicy-fruit Beaujolais—it’s a wine of firm, fine structure and remarkable aromatic complexity. Give it a good chill, then pour into Burgundy stems, where the violet-laden floral nose blossoms with white spices and brambly red fruits. On the palate, it leads with juicy berries, blackcurrants, stone fruits, and rose petals, all framed with granitic minerals, silky tannins, stemmy spice, and fresh acidity. It’s undeniably delicious now, ready for your late summer cookouts, and perfect with the accompanying recipe.
