Having lived and worked among the ‘superstars’ of Beaujolais, Joseph Chamonard created a wonderful environment for his vines in Morgon. On the hill of Morgon, his vines stayed healthy without chemical assistance, remaining in their natural living soils alongside the packed earth and starved vines of his neighbors. Sadly, Joseph passed away in 1990, leaving his daughter Genevieve and her husband Jean-Claude Chanudet to carry on the health of his 4 hectare parcels, located in Corcelette, near the town of Ville-Morgon. With each successive vintage the duo has strictly kept to disavowing chemical treatments, in or out of the vineyards. Harvest is done by hand late in the season for full natural ripeness and complexity, with only natural yeasts used for fermentation and little else done outside of patient guidance to its natural end. The wine is made the traditional way with respect to nature. As some of the others of his era passing on as well (Marcel LaPierre in 2010), there is a sense that the pattern set here in Beaujolais will be altered. With so much natural beauty remaining, it will take more than a gang of four to do so, after all, it's now almost tradition.
